Democrats expected to block GOP push to reopen government without more health care commitments

By Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, Ted Barrett, CNN

(CNN) — After days of real progress in bipartisan talks to end the government shutdown, the Senate now appears to be heading — for now — toward another dead end.

The status of the Senate’s negotiations continue to change by the hour. But as of Thursday night, Senate Democrats signaled they were prepared to block GOP plans to force a Friday vote to reopen the government — until they got more commitments on dealing with rising health care costs.

That again scrambles the plans of Senate GOP leaders, who had signaled they would soon hold votes on a newly drafted bill to reopen the government, which had been written with input from some Democrats. But that emerging deal did not include any firm commitments to resolve the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies issue at the heart of the shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats seemed to be backing away from an agreement.

“My hopes and expectations are always that we’re going to have enough Democrats to actually proceed, but I don’t know we’ll see,” Thune said when asked about the expected vote Friday. “They seem to be walking back or slow walking this. That’s what they asked for.”

Democrats — after days of private talks that appeared to be picking up steam until this week’s better than expected election — are now again dug in.

A top Senate Democrat said Thursday night that the GOP’s latest funding plan would fall short if it comes to the floor on Friday, signaling another major complication after days of intense talks.

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said enough of his colleagues opposed proceeding with the GOP’s plan – which emerged in part with input from Democratic centrists.

“I think it’s fair to say that the caucus is obviously not unanimous, but we’re pretty unified in the position that without something on health care, that the vote is very unlikely to succeed tomorrow,” Schatz said.

There are still some divisions in the party and one Senate Democratic source said the vote would likely fail but could pick up some additional Democratic votes.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up for reelection in Georgia next year, has privately been talking about his concerns with federal workers in his state — including huge airport hubs and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – missing another paycheck, another source said.

Even some Senate Democratic centrists involved in the talks have expressed frustration with the lack of progress.

“We don’t know what it is,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said, when asked about what the Senate may be voting on Friday. He added: “There is still no finished product. We’ve been talking for days but there is no product.”

Just hours earlier, Senate leaders were moving closer to teeing up votes to end the government shutdown as negotiators of both parties met again Thursday morning in an attempt to hammer out final details, according to multiple sources in both parties.

Those details were presented to Senate Democrats during a lunch session later in the day. But Democrats in the meeting appeared determined to push for stronger commitments on the health care provisions as well as other policy wins, like limiting the impact of Trump’s mass firings, according to two sources briefed on the meeting.

“There are Democrats who are inclined to do the right thing. They’re under an enormous amount of pressure from the left,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters, adding that he would be awaiting results of the Democrats’ lunchtime discussion. “We’ll see if they hold sway today and hopefully we’ll know more about that as the day rolls on.”

The emerging plan was for the Senate to attach another short-term stopgap bill to a larger package of full-year bipartisan bills to fund a handful of federal agencies, according to those sources. There would also be an agreement for a date certain on a vote on extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies — far short of the demand of many Democrats who want an extension in the underlying package that President Donald Trump would sign into law.

Many Democrats have made clear they would be livid at any promise of a separate vote on health care that does not guarantee Trump signing anything into law.

“I think voters would rightly see it as a surrender,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said before the party’s lunch meeting, adding that Tuesday’s elections, as well as a flood of messages from constituents, have signaled to Democrats that Americans “are saying health care matters.”

Thune on Thursday would not say whether he would keep the Senate in session this weekend and into next week’s scheduled Veterans Day recess if a deal is not reached.

“That depends a little bit on what happens if there’s a path forward to vote whether that’s today, tomorrow, Saturday. We’ll stay and do that. If the far left wins out in this and the Dems dig in then, I don’t know. We’ll see. I think all options will be on the table,” Thune said.

This headline and story have been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Dana Bash, Ellis Kim, Annie Grayer and Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.