A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Senate will vote again today on funding the government. Now, lawmakers have already held six failed votes and today's seventh attempt is expected to go the same way.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
With no end in sight, leaders on Capitol Hill have been locked in a war of words. Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson opening his press conference at the Capitol yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
MIKE JOHNSON: Welcome, everyone, to Day 8 of the Democrat shutdown.
FADEL: On the opposite side of the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says pressure is building on the GOP on subsidies for health care.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHUCK SCHUMER: Our Republican colleagues - House, Senate, White House - are feeling the heat.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh is following all of this. So, Deirdre, Day 9 of the...
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Right.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Shutdown. So let's talk about strategies at play. Republicans control Congress. How are they approaching this?
WALSH: Well, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune both have been arguing that Republicans have a plan to fund the government. And they say Democrats just keep blocking that bill because of pressure from their base, that they're just playing politics. These leaders say no deal can happen on health care without Democrats helping to pass a bill to end this shutdown.
Thune has said that some of his own members do want to address these tax credits expiring at the end of the year. That issue has really become the central sticking point in this fight. And he says Congress can debate that, but he says no talks until the government reopens. Speaker Johnson says he's not even planning to call the House back to Washington until Senate Democrats help Republicans fund the government. But on health care, it's worth noting that the speaker really faces a lot of resistance from conservatives in the House who are against any bill to extend these Obamacare subsidies. That's really going to complicate getting a deal.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And as far as the Democrats go, I mean, they really only have one game plan with no wiggle room.
WALSH: You are right. I mean, they want this debate to be all about health care costs. They admit they really don't have much leverage because they're in the minority, but they think this really high-profile fight gives them a platform on an issue they argue the public is with them on. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries continue to say over and over again that really the country is worried about rising costs. And they point out that health care costs are the main ones that are - could be spiking in coming weeks if Congress doesn't address health care problems.
MARTÍNEZ: Are there any lawmakers cracking maybe, maybe breaking from their leadership?
WALSH: You know, Democrats I talked to are really largely united. That's a big difference from when this fight happened back in March. There are a few exceptions of lawmakers who have been voting with Republicans, but that group has not been growing yet. Most Democrats say these threats from the president about not paying furloughed federal workers or canceling projects in blue states just aren't working. They say, look, the Trump administration was already firing people, cutting government programs. That would happen with or without a shutdown.
Republicans, for their part, are pretty united, too. They just keep saying, look, we voted to keep the government open. But we are seeing some cracks, a big one - notable one - from Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is now publicly criticizing her own leadership for not having a plan to address rising health care costs, and she says her own adult children, their costs are going to double.
MARTÍNEZ: Any path at all, do you see, to ending the shutdown?
WALSH: You know, I think the pressure has to come from outside Washington with people feeling the impacts. We're already seeing airport delays. There's another concern coming up with the military not getting paid. That paycheck that they could miss is on October 15. There is a bipartisan group of senators trying to find this compromise on health care. I think a combination of outside pressure and maybe some more details on that deal is a key to unlocking a way out.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Deirdre Walsh, thanks.
WALSH: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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