The government shutdown will likely continue into next week, as it is "unlikely" that the Senate will be voting over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday.
"They'll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to open up the government, and if that fails, we'll give them the weekend to think about it, and then we'll come back and vote on Monday," Thune told the press, reports Politico.
Thune said he is open to meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., this week, but questioned whether such a discussion would yield progress.
Schumer on Thursday issued a statement urging Republicans to work with Democrats to reach an agreement that would both reopen the government and lower healthcare costs.
But Thune said Republicans will not negotiate on extending expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies while the government is closed.
He said he has been briefed on bipartisan talks among rank-and-file senators and is updating the White House, but stressed that "it all starts with reopening the government."
Some Democrats have suggested concessions short of tying an ACA subsidy extension to the funding bill, including adopting full-year appropriations or shortening the House-passed seven-week stopgap.
Several have floated a Nov. 1 deadline to align with the start of HealthCare.gov's enrollment period.
Thune dismissed the idea, calling the Nov. 1 proposal "quibbling over pretty small stuff" compared with the House's Nov. 21 deadline. He also warned that "there's no way you can do a straight-up extension" of the ACA subsidies.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.