Senate Republicans Reject Bill to Prevent Trump’s Health Care Price Hikes & Extend Government Funding

WASHINGTON, DC - Despite the fact that Republicans have a majority in the U.S. Senate, Senate Democrats got a majority of Senators to support the Democratic proposal to avoid a federal government shutdown today - but the measure still fell short.

Forty-five Senate Republicans voted against a Democratic proposal to keep the federal government funded on a short-term basis, protect Congress' power of the purse, and address the health care crisis caused by President Trump and Congressional Republicans.

Sixty votes are needed to advance legislation in the U.S. Senate. Republicans currently hold a 53 seat majority in the U.S. Senate while Senate Democrats and Independents hold 47 seats.

After refusing to negotiate with Democrats, Senate Republican leaders put forward a Trump-written bill today that would have funded the government at current spending levels through November 21 and ignored the impending health care price hikes facing millions of Americans. The MAGA-Republican bill failed to attract a simple majority and was defeated on a vote of 44-48, with U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) being the only Democrat to vote yes, and U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joining Democrats in voting no.

A competing Democratic plan earned more votes and got a majority in the Senate chamber but with a final tally of 47-45, it failed to clear the 60-vote threshold.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has been urging Republican leaders for weeks to start negotiating a bipartisan fix to prevent a shutdown. Reed noted the only way to achieve 60 votes is for both sides to ignore President Trump and start negotiating on health care costs and the annual appropriations bills. Today, Senator Reed stated:

"Democrats have a real plan to address health care costs and fund the government. But Republicans control every branch of government and there is nothing Democrats can do to prevent President Trump from forcing a shutdown.

"Democrats support responsibly funding the government and addressing the health care crisis to prevent these Trump-imposed price hikes, but that only happens if Republicans come to the table so we can prevent millions of Americans in all fifty states from being hit with massive health care price spikes.

"So far, the Congressional Republican strategy is to try to ignore their constituents, ignore simple math, and go it alone without lifting a finger to earn Democratic votes. They are refusing to negotiate. Democrats are willing to reach a compromise, but we're not going to go along with a plan that sticks it to millions of people over, does nothing about prices, and leaves them without access to affordable health coverage.

"The sooner Republicans come to the table, the sooner we can hammer out an agreement."

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