Senate to vote again on government funding bills as shutdown reaches 3rd day

The government shutdown is in its third day on Friday with senators set to vote for the fourth time on bills to fund the government. But with negotiations appearing stalled, it’s looking like the shutdown could extend through the weekend.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune stood firm Friday on the Senate floor — just hours before the chamber is set to take yet another vote on Republican’s clean seven-week government funding bill — and signaled his party’s unwillingness to negotiate with Democrats over their demands in order to open the government back up. 

«This shutdown needs to end sooner rather than later, and there’s only one way out of it. Democrats need to vote for the clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there,» Thune said. «All it takes is one roll call, vote, the government’s back open.»

In addition to the GOP-backed seven-week stopgap funding measure, the Senate will also vote on the Democrat’s funding bill that includes health care provisions.

Thune suggested that any health care negotiations could begin after they pass the continuing resolution. But with both Republican and Democratic leaders at a stalemate, it seems as if neither bill will pass.

Both bills have failed during the three previous votes since the government shut down on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m.

Thune said he does not expect to hold votes over the weekend and the next chance to try again would be Monday. This shutdown could go on at least six days if that ends up being the case.

Thune, meanwhile, is continuing his effort to recruit more Democrats to join the GOP-backed funding bill. And Democrats are meeting Friday afternoon to discuss their next moves.

Thune put pressure on Democrats during a press conference Friday morning.

«We have an opportunity to pick up a House-passed bill that if it passes the Senate, will be sent to the White House, the president will sign it and the government will reopen. It’s that simple and that straightforward. And that’s what we’re talking about. All we need is a handful more Democrats,» Thune said.

The majority leader said he hoped that Democrats «have a chance to think about» their stance over the weekend.

«I don’t know how many times you give them a chance to vote no, and hopefully over the weekend, they’ll have a chance to think about it. Maybe some of these conversations start to result in something to where we can start moving some votes and actually get this thing passed,» Thune said Friday. «But there’s nothing to be gained at this point by negotiating something that there’s nothing to negotiate.»

House Speaker Mike Johnson also would not commit to negotiating with Democrats on their $400 billion demand to extend the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year.  

«Some of the issues that they’re bringing to the table and they’re demanding immediate easy answers for, are not easy answers and they take a long time to deliberate. That is the process. This is a deliberative body, and a very large one,» Johnson said. «We can’t snap our fingers, and he and I and two other leaders in a room go, ‘Oh, well, this is the resolution.’ That’s not how it works.»

As the Senate works to chart a path forward, President Donald Trump is once again teasing to looming federal firings, which the White House said are “very real” and could result in “thousands” of federal workers losing their jobs during the shutdown.

The president posted an AI-generated video on his social media platform Friday morning showing Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the Grim Reaper as the administration threatens mass layoffs for federal workers.

«Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields the pen, the funds and the brain. Here comes the Reaper,» someone sings in the video as Vought is depicted walking through the Capitol as the character. 

On Friday morning, Vought announced $2.1 billion in funding for a Chicago’s Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project are being put on hold “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”

It is the latest instance of the Trump Administration targeting projects in Democratic strongholds after the Trump administration put on hold $18 billion in infrastructure funding for New York City and cancelled $8 billion for energy projects in 16 states that voted with Democrats in the last presidential election.

Because of the shutdown, there was no jobs report released Friday, delaying an update to key economic data and snapshot of the labor market. More than 2,000 Bureau of Labor Statistics employees are currently furloughed.

ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.