Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain at a stalemate on finding a government funding solution to end what is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The Senate adjourned until Monday afternoon, which will mark the 34th day of the government shutdown.
Starting Nov. 1, SNAP benefits won’t go out and open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act plans with premiums expected to rise.
President Donald Trump, in a lengthy social media post on Thursday night, called on Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to pass the Republican funding bill and reopen the government.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump posted.
Trump said ending the filibuster was necessary because “DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD “CRAZY.”
The president said that while in Asia this week the question he kept getting “was how did the Democrats SHUT DOWN the United States of America, and why did the powerful Republicans allow them to do it?”
“The fact is, in flying back, I thought a great deal about that question, WHY?” he added.
Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune — who Trump praised in his post — rejected the idea of eliminating the filibuster.
Some Democrats have called for ending the filibuster themselves in the past but faced headwinds from former centrist members — which Trump pointed to in his post. Trump argued if Republicans don’t end it themselves, Democrats will when they return to the majority.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
Jeffries continued to hold the Democratic line during the shutdown Thursday, insisting that their demands have not changed throughout the impasse.
“Over the last 30 days, we’ve said the same thing over and over and over again: We’ll sit down with Republicans anytime, anyplace, anywhere, to reopen the government and enact a spending agreement that actually meets the needs of the American people,” he said at a news conference.
Jeffries added that Democrats are “in this fight until we win this fight.”
As lawmakers are set to receive their paychecks on Nov. 1, Jeffries has refused to reveal whether he will accept his congressional salary during the shutdown.
He told ABC News that each Democrat will have to make an individual decision but he intends to make his plans clear to his constituents in Brooklyn on or before Saturday.-ABC News’ John Parkinson
The Senate is now adjourned until Monday afternoon, which will mark the 34th day of the government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared exasperated in his calls for the Democrats to turn the lights back on in Washington, D.C.
“I hope … the pressure starts to intensify, and the consequences of keeping the government shut down become even more real for everybody that they will express, hopefully new interest in trying to come up with a path forward,” Thune said.
Starting Nov. 1, SNAP benefits won’t go out and open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act plans with premiums expected to rise.
Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen objected to Thursday’s adjournment on the Senate floor. The effort was ultimately overridden by Republicans in the upper chamber.
“The dysfunction in this place is going to have real consequences when people lose their health care coverage, and I’m done. I am just done. We need to figure this out, work in a bipartisan way, not next week, but right now,” Rosen said.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, walking away from the cameras, was asked if she believes the Senate should be leaving now when SNAP benefits are due to expire.
“No,” she said. “We’d love for the Democrats to open the government.”
As Americans enrolled in Obamacare begin to look up the price of their coverage for 2026, some enrollees like Beth Dryer in Norfolk, Virginia, are realizing they have no other option than to cancel it altogether.
Dryer is the executive director of 757 Creative ReUse Center, and in 2015 she was paying just shy of $80 for her premium. She hadn’t looked up her 2026 options until Thursday, and the spike was shocking.
“This says I now have an advanced premium tax credit of $0, so it looks like I have no tax credit for this so far for next year,” she began to read from the enrollment site. “Okay, so it looks like the same plan that I have this year would now be $425.03 a month next year, which is completely out of my budget.”
A premium four times as much as she’d been paying and more than she had anticipated.
Asked how that made her feel seeing such a spike, she said “not great” and added that she’s “absolutely” going to have to cancel her coverage, leaving her in a “really scary” situation.
“I can put money in a savings account and use that if I absolutely have to, but otherwise there’s no more routine care for me. There’s no mammography, there’s no annual visits, and I know that there are a lot of things that run in my family that you know could get me right about this age, all the women in my family have had breast cancer, so I know that’s on the table for me, but I feel pretty helpless at this moment,” she said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
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