WASHINGTON—With no end to the government shutdown in sight, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) reached out to President Donald Trump on Oct. 21 in hopes of meeting with him soon.
“We said we’ll set up an appointment with him any time, any place, before he leaves,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday.
The president is slated to travel to Asia at the end of the week. He has said he intends to visit both Malaysia and Japan and may meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Schumer said Trump should “sit down with us” and “negotiate in a serious way” before his departure.
Three weeks into the government shutdown, now the third-longest in history, Democrats and Republicans are still at an impasse over Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, premium tax credits.
For most Senate Democrats, reopening the government hinges on negotiating some extension of those subsidies, which are expiring at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Republicans have called for Democrats to vote for a short-term funding patch to reopen the government first, before the health care measures are negotiated.
The Senate has now voted 11 times on the stopgap bill. Although it has won the support of a majority of senators, including three lawmakers who caucus with the Democrats, it has not surpassed the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster.
Trump predicted Republicans are on pace to “do fantastically well” during the 2026 midterm elections.
Midterms have historically been challenging election cycles for the party in control of the executive branch.
After the meeting, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the White House, Senate Republicans, and House Republicans formed “a united front” on the need to reopen the government, saying Trump was interested in a health care subsidy negotiation after the shutdown ends.
During the event, Trump noted that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—the only Senate Republican to oppose a GOP-backed continuing resolution that would end the shutdown—was absent from the Rose Garden.
He included a photograph of himself at a different event with another Kentuckian who voted against the funding bill, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
After the meeting, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has floated proposals to address the expiring ACA subsidies, told reporters the president did not speak about whether he favored an extension of those subsidies.
He also said he did not anticipate Trump would become more involved in shutdown-related discussions as the funding gap continues to lengthen.
“We’re really running out of time, and that’s the reason why we’re really frustrated with the fact that our Democrat colleagues are still in the shutdown,” he said.
The ACA premium tax credits are on pace to expire on Dec. 31.
Open enrollment for health insurance—when higher rates may first appear—begins on Nov. 1.
