Senate Democrats blocked a bill Thursday to pay federal employees who are working during the shutdown.
Republicans also rejected the Democrats’ alternatives that would have paid furloughed employees and prevented the Trump administration from laying off employees.
The moves were just the latest in a series of partisan stalemates over the shutdown, now in its fourth week.
The 54-45 vote on the GOP bill to pay essential federal employees who are required to work during the shutdown fell short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster, with only three Democrats joining all Republicans in support.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who sponsored the bill, said it is about “fairness” to the more than 2 million federal employees who are being forced to work without pay.
“They’re protecting our nation. They’re protecting our safety and security. They’re writing Social Security checks,” he said, arguing they should get their paychecks, “so they don’t have to work DoorDash, so they don’t have to go to food banks, so they’re not under that stress.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said his alternative proposal to include pay for furloughed workers “doesn’t discriminate among federal employees.”
He and other Democrats argued that Mr. Johnson’s bill would give President Trump and White House Director Russell Vought more power, allowing them to decide who gets paid and who gets punished since they choose which federal employees are essential.
“You’re giving them a blank check as to who they’re going to send home and who they’re going to punish by not paying,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “That’s what they’ve been doing.”
Federal law already requires federal employees, furloughed or not, to receive back pay after a shutdown ends, but it’s not clear in this case when the government will reopen.
Mr. Johnson’s bill would have applied back pay to Oct. 1 when the shutdown began and ensured essential federal workers and supporting contractors are paid through the remainder of this shutdown and any future shutdowns.
“My bill would just end this punishing federal workers for our dysfunction forever,” he said.
Democrats’ two alternative bills from Mr. Van Hollen and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters would pay all federal workers, including those who were deemed non-essential and furloughed.
One would have applied through the duration of the shutdown, while the other would have only covered pay through the date of the bill’s enactment. The former also included a provision to prevent the Trump administration from laying off federal workers or placing them on administrative leave for more than 10 days.
Mr. Van Hollen and Mr. Peters asked for unanimous consent to pass their alternative bills, but Mr. Johnson objected.
Mr. Johnson offered to amend his bill to include furloughed workers but said he didn’t want to restrict the president’s authority “to properly manage the federal government and make the tough decisions sometimes to reduce the workforce, cut out some government functions.”
Mr. Van Hollen and Mr. Johnson discussed working together on a compromise, but disagreed on whether that should come before or after the Senate voted to get on Mr. Johnson’s bill.
Most federal employees are paid every other week and will miss their first full paycheck on Friday because of the shutdown.
“Senate Democrats have a choice. Pay essential workers who are working right now without a paycheck. Or send them into the weekend with empty bank accounts and bills they cannot pay,” Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming said ahead of the vote. “If Democrats vote no, it won’t be about fairness. It will be about politics.”
Mr. Barrasso and other Republicans said they’d prefer to fully reopen the government, but Democrats have blocked a stopgap spending bill that would do that 12 times now.
Only three senators who caucus with the Democrats have voted for the stopgap bill. Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, also voted for the GOP bill to pay essential federal workers, but Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada Democrat, and Angus King, Maine independent, did not.
Two other Democrats, Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, voted for Mr. Johnson’s bill to pay essential federal workers but have voted against the stopgap bill to reopen the government.
Democrats are demanding a bipartisan negotiation on their health care and spending priorities to end the shutdown. Their top ask is an extension of a COVID-era expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies set to sunset this year.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, called the GOP bill to pay essential federal workers “a ruse.”
“It’s nothing more than another tool for Trump to hurt federal workers and American families and to keep this shutdown going for as long as he wants,” he said. “We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods.”
