Senate Democrats will meet at a special caucus lunch hosted by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) Thursday afternoon to discuss a potential deal to reopen the government, but many Democrats say they need bigger concessions from Republicans to support it.
Democrats will hold the meeting in the Capitol ahead of a 5 p.m. vote on a resolution sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to block U.S. armed forces from engaging in hostilities within or against Venezuela.
The late afternoon vote will give Democratic senators time to decide whether they are close enough to a deal to work through the weekend to reopen the government.
Democrats will discuss the details of the emerging compromise package, which they reviewed broadly during a Tuesday caucus lunch meeting.
“All the meetings are the same: Active conversation on how to end this,” Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said.
Durbin said Democratic colleagues had an opportunity to discuss “only the contours” of a potential deal earlier this week.
“There are so many unanswered questions,” he said. “If this is going to progress to the point where we actually have an agreement, we need to do a lot today.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Thursday morning that the ball is in the Democrats’ “court,” indicating that Republicans are unlikely to offer any additional concessions in the next few days to get them to support a bill to reopen the government.
Thune told reporters that the Senate would stay in session over the weekend only if there’s a clear path to end the shutdown over the next few days, something that looks increasingly unlikely.
“I think it’s all going to be subject whether or not it looks like there’s a path to wind this down this weekend,” Thune said. “It’s in their court. It’s up to them.”
The GOP leader said he’s not ruling out the possibility of cancelling the Senate’s Veterans Day recess, which is scheduled to begin Friday and last a week.
Republican senators have been told to keep their schedules “flexible” in case they need to be in session on Saturday and Sunday — and possibly into next week – to end the shutdown.
Thune said that he hopes to get “10 or more” Democratic votes to reopen the government after Thursday’s meeting.
“I guess they get to have a big meeting today. Hopefully they’ll come out of there with 10 or more that are willing to vote to reopen the government. We’ll find out,” he said.
Senate Republican aides say it could take as long as five days just to process any bipartisan deal to reopen the government, as they would need to secure 60 votes on three separate motions to proceed to a legislative vehicle, to offer a substitute amendment and to end debate on the whole package.
