A new Senate Democratic plan for ending the longest partial government shutdown in history met with a wall of Republican resistance late Friday, signaling another round of contentious negotiations that could stretch at least through the weekend.
After weeks of partisan stalemate, Democrats took to the Senate floor to call for a one-year extension of expiring enhanced health insurance subsidies as part of a stopgap funding measure to reopen the government.
The proposal, which would include a bipartisan package of three full-year spending bills and a new bipartisan committee to address health insurance affordability, marked the first sign of tangible movement to break a month-old partisan standoff. Democrats had previously insisted on a permanent extension of the enhanced health subsidies, which Republicans say are unsustainable without new restrictions.
