Shutdown Day 16: Senate adjourns until Monday

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government shutdown on Friday reaches a tie for the fourth-longest in the nation’s history, after another failed Senate vote on a Republican bill to reopen government.

No additional Democrats on Thursday joined Republicans on the shutdown’s 16th day to advance the House-passed bill. That was the 10th time the bill has fallen short of the 60 Senate votes needed to move forward.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) later adjourned his chamber until Monday. If that adjournment holds, as expected, and agencies are not reopened, the shutdown that began on Oct. 1 will reach its 20th day on Monday, then will become the nation’s third-longest.

Friday also marks the day that President Donald Trump warned earlier this week he will be releasing a list of federal programs slated for chopping.

Trump said the cuts this time will be specifically aimed at pressuring blue-state Democrats to give in on their demands in the government funding standoff.

Democrats want language tacked onto the House-passed stopgap bill to renew expiring Obamacare health subsidies. Unless those tax breaks are prevented from expiring at the end of the year, as scheduled, millions of Americans will see cost spikes in their insurance premiums.

In a meeting Thursday with Newsday and several other outlets, House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) said the "Trump administration has been trying to engage in these intimidation tactics for months now."

But he said that Trump — being from Queens — should know that people in New York are not easily intimidated.

In the Senate Thursday, Thune brought a procedural vote on a second — but a longer-term — defense funding bill. But that bill failed to gain enough Democratic votes to advance, getting just three supporters. But more stand-alone bills involving pay for federal workers are expected to be brought to Senate votes next week — moves intended to turn up the pressure on Democrats.

Thune also said Thursday on MSNBC that he has guaranteed to Senate Democrats they can have a vote on a separate bill extending the health care tax credits they are demanding — but that offer appeared to mean a vote after government is reopened. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) denied that Thune has come to him with such an offer, and also said he is not going to negotiate in public.