SBLC: B&T Weekly Hill Update – November 10, 2025

The Senate canceled a recess planned for this week and returns to session today.  The House remains out of session, but leaders on both sides of the aisle have told their members to prepare to return to Washington on 36-hours’ notice.  

Status of FY 2026 Government Funding: Today is the 41st day of the government shutdown, but the end is now in sight.

Early last week, the Senate was close to finalizing a deal to reopen the government.  Democrats’ much better than expected performance in last Tuesday’s elections and President Trump’s reaction to the results combined to postpone a resolution.  But negotiations involving a bipartisan group of Senators regained momentum yesterday.

The morning after the elections, the President publicly mused that the shutdown has been worse for Republicans than for Democrats and that it played a big role in Democratic election victories.  That day and since, he reiterated his call for Republican Senators to nuke the filibuster, although he has acknowledged that is unlikely to happen.  By Thursday, 10 Democrats reportedly were ready to vote for a then-still-developing deal to reopen the government.  But others in the party strongly opposed backing down, believing that in the wake of Democratic election victories their base would not tolerate reopening the government without more substantial concessions by the GOP.  Democrats who were prepared to move towards resolution took a pause.

On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) offered a new continuing resolution (CR) that would have re-funded the government at FY 2025 levels and extended the ACA enhanced premium tax credits for one year without any of the reforms to the credit that Republicans have sought.  He also proposed formation of a bipartisan committee to negotiate a long-term solution to the ACA subsidies and other health care reforms.  Republicans dismissed the proposal as a non-starter. 

Immediately after, Republican leadership again brought up Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) bill (S. 3012) that would provide funding to pay federal employees who have been forced to work without pay during the shutdown.  Democratic Sens. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Jon Ossof (D-GA), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) voted in favor of it in the initial procedural vote, but it failed to secure the required 60-votes needed to move to consideration of the bill itself.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) kept the chamber in session over the weekend.  By Sunday, the bipartisan deal was back in play.  That evening, the Senate voted in favor of a motion to reconsider the House-passed CR.  This vote permits leadership to bring that measure to the floor, but it plans to amend it to:

• add a minibus package of three FY 2026 appropriations bills (Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, drafts of which were released that afternoon);
• continue funding other agencies at FY 2025 levels through January 30;
• fund back-pay for government workers furloughed or forced to continue working during the shutdown;
• resume federal payments to states and localities;
• fund SNAP for a full year; and 
• reverse the layoffs of federal government workers that have happened since the government shut down on October 1.

Separately, Senate Republicans promised a vote on the expiring ACA enhanced tax credits by December 2.  Eight Democrats voted in favor of the motion, and one Republican voted against it – all of those Democrats are either retiring or not up for reelection next year.  

Unless every Senator agrees to a time agreement, the process could take several days to pass in that chamber.  Assuming that it eventually does, it will then go to the House.  GOP leadership advised that votes are expected in the House later this week.  The assumption is that a bipartisan House majority will vote in favor of the Senate-passed CR, but the process might be messy.  Some Republicans likely will complain about having to vote for the appropriations bills incorporated in the measure because funding levels are higher than they would have preferred and the chamber has never voted on its own version of two of those bills (Agriculture and Legislative Branch).  But since the President has blessed the deal, Republicans almost certainly will provide the votes necessary to pass it.  

Upheavals relating to the shutdown continue mounting and will not abate until the government reopens.  Effective last Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a phased-in 10 percent cut in flights across the country’s 40 largest airports, causing significant disruptions to air travel.  With regard to federal nutrition programs, the administration had by then asked an appeals court to suspend a lower court order to tap alternative reserve funds to continue fully funding the SNAP program this month.  The appeals court declined to immediately issue a ruling, so the administration filed an emergency appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Friday evening, the Supreme Court paused the lower court order pending issuance of a decision by the appeals court.  That Supreme Court order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appellate court refuses to suspend the lower court’s order.

Reconciliation 2.0 / Healthcare Reform Legislation:  Over the weekend, the President came out against any extension of the ACA enhanced tax credits, arguing that such funds should be paid “to the people” instead of “money sucking Insurance Companies.”  That likely will prevent any bipartisan deal on extending the subsidies, so the promised Senate vote on the issue in December probably will only serve to highlight Democrats’ message that Republicans are to blame for skyrocketing healthcare premiums.

But Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been talking to Committee Republicans about a possible second reconciliation bill to include an array of healthcare reforms.  As noted in previous Weekly Hill Updates, this is possible but it would be a heavy lift.

One provision under discussion would establish pre-funded accounts for Americans to pay directly for healthcare, rather than paying subsidies to insurers.  The President called for something similar over the weekend, when he urged that money should be “sent directly to the people so that they can purchase their own, much better, healthcare.”  Sen. Rick Scott announced that he is writing a bill that would implement the policy.

House: The House is not in session, but could reconvene later this week if the Senate passes a CR.

Senate: Senate leadership will consider an amended version of the House-passed CR this week.  The chamber is likely to adjourn after that vote, but it could also consider confirmation of administration nominees.

Because the Senate had not planned to be in session this week, no committee action is scheduled.

Questions? Contact

Maggi Lazarus

Of Counsel
(202) 831-6756  
MLazarus@btlaw.com