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government shutdown
'Nonstarter': Senate GOP Rejects New Dem Deal to End Government Shutdown
"Mr. President, the ball is in your court right now," Sen. Bernie Sanders implored President Donald Trump. "Show us what a great dealmaker you are."
Nov 07, 2025
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday offered—and Republican leadership rejected—a compromise deal to end the longest federal shutdown in US history, an agreement under which Democrats proposed to vote to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies.
"It's clear we need to try something different," Schumer (D-NY) asserted on the Senate floor, noting the 14 failed upper chamber votes on the short-term continuing resolution passed by the House of Representatives in September to fund the government through November 21.
“All Republicans have to do is say ‘yes’ to extend current law for one year," he said. "This is a reasonable offer that reopens the government, deals with healthcare affordability, and begins a process of negotiating reforms to the ACA tax credits for the future. Now the ball is in the Republicans’ court. We need Republicans to just say yes."
.@SenSchumer: "Democrats are ready to clear the way to quickly pass a government funding bill that includes health care affordability. Leader Thune just needs to add a clean one-year extension of the ACA tax credits to the CR so that we can immediately address rising health care… pic.twitter.com/HvgLZHhhhb
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 7, 2025
Schumer's proposal involved a “clean” extension of the ACA tax credits that are set to expire at the end of this year, meaning they would exclude new eligibility restrictions that many Republican lawmakers are seeking to impose. Schumer also floated the creation of a bipartisan committee tasked with negotiating a further extension of ACA subsidies.
After consulting with GOP colleagues, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) rejected the Democrats' offer as a "nonstarter." Republicans have repeatedly balked at voting on the ACA subsidies before the shutdown—now in its 38th day—ends.
"The Obamacare extension is the negotiation. That's what we're going to negotiate once the government opens up," Thune said. "We need to vote to open the government—and there is a proposal out there to do that—and then we can have this whole conversation about healthcare."
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also dismissed Schumer's proposal, writing on social media that "health in$urance companies applaud Schumer’s proposal to extend Obamacare subsidies for one year."
"Another year of insane profits at the expense of consumers and American taxpayers," added Graham, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the health insurance industry during his congressional career.
The Democrats' new offer came as a legal battle over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits plays out, as hundreds of thousands of federal employees are working without pay, and hundreds of commercial airline flights have been delayed or canceled.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined Democrats in urging his GOP colleagues to accept the new offer.
"We are now in the 38th day of a government shutdown," Sanders said on the Senate floor Friday. "That means that federal employees all over this country who have to feed their families are not getting paychecks. It means that air traffic controllers are forced to work crazy hours, and we worry about the safety of our flights right now. We worry about Capitol Police officers right here in DC who are having a hard time feeding their families."
LIVE: Donald Trump claims to be a dealmaker. The ball is now in his court. Help negotiate a deal which protects the health care of tens of millions of Americans and let us end the shutdown today. https://t.co/f9Gpi7wd8W
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 7, 2025
Sanders continued:
These are hardworking people who are doing important work. They deserve respect. They deserve to be paid. This shutdown must end as quickly as possible.
And on top of the fact that we have hundreds of thousands of workers not getting paid, we now have a president who—for the first time in the history of this country—is willing to allow our kids, low-income, working-class children, to go hungry in order to try to make a political point. A point, by the way, that the American people are seeing through.
Despite appealing a judge's Thursday directive to fully fund November SNAP benefits, the Trump administration told states on Friday that it would release funding for the food aid in compliance with the court order.
"Well, Mr. President, the ball is in your court right now," Sanders added. "Show us what a great dealmaker you are. Help us negotiate a deal which protects the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans and let us end this shutdown today. We can end it in the next few hours."
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Trump USDA to Release November SNAP Funds While Appealing Order to Supreme Court
"This administration thought they would use hunger as a tool for political leverage. Instead, they just caved to public pressure," said one House Democrat.
Nov 07, 2025
The "Republican bid to starve people to avoid lowering healthcare costs goes up in flames," one progressive podcaster said Friday after the Trump administration told states that it would fully fund this month's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for 42 million low-income Americans to comply with a court order that it is challenging.
As the longest government shutdown in US history—a result of congressional Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts—dragged on Friday, the administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit Court to block District Judge John McConnell's ruling that it must release $8 billion for SNAP payments.
McConnell, appointed to the District of Rhode Island by former President Barack Obama, had concluded Thursday that the US Department of Agriculture's plan to partially fund SNAP this month did not comply with his previous order, issued a week ago in a case brought by municipalities, nonprofits, and labor groups.
Despite the appeal, Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary of food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in Friday guidance to state agencies that the department "is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances" in compliance with McConnell's order and "will complete the processes necessary to make funds available" later in the day.
Before the guidance was published on the USDA website, it was obtained by journalists, including Jacob Fischler of States Newsroom. As he reported Friday, a US Department of Justice spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration must comply with the judge's order until and unless it is granted relief by a higher court, which the 1st Circuit hadn't offered.
On Friday evening, the appellate court officially denied the Justice Department's request to block McConnell's order. US Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly announced that "we have filed an emergency stay application in the Supreme Court requesting immediate relief."
Responding to the 1st Circuit rejection in a statement, Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose group represents the plaintiffs in the Rhode Island case, said that "the Trump-Vance administration continues to attempt—over and over—to take food out of the hands of families, seniors, workers, and children. And every time they tried, the courts told them what the law already makes clear: They cannot."
"American families should not be used as political props in a shutdown that this White House manufactured," Perryman added. "Even as the administration attempts—again—through an appeal to the Supreme Court to deprive people of nutrition, we will continue to meet them with effective legal action and secure benefits for the American people."
Critics of the administration's refusal to willingly use a contingency fund created by Congress and move around other money to fully fund SNAP during the shutdown welcomed the USDA's Friday guidance while also calling out President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers.
"This is the right decision morally and legally, but it's absurd it was even a fight to begin with," said Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-97), a gubernatorial candidate, in response to Fischler's social media post featuring the guidance.
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes—who joined other AGs in filing another SNAP suit in Massachusetts—stressed Friday that "all of this could have been avoided if Trump had followed the law and funded SNAP benefits from the start."
"I'm proud to have sued to ensure Arizonans have access to food," she added. "And I'll keep suing the Trump administration whenever they try to hurt our state and its residents."
Meanwhile, in Congress, lawmakers showed no sign of reaching an agreement to reopen the government on Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) swiftly rejected Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) offer to vote on ending the shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of expiring health insurance subsidies, calling it a "nonstarter."
This article has been updated with comment from Democracy Forward.
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Consumer Sentiment Falls to Near-Record Low as Trump Wrecks Hope in US Economy
"Americans are losing faith in the economy because they're losing ground," said one policy expert. "Every day it becomes clearer that President Trump has no real interest in improving the lives of American families."
Nov 07, 2025
Consumer sentiment in the United States has fallen to a near-record low and Americans' view of current economic conditions has deteriorated under President Donald Trump's administration, which is overseeing and contributing to price increases, large-scale layoffs, looming insurance premium hikes, and devastating cuts to food aid.
The University of Michigan's closely watched Surveys of Consumers released updated data on Friday showing that consumer sentiment has fallen over 6% this month compared to October as Americans increasingly fear that the government shutdown will have "potential negative consequences for the economy."
"This month's decline in sentiment was widespread throughout the population, seen across age, income, and political affiliation," said Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers. "One key exception: consumers with the largest tercile of stock holdings posted a notable 11% increase in sentiment, supported by continued strength in stock markets."
The latest consumer sentiment survey posted a reading of 50.3, the second-lowest level since 1978.
The university's "current economic conditions" index, meanwhile, fell to an all-time low of 52.3 in November, down nearly 11% from last month.
"Middle-class and lower-income Americans are scared right now... about the shutdown, high costs, and potentially losing their jobs in the next 12 months," wrote Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.
Middle-class and lower-income Americans are scared right now...about the shutdown, high costs and potential losing their jobs in the next 12 months.
Consumer Sentiment fell to the 2nd lowest level ever in the U Michigan Survey of Consumers.
The "current economic conditions"… pic.twitter.com/0XGjf3DhFC
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) November 7, 2025
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in response to the consumer sentiment data that "Americans are losing faith in the economy because they’re losing ground."
"Every day it becomes clearer that President Trump has no real interest in improving the lives of American families," said Jacquez. "His economic mismanagement has left households buried under record debt and rising prices. It's no surprise consumer sentiment is at its lowest point since 2022, and households are turning to leaders who didn't just learn the word 'affordability.'"
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