The Senate on Wednesday, the first day of a government closure, once again failed to approve bills aimed at financing the Government as Congress leaders continue to change by closing.
Negotiations seem to be underway, and Friday is the next opportunity for the Senate to vote on government financing, which leaves many Americans wonder what it continues with the closure.
The Senate had two votes on the financing law that reflected the failed votes they took on Tuesday, which resulted in a government closure that entered into force at 12:01 AM on Wednesday. Both failed, which turned out that the closure of the government continues.
A closed sign is in front of the national archives the first day of a government closure, on October 1, 2025, in Washington.
Julia DeMaree Nikhinson/AP
What follows?
After the failure of the bills on Wednesday morning, the Senate received votes on other matters then postponed by Yom Kippur.
The next votes are Friday, when the Senate must take the same democratic and republican proposals that were not approved on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Bipartisan path?
During Wednesday’s vote on whether to advance a seven -week Stopgap financing bill, a large bipartisan group of senators met. The group included a series of moderate narrow see Gary Peters, Jacky Rosen, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, Ben Ray Lujan and more.
The legislators who left that Huddle told ABC News that the conversations they were having were preliminary. But it is clear that a bipartisan group is joining that it is looking for some type of closing ramp.
“The Democrats who saw there are trying to find a way of good faith, to obtain the fiscal loans of ACA we want, and also some of the assignments they are asking for,” Senator Ruben Gallego told journalists, who was part of the group.
One of the possibilities that are carried out between the group include trying to approve a draft government financing law in the short term to allow additional breathing space for negotiations on tax credit extensions of the affordable health care law that Democrats say they want, according to Fuentes.
Senator Mike Rounds, who seemed to be among the key negotiators of the Republican Party in the group, said the Republicans are trying to convince a group of Democrats that the government’s abryness will create the best way to continue negotiations on medical care.
“We are trying to convince them that this is the right thing: find the way to follow, get the 10 votes or more to move forward with this, and then we will work to solve the problems that worried them,” Rounds said.
Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal said that there is “a lot of bipartisan hope” that the closure is the most “short and at least possible cost”, and added that the negotiations would be ongoing.
“There are flashes of real and significant hope that we can have a meeting of minds,” said Blumenthal.
The minority leader Chuck Schumer, who has led the Senate Democrats in their blockade against a short -term financing bill unless medical care needs or satisfies himself, was not in the group. But it seemed encouraged for that.
The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, told journalists on Wednesday that he was aware of the bipartisan group and also participated in discussions with members of both parties to find a solution to finance the government.
Wednesday votes
The first vote that failed in the Senate was, once again, a procedural vote on the government’s financing proposal of the Democrats that includes the medical care provisions they have been looking for. He failed by a vote of 47-53. As was the case on Tuesday night, each Democrat voted for him and all the Republicans voted against.
The second vote of the series was a procedural vote on the Financing Bill of Republican Stop clean and supported by the house that failed on Tuesday night. The Democrats continued to maintain the line during Wednesday’s vote, which led to fail with a 55-45 vote.
Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman, as well as the Independent Angus King, voted, as they did on Tuesday, with the Republicans to advance the financing solution of the Republican Party. But there are no additional democrats to break ranges during the series of votes. Republican senator Rand Paul voted no, so the Republicans would have needed to collect at least five more Democrats to advance this bill, who needed 60 votes to approve.
Thune said the Republicans are looking for those few additional Democrats to support their draft Clean Financing already short term.
Senate leaders blame the opposite party
In the comments of the floor before Wednesday’s votes, both leaders opened to blame the other party.
“Here we are, the Democrats have inclined to the far left and have closed the federal government,” Thune said on the floor. “As of this morning, critical federal employees, including Army members, border patrol agents and air traffic controlle are working without pay and several government services are not available or are at risk.”
Meanwhile, Schumer said: “Donald Trump and Republicans have accelerated us because they refuse to protect the medical care of the United States.”
Schumer, in his speech, said that Republicans will not be able to “intimidate” the Democrats to renounce their demands that medical care is addressed as part of government financing.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Thune said that the Democrats “have taken the American people hostage in a way that they think politically benefit them, as a result of the cost of what will happen to US families if this closure of the government continues.”
The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, speaks during a press conference with the republican leadership of Congress outside the United States Capitol on the first day of the closing of the United States government in Washington, on October 1, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP through Getty Images
The speaker Mike Johnson criticized the Democrats during the press conference on Wednesday morning.
“Every part of this was completely avoidable,” said Johnson, added that the Democrats should approve the clean CR as they did in the camera.
“Democrats in Congress have dragged our country to another reckless closure to satisfy their extreme left base,” Johnson said. “If the government remains open or reopened or does not depend completely on them.”
The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, speaks at a press conference with the republican leadership of Congress outside the United States Capitol on the first day of the United States government closure in Washington, on October 1, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
The Democrats responded during their own press conference on Wednesday morning.
“Republicans control the Senate, the Chamber and the White House. They need democratic votes to finance the government, so it depends on them to talk to us,” said the vice president of the democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives, Pete Aguilar.
The representative of the Democratic President of the House of Representatives, Pete Aguilar, and the representative Ted Lieu, talk to journalists after a Caucus meeting at the Visitors Center of the United States Capitol on October 1, 2025 in Washington.
Somodevilla/Getty chip
On Tuesday, Schumer He urged Republicans to come to the negotiating table.
“Then, we want to sit and negotiate, but the Republicans cannot do so in their partisan form, where they simply say ‘is our road or the road'”, “ Schumer He reiterated at a press conference after the votes of the Senate on Tuesday night.
The senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, talks to the members of the media during a press conference, after the weekly policy lunch of the Senate Democrats in Capitol Hill in Washington, on September 30, 2025.
Somodevilla/Getty chip
Schumer He retreated the failed votes on the Senate’s floor, contributing the guilt to the Republicans who “have failed to obtain enough votes to avoid a closure.”
Lauren Peller of ABC News and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
