Rank-and-file senators engage in ‘shadow negotiation’ in search for shutdown end

CNN

By Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, Ted Barrett, CNN

(CNN) — A group of rank-and-file senators increasingly frustrated by the weeks-long stalemate on Capitol Hill believe they have found a possible path to end the government shutdown.

It’s not yet clear if it will work.

Behind the scenes, this gang of Republicans and Democrats have been engaged in a dual-track negotiation. One of their goals is to resolve the impasse on health care and reopen the government for the next few weeks. They are also hoping to reach a separate long-term agreement to fund certain key departments, including the US Department of Agriculture, which funds food stamps, through next year.

“I think the private conversations that are going on are trying to create like a shadow negotiation, so that we have some clarity about what we need to vote on,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, one of those involved in the conversations, told CNN on Wednesday.

But these senators still face an uphill climb to get their warring parties on the same page. Their task has been made more complicated by GOP leaders’ fierce commitment not to negotiate with Democrats on health care until Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his members agree to reopen the government.

Thune appeared to suggest on Wednesday that he would have a conversation with those involved in the negotiations. Asked if he would personally engage with centrist Democrats involved in the talks, Thune told CNN: “I think that will happen pretty soon.”

But his office later told CNN that he remains unwilling to discuss any Obamacare policy changes until the government is open. And Thune stressed he could not guarantee any resolution to Democrats: “I’ve offered up a process. I can’t guarantee an outcome or result,” he said.

Still, the emerging talks are a fresh sign of optimism inside a gloomy Capitol building. Finally, after weeks of total gridlock with half of Congress not even present in Washington, there appears to be some movement. The push comes as members of both parties brace for worsening effects of the shutdown, including the lapse of food stamps for the first time in the program’s history starting this weekend.

Sen. Mike Rounds suggested that — if party leaders agreed — the Senate could vote as early as next week on full-year spending bills that would allow Democrats to move on past the current funding fight and pivot to longer-term spending bills.

“They’re focused on – Is there a way for our Democratic colleagues to save face and perhaps not vote directly to a continuing resolution?” Rounds said, referring to the same stopgap bill that Democrats have blocked more than a dozen times. Instead, he said, Republicans would put the bipartisan, full-year spending bills on the floor “as a way around the continuing resolution.”

“Once that’s moving, maybe then we’ll look at a continuing resolution,” he said.

Lawmakers have faced increased pressure to reopen the government this week with crucial safety net programs – including federal food assistance for more than 40 million people – at risk of shuttering in the coming days. Thune’s remarks come hours after he and numerous other senators voiced a rare sense of optimism that there could be a way out of the 29-day shutdown. Still, neither side has made any commitments publicly.

“It’s ticked up significantly and hopefully that’ll be a precursor of things to come,” Thune told reporters earlier in the day when asked about the status of talks with rank-and-file Democrats. “But yeah, there’s a lot of higher level of conversation.”

Democratic leaders, Thune said, are not involved in the negotiating. Asked whether he thought there would be enough moderate Democrats in the mix to reach a deal that would reopen the government, he expressed optimism.

“I think there’s a possibility that could happen. So, let’s just hope that the conversations continue,” he said, noting he’s “being kept briefed and read-into most of those conversations. I’m hoping something here very soon will be fruitful.”

One Democrat involved in the talks, who requested anonymity to speak on the discussions, told CNN the conversations Thune cited are real. The Democrat would not elaborate on whether they were focused solely on resolving the expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies or if other matters – such as the White House’s recent moves to flout Congress’ spending power through “rescissions” – were also involved.

Asked whether the talks could offer a way out of the shutdown, the Democrat would only say: “Maybe.”

One component of the ongoing talks – how to win support in the Senate for full-year appropriations bills that would prevent another shutdown cliff in the coming weeks. Two other Democrats involved in the discussions suggested to CNN that they are interested in those long-term bills as part of an off-ramp.

Asked about whether emerging talks involved full year spending bills, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters said he didn’t “want to get into specifics but clearly that would be nice.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, told CNN that “it’s accurate to say we’re pushing for full-year appropriations bills because that’s what we should be doing,” when asked whether the party was pursuing them as a way out of the shutdown.

Shaheen, who has been involved in the talks, declined to confirm Thune’s assessment that they are making progress, but said, “I think there have been good discussions. That’s all I’m going to tell you about it.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and has been perhaps the most vocal Republican calling for bipartisan talks, told reporters Wednesday that she was “encouraged” by the direction of talks.

“I think that there are, have been enough of the pieces that have been talked through that if, if somebody can just diagram out how it all comes together and present that — Yes, I do believe it’s possible to kind of come together quickly,” she said.

“There’s no great magic in how we get out of this. It’s the same stuff we’ve been talking about for months,” added Murkowski.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, said that he did not think that Republicans had offered anything new in the discussions.

“There have been, there are occasional talks between Democrats and Republicans on this issue, but our Republican colleagues don’t seem to be offering anything different than what their leadership has had so far we hope that will change,” the New York Democrat said.

“We don’t want to pit health care and food. They do, we think you can have both.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.