Shutting it down: Shreve blames Democrats, but doesn’t vote on stopgap measure to avert shutdown

WASHINGTON — Members of the congressional delegation representing Bartholomew County are pointing their fingers at Democrats amid a partisan standoff over health care and spending that threatens to trigger the first U.S. government shutdown in almost seven years today.

The government was set to shut down at 12:01 a.m. today if the Senate does not pass a House measure that would extend federal funding for seven weeks while lawmakers finish their work on annual spending bills, The Associated Press reported.

Senate Democrats say they won’t vote for it unless Republicans include an extension of expiring health care benefits for millions of Americans, among other demands. President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans say they won’t negotiate, arguing that it’s a stripped-down, “clean” bill that should be noncontroversial.

The House passed a Republican-led funding bill in a 217-212 vote on Sept. 19, though the measure failed to clear the Senate later that day in a 48-44 vote. A Democratic-led measure in the Senate also failed that in a 47-45 vote. As of Tuesday afternoon, it was unclear if either side would blink before the deadline.

In the meantime, Rep. Jefferson Shreve, R-Ind.; Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., are blaming Democrats for the impasse.

“House Republicans have done our job to pass legislation and keep the federal government open,” Shreve said in a statement to The Republic. “Radical Democrats have voted against funding our federal government to play politics. Republicans are governing while Democrats put their party over the American people.”

However, Shreve was one of three House members, and the only Republican, who did not cast a vote on the stopgap measure to avert a shutdown, according to congressional records. His staff said, “Rep. Shreve would have supported the measure had he been present. He filed a yes in the official legislative congressional record.”

The congressional record shows that Shreve cast other votes that day, including one eight minutes before the vote on the Republican-led measure and another nine minutes afterwards. When asked about his abrupt absence, his staff said, “Rep. Shreve was conducting official congressional business at the time when the vote closed before he was able to register his yes on the (continuing resolution).”

At about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Shreve issued a statement saying, ”House Republicans have done our job to pass legislation and keep the government open. Hoosiers should not have to pay the price because Democrats insist on playing politics. They have repeatedly voted against a clean, bipartisan funding bill—threatening vital government services and putting hardworking families at risk. I will not accept pay during any shutdown period. Instead, I will later donate that pay to the Johnson County Boys and Girls Club in Franklin. Hoosiers expect a government that works for them—and that’s the standard I’m holding myself to.”

Houchin voted in favor of the stopgap measure, according to congressional records. She is also blaming what she described as “radical left Democrats” for the impasse.

“The radical left Democrats are pushing a government shutdown that will inflict massive pain on the American people and put public safety at risk,” Houchin said in a statement on X.

Banks, who also did not cast a vote on the stopgap measure on Sept. 19, criticized Democrats for the stalemate. “Democrats are making their priorities clear. They are willing to shutdown the government at the expense of struggling families,” he said on X.

Banks did not cast votes on any Senate business that day.

Young voted in favor of the stopgap measure. A spokesman for Young told The Republic on Tuesday that the senator was “hopeful the federal government will be funded this week.”

“Hoosiers didn’t send Senator Young to Washington to shut the federal government down. He voted to fund the government on Sept. 19, but the bill was blocked by Senate Democrats. Senator Young is hopeful the federal government will be funded this week,” Matt Lahr, communications director for Young, told The Republic.

While partisan stalemates over government spending are a frequent occurrence in Washington, the current impasse comes as Democrats see a rare opportunity to use their leverage to achieve policy goals and as their base voters are spoiling for a fight with Trump, according to wire reports.

Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, would likely need at least eight votes from Democrats to end a filibuster and pass the bill with 60 votes, since Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to vote against it.

The last shutdown was in Trump’s first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, when he demanded that Congress give him money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall, according to wire reports. Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.

The bipartisan meeting at the White House on Monday was Trump’s first with all four leaders in Congress since retaking the White House for his second term. But Trump made it clear he had little interest in negotiations.

“Their ideas are not very good ones,” Trump said of Democrats before the meeting.

Schumer had appeared to be holding out hope that Trump could be open to a deal, according to the AP. He told reporters afterward that the group had “had candid, frank discussions” about health care. He said Trump “was not aware” of the potential for health insurance costs to skyrocket once expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits expire Dec. 31.

But Trump did not appear to be ready for serious talks. Hours later, Trump posted a fake video of Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries taken from footage of their real press conference outside of the White House after the meeting. In the altered video, a voiceover that sounds like Schumer’s voice makes fun of Democrats and Jeffries stands beside him with a cartoon sombrero and mustache. Mexican music plays in the background.

At a news conference on the Capitol steps Tuesday morning, Jeffries said it was a “racist and fake AI video.”

Schumer said that “we have less than a day to figure this out” and Trump is trolling on the internet “like a 10-year-old.”

Millions of people could face higher insurance premiums if the health care subsidies expire at the end of the year, according to wire reports. Congress first put them in place in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats say they want the subsidies immediately extended. They have also demanded that Republicans reverse the Medicaid cuts that were enacted as a part of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” this summer and for the White House to promise it will not move to rescind spending passed by Congress.

“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later, according to wire reports. Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits, but many are strongly opposed to it. Thune has said Republicans would want new limits on the expanded subsidies — something Democrats would not likely agree to.

Democrats are in an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive, and it’s unclear how or when it would end, according to the AP. But party activists and voters have argued that Democrats need to do something to stand up to Trump.

Some groups called for Schumer’s resignation in March after he and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote.

Schumer said then that he voted to keep the government open because a shutdown would have made things worse as Trump’s administration was slashing government jobs. He says now that he believes things have changed, including the passage this summer of the massive GOP tax cut bill that reduced Medicaid.

The stakes are huge for federal workers across the country as the White House told agencies last week that they should consider “a reduction in force” for many federal programs if the government shuts down, according to wire reports.

That means that workers who are not deemed essential could be fired instead of just furloughed. Either way, most would not get paid.

Trump said Tuesday that “we may do a lot” of layoffs, “and it’s only because of the Democrats.”

Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, told reporters at the White House that a shutdown would be managed “appropriately, but it is something that can all be avoided” if Senate Democrats accepted the House-passed bill.