STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Trump administration has said it will take the opportunity to increase the pain on their fellow Americans by firing federal workers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not warning them off.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN THUNE: Anytime you're in the situation where you have to manage a shutdown, decisions have to be made about what to prioritize, where you're going to spend money. I expect there are going to be some decisions coming out about that. That wouldn't surprise me at all.
INSKEEP: The Republican-led Senate will vote for the fourth time today on partisan stopgap bills that are expected to fail.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has been reporting on all this and joins us now. Hi, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: Good morning. So why go through the motion of voting on these dueling bills when they don't have the votes?
GRISALES: Right. Leader Thune says this is a tactic to pressure Democrats to fold. Let Republicans overcome a filibuster holding up government funding. They need Democrats to reach this required 60-vote threshold today, but we're not expecting them to help. So far, only three have defected to vote with Republicans. And as we know, the GOP only controls 53 Senate seats, so they need at least seven Democrats. Probably more, as one Republican Kentucky senator, Rand Paul, is expected to vote no. The rest of the Democratic caucus has said they will not help unless Republicans address expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, or ACA program.
FADEL: And this is also a big issue for Americans. Twenty million people could see their insurance premiums spike, in some cases double. If these expire, are Senate Republicans willing to talk at this point?
GRISALES: Not really. Not right now. A bipartisan group was in talks this week. I followed up with one member, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. He said Republicans were simply trying to convince Democrats, first vote on this stopgap, known as a continuing resolution or CR.
MIKE ROUNDS: If they don't pass a short-term CR, there is no way of getting anything done in time to do the things that they want to with regard to ACA subsidies.
GRISALES: So he says these subsidies have to go through a separate bill that's stuck behind this showdown. But for Democrats, there's a chance this is a bait and switch, so most are not budging for now.
FADEL: Now, Vice President Vance was publicly insisting there's no rush to renew the subsidies, since they don't take effect until next year. Is there plenty of time on this?
GRISALES: Well, Democrats would argue no. These subsidies don't expire until the end of the year, but they say - with open enrollment coming up next month, they say that needs to be handled now. So you could say Democrats are fighting as well for a popular issue. Perhaps there's a political calculation here, too. NPR has reported that 24 million people are enrolled. They include influential voters, active voters like small business owners, farmers and ranchers.
FADEL: So lawmakers went into this shutdown feeling it was inevitable. At this point, do they show any urgency about ending it?
GRISALES: Well, we didn't see much this week. We just saw a lot of posturing. For example, President Trump threatened mass layoffs, cutting, quote, Democratic agencies, and met with the head of management and budget, Russell Vought, on the next steps there. But when I ask Republicans about these cuts, like you heard Thune there at the top, they say it's the administration's prerogative. What's partly fueling the stalemate is a lot of government agencies are still running. Federal paychecks haven't been missed yet, so the American public hasn't noticed much. But as this stretches on, the pressure will only build on Congress and the president.
FADEL: NPR's Claudia Grisales. Thank you, Claudia.
GRISALES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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