Senate Democrats keep rejecting a stopgap bill

Lawmakers hold the line on healthcare, as votes underscore an intractable situation.

- By STEPHEN GROVES AND Mary CLARE JALONICK

SEN. MARK Kelly (D-Ariz.) leads a tour outside the Senate chamber, where business has largely stalled.

(AL DRAGO Bloomberg)

Senate Democrats rejected for the 10th time Thursday a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they won't back away from demands that Congress take up healthcare benefits.

The vote failed Thursday morning on a 51-45 vote, well short of the 60 needed to advance with the Senate’s filibuster rules.

The repetition of votes on the funding bill has become a daily drumbeat in Congress, underscoring how intractable the situation has become. It has been at times the only item on the agenda for the Senate floor, while House Republicans have left Washington altogether. The standoff has lasted over two weeks, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, even more without a guaranteed payday and Congress essentially paralyzed.

“As we are positioning as two sides that are seemingly dug in on this 16th day of a shutdown, real people are wondering: Is their government going to be there for them?” said GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune again and again has tried to pressure Democrats to break from their strategy of voting against the stopgap funding bill. It hasn’t worked. And although some bipartisan talks have been ongoing about potential compromises on healthcare, they haven't produced any meaningful progress toward reopening the government.

“The Democratic Party is the party that will not take yes for an answer,” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said in an angry speech on the Senate floor.

He had also offered to hold a later vote on extending subsidies for health plans offered under Affordable Care Act marketplaces but said he would not “guarantee a result or an outcome.”