Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that any government funding agreement to extend operations past Sept. 30 must include notable changes in healthcare programs.
They are holding to their plan from a joint message issued at the end of last month that Republicans needed to work with minority party lawmakers to fill some holes in government spending, particularly with healthcare.
“House and Senate, Hakeem and I are in total agreement, what the Republicans are proposing is not good enough for the American people and not good enough to get our votes,” Schumer said, The Hill reported.
Schumer blasted the GOP for not shoring up healthcare.
“The American people are hurting, healthcare is being decimated on all different fronts, people are going to die, people are losing jobs, people are losing healthcare,” he said.
Added Jeffries: “We are together in defense of the healthcare of the American people. We will not support a partisan spending agreement that continues to rip away healthcare from the American people. Period. Full stop.”
The position of the two Democrat leaders complicates efforts to avoid a shutdown, especially after Senate Majority Leader John Thune ruled out attaching an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to a short-term funding bill earlier in the week.
Democrat congressional leadership priorities include extending the enhanced ACA subsidies, which expire at the end of the year, and responding to Medicaid reductions contained in the Republican-backed “One Big, Beautiful Bill” signed in July. Democrats argue that those cuts could force small hospitals to close.
The subsidies are set to end as ACA open enrollment begins on Nov. 1. According to the health policy research group KFF, about 22 million people could face higher premiums next year if the subsidies are not renewed.
Schumer emphasized that negotiations must include a bipartisan solution.
“The American people are hurting because of how they have decimated healthcare,” he said. “Iff they try to jam something down our throats without any compromise — they ain’t going to get the votes, plain and simple/”
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