By Mark Valentini, Vice President of Legislative Affairs
On Friday morning, Sept. 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding measure to keep the federal government open through Nov. 21, averting an Oct. 1 shutdown and buying time for lawmakers to negotiate a longer-term deal to fund government operations through FY26. The House passed the measure on a near-partisan 217-212 vote. The measure immediately went to the Senate where it failed several procedural votes before Congress recessed for the week of Sept. 22. Upon their return on Sept. 29, the Senate has less than 48 hours to agree to the extension as passed by the House, or make amendments that can pass the House before going to the President to avoid a shutdown.
PHCC ANALYSIS
Senate Democrats are trying to leverage the stopgap measure to secure Republican concessions on healthcare policy in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an ambitious gamble considering Republicans are not inclined to make any changes to their signature legislation two months after its passage. Democrats are hoping to play on the fears of some Republicans that changes made to Medicaid eligibility in OBBBA will hurt their chances of retaining or expanding their majority in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Senate needs 60 votes in order to move forward on the stopgap measure which as of press time is not conceivable absent a last-minute deal, paving the way to a government shutdown. The current political dynamic is similar to the shutdown that played out in 2013 when Republicans sought to leverage budget negotiations to make changes to the Affordable Care Act, which resulted in a two and a half week shutdown that was pinned on Republicans but did not seem to have a considerable impact on their midterm performance the following year. Should Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hold firm on their position resulting in a shutdown, they are gambling on Republicans getting blamed again, and/or they are willing to let Democrats own the shutdown to placate their electoral base and deal with the political repercussions in the short term and hope voters will have moved past this matter come election day: again, this mirrors the dynamic that played out in 2013. PHCC Legislative Affairs is monitoring the situation on Capitol Hill closely and taking steps to mitigate any potential impact on its advocacy activities.
