While a number of Democratic lawmakers are voicing their support for a new bipartisan deal to bring the 40-day federal government shutdown to an end, members of the party’s left-flank are furious about the proposed agreement.
Progressive Democratic lawmakers and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries excoriated a deal Sunday negotiated by fellow members of their party to reopen the government, citing their fear Democrats are going to cave without winning any substantive concessions in the shutdown fight. The group of Democrats argued their party should withhold their votes until Republicans agree to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries wrote on X. “We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives,” the minority leader added.
The minority leader did not mention that eight Senate Democrats would have to vote “yes” on the spending bills to send the legislation to the House. Just three members of the Democratic caucus have voted to advance a stopgap spending bill since the beginning of the record-breaking shutdown; adding their support to that of 52 Senate Republicans, however, falls short of the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for legislation.
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