WASHINGTON – The ongoing government shutdown is about to become the longest in United States history, even as millions of Americans feel the increasingly painful consequences of the crisis on their daily lives.
The record will likely be surpassed after senators take their 14th vote on a short-term funding measure on Tuesday, barring any sudden changes on Capitol Hill.
Though lawmakers have said in recent days that bipartisan negotiations are gaining steam, no deal has emerged yet to reopen the federal government. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, told reporters Monday he’s "optimistic" that the government shutdown could come to an end this week and that lawmakers are "getting close to an off-ramp."
"The objective here is to try and get something that we could send back to the House that would open up the government," he said, according to reports.
Also on Monday, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers released a tentative framework for a potential deal that would extend expiring the health insurance subsidies that have been at the center of the shutdown debate. The legislation would extend the tax credits, which will sunset at the end of the year, for two years and include guardrails to prevent fraud. It's not clear, however, that the Senate would support the bill.
