Nevada senators paved way to end 40-day government shutdown

By breaking rank with fellow Democrats, Nevada’s Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen were instrumental in ending a stalemate Sunday that brought the federal government closer to reopening after more than 40 days.

They were two of seven Democratic senators — and an independent who caucuses with them — who joined Republicans Sunday in a vote to end the shutdown, allowing the majority party a filibuster-proof 60 votes.

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would “abide by the deal.”

“Based on everything I’m hearing, they haven’t changed anything and we have support of enough Democrats, and we’re going to be opening up our country … very quickly,” he said from the Oval Office.

However, it was unclear on Monday exactly when that might happen. A resolution could come as early as this week.

Next steps

The funding legislation still required final stamp of approval in the Senate before it’s sent to the House of Representatives, which sits three Nevada Democrats, all who voted against the original continuing resolution, and one Republican, who voted for it.

None of them specified Monday how they might vote on what comes out of the Senate.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, said that his caucus was open to negotiate a bipartisan path forward that addresses affordability, adding that “we’ll continue to wage this fight.”

“No matter what comes over to us from the United States Senate…at some point this week, our position as House Democrats has been crystal clear,” he said.

Jeffries added: “We’re not down with their ‘my way or the highway’ approach to governance.”

Rep. Lee, D-Nevada, criticized the current funding proposal, which Democrats have continuously argued would balloon the cost of health care because it does not extend tax cuts for the Affordable Care Act.

“Rather than work in good faith to prevent costs from skyrocketing for thousands of southern Nevadans, House Republicans skipped town for more than 50 days and refused to hold a vote,” Lee said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s undeniable now that Republicans in Washington are intent on using their control of the White House, Senate, and House to illegally inflict unthinkable pain on hardworking Americans.”

The statement did not address a question about how she plans to vote in the House.

Democratic Reps. Dina Titus and Steven Horsford, as well as Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday.

Responding to a media story that noted that the Senate agreement only granted a future vote for Affordable Care Act subsidies, Horsford wrote on X: “House Dems are in this for the people. Americans deserve affordable healthcare and that’s a fight worth championing everyday of the week.”

Titus shared a video from House Minority Leader Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, saying last week that he was “not promising anyone anything” when pressed about a possible vote on an extension of American Care Act tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.

“(Johnson) has declined a future vote on an extension in the House of Representatives,” she said on X. “A vote in the Senate is also sure to fail.”

Added Titus: “Republicans control all three branches of government. Any failure to address the ongoing healthcare crisis will be attributed to (House Republican’s) inability to compromise and govern.”

Unlike the Senate’s current makeup, Republicans had more leeway to advance the legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk without any support from Democrats.

Rosen switches strategy

Asked Friday about whether she thought Republicans would honor the promise of allowing a vote on the American Care Act, Cortez Masto told the Review-Journal that she didn’t want to speculate.

“We want a health care system where we pay the money to the people instead of the insurance companies,” Trump said Monday. “We’re going to be working on that very hard over the next short period of time.”

Cortez Masto was one of two Democratic senators who continuously voted to reopen the government since it closed on Oct. 1, arguing in favor of health insurance subsidies, but saying they could be negotiated separately.

She said she hadn’t lobbied her Nevada colleague to change her position, which Rosen did on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, it’s become clear as we go deeper into the second month of this Republican government shutdown that President Trump and Washington Republicans are weaponizing their power in alarming ways to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on working people, like fully withholding SNAP benefits and gutting our tourism industry by grinding air travel to a halt,” Rosen said in a statement.

The bipartisan deal will fund the government through January, offer back pay furloughed federal workers and pay for federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.