Nevada senators have split tactics on reopening the government
Nevada has found itself in a unique position of being the only state with two Democratic senators who have split votes on a funding bill as the ongoing federal shutdown entered its 38th day Friday.
Both Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen — who’ve touted their bipartisan records — have decried the expiration to Affordable Care Act subsidies if the government funding bill passes as proposed.
They say the lapse of tax credits will cause insurance premiums to balloon.
But their tactics have differed.
Rosen has expressed her opposition with votes, joining the majority of Senate Democrats who’ve voted against the funding bill since the government shut down on Oct. 1.
“Senator Cortez Masto and I know we both want what’s best for Nevadans: protecting their ability to see a doctor without breaking the bank,” Rosen said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
She said she “never wanted this Republican shutdown.”
‘Bipartisan solution’
Cortez Masto and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, are the only Democrats who’ve continuously voted on the other side of the issue.
As a result, the Nevada senator has garnered kudos from Trump administration officials and Nevada Republicans like Gov. Joe Lombardo, who have called on Rosen to join her.
Cortez Masto said Friday she would continue to cast yes votes, and believes health care subsidies can be negotiated separately.
“I’ve been pretty consistent about the importance of keeping the government open,” Cortez Masto told the Review-Journal in a phone interview Friday.
She said the shutdown is harming the economy and Nevadans, while handling “more power to this reckless Trump administration.”
“We need a bipartisan solution to address this health care crisis. I think we can do that without shutting down the government,” Cortez Masto added. “I don’t think we should be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another.”
Negotiations
The Hill and Axios reported earlier in the week about efforts by Senate Democrats to convince colleagues to vote to reopen the government. Rosen was mentioned as a possible target, the Hill reported.
Cortez Masto said she hadn’t personally lobbied her Nevada colleague to change her vote.
“I respect Sen. Rosen, she’s doing what she thinks is best for Nevada, and so am I,” said Cortez Masto, describing Rosen as a friend with whom she works closely together.
The opportunity to bolster that teamwork arrived Friday when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, announced proposed a deal that would see approval of the funding bill in exchange for a one-year extension of the health care tax cuts.
Both Nevada senators indicated they would support the measure.
“If we extend the credits for a year, we can put together a bipartisan working group, the president can call us in, see what we agree on,” Rosen told MSNBC on Friday. “Because this is an all-of-us problem, it’s a now problem, and every single American is an accident or diagnosis away from disaster.”
Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said there would be no trade offers on health care until the government reopens, according to the Associated Press.
Cortez Masto said Friday afternoon that negotiations were ongoing but that it ultimately would fall on the Senate majority to call for a vote. She didn’t want to speculate about the chances of a deal.
President Donald Trump noted earlier this week that Republicans only needed five votes from the opposition party. He also advocated for eliminating the filibuster so that his party can pass the funding bill with a simple majority vote.
“Our fight here is to solve problems for Nevadans and Americans,” Cortez Masto said, “which is lowering costs for them, including the health care costs. That’s where our focus should be: working in a bipartisan way.”
She added: “We have different tactics, but at the end of the day we’re united in fighting for Nevadans and addressing the looming health care crisis.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.
