ALBANY, New York — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s omnipresence in New York state politics has been his calling card for the past three decades — until now.

New York’s senior senator has delivered hundreds of college commencement addresses over the years and made countless cameos at everything from parades to road races to strangers’ barbecues. Locally, nothing has defined his brand more than a 26-year streak of annual visits to each of the state’s 62 counties.

But Schumer has been largely absent of late: He only made official visits to 30 of the 57 counties outside of New York City as Thanksgiving nears and he toned down his presence on the commencement address circuit this spring. The senator has also been anything but a kingmaker in a changing state Democratic party — notably opting out of endorsing in this year’s New York City mayoral race as Zohran Mamdani drove turnout to levels not seen since the 1960s.

Democrats across the spectrum attribute his relative absence in the Empire State to the increasingly all-consuming nature of the current Washington landscape. Much of his energy there has been spent negotiating a path out of the federal government shutdown, an effort that isn’t winning him many friends among the party faithful at home.

“We’re in a new moment we’ve never been in before,” said Jasmine Gripper, co-director of the state Working Families Party. “The reality is I’m not sure if New Yorkers really want Chuck Schumer showing up in their backyards. What I really want to know is that Chuck Schumer is in D.C. fighting to protect our democracy.”

Those fights in Washington have done nothing to boost his political standing. His vote to keep the government open in March antagonized the left. His refusal to do so in September angered the right. Now, his inability to keep his conference united has upset not just the left, with some progressives calling for his resignation, but has left moderates like Gov. Kathy Hochul fuming over the lack of unity in the conference Schumer leads. That weakness has stoked talk of a potential primary challenge from a younger, more progressive opponent like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

If the 74-year-old senator wants to rebound before he potentially seeks a sixth term in 2028 — which would keep him in office until he’s 84 — it’s becoming increasingly apparent he’ll need to do so without his traditional style of obsessively local politicking: If the White House eliminates an executive agency on a Friday, for example, Schumer would risk exposing himself to horrible optics if he spent the weekend, say, back in New York fighting to reduce goose droppings. Or looking to ban inhalable caffeine. Or going to war against metal barbeque brushes.

But Schumer’s team has suggested that reading the tea leaves of his schedule too deeply would be misguided.

“Current challenges in D.C., including the Trump shutdown, require his presence and leadership,” Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro said. “He is working ‘round the clock to deliver on behalf of New Yorkers, including the fight for affordable health care — all while President Trump recklessly attacks everything from the Second Avenue subway and Gateway to Medicaid.”

Critics, however, say it’s evidence he’s slowing down.

“He’s phasing himself out. I don’t think he’ll run in 2028,” New York GOP chair Ed Cox said. “He’s getting old and he knows where the country is. He also knows where his party is, and that AOC can easily beat him.”

Chuck Around NY

The most famous form of Schumer’s ubiquitousness has been his practice of crashing college graduation ceremonies every Saturday in June. Countless families have stories. And many of those yarns follow a similar trajectory: like attending a daughter’s commencement in Buffalo and hearing the senator discuss the time he was dumped by a girl and lost a scholarship — then attending their son’s event on Long Island the next year and hearing the same exact speech. He once delivered 15 commencement addresses in nine days.

As recently as 2023, social media posts indicate he showed up at Brooklyn College, SUNY Albany, the New York City College of Technology, Hunter College, Fordham Law, SUNY Stony Brook, John Jay and SUNY Cortland. The only mention in student newspapers or on three major social media sites about Schumer’s attendance at a commencement this June came from the Fordham Observer, which reported the regular attendee was “notably absent.”

Schumer’s website tags certain events with a “Chuck Around New York” label to showcase his stops around the state that form the basis for his 62 county boast. He spent decades topping 150 news conferences in New York each year. In 2010, he managed to hit 283.

But the number began to drop when he was elevated in the Senate and became Democratic leader in 2017. His highest total since then was 124 stops across the state in 2019.

His local appearances have dropped off even more this year. He was at only 44 official visits in mid-November, on pace for a record low. Those visits cover only 48 percent of the state’s counties with the new year fast approaching. The most recent event listed occurred on Sept. 15.

There are certainly plenty of informal appearances that aren’t included in the tallies of his stops. In the past few months, Schumer has stopped by the Buffalo Bills’ training camp, marched in New York City’s Labor Day Parade, and joined a No Kings Protest. But that’s also true in past years — and by many anecdotal accounts, these cameos have been less common as the senator is stuck spending time near the Potomac more often than he is near the Hudson.

Roefaro insisted the minority leader has kept busy on the homefront.

“As he has for every year in the Senate, Senator Schumer continues to crisscross the state’s 62 counties and New York City’s five boroughs,” he said. “The senator has a track record of success and an indefatigable omnipresence that will continue to power these efforts.”

Sunday presser fatigue 

The senator often topped 60 percent favorability in polls a decade ago. But that dipped once he became leader, with him hovering for several years with numbers along the lines of 50-38.

This year, he’s hit record lows among numerous pollsters, repeatedly landing with a favorability rating closer to 35 percent.

“There was a large percentage of Republicans who liked Chuck Schumer,” Siena spokesman Steve Greenberg said. “But once he became minority leader, he was seen — understandably so — as a much more partisan figure, and as a result lost a lot of Republicans.”

Schumer’s favorability among Republicans has fallen from 49-39 to 22-71 over the past decade. He’s seen a nearly equal drop among Democrats too: The senator has gone from 73-16 to 47-42.

Democrats are now also judging Schumer largely based on his role as it pertains to the White House. And it’s clear plenty in his own party aren’t happy: He canceled a book tour in the spring over “security concerns” once progressives started assailing him for his role in advancing a Republican funding plan, and he wasbooed at the Metropolitan Opera in September for not supporting Mamdani.

All of it adds up to a tougher landscape to engage in the retail politicking that has driven his success for so long.

Schumer was once widely known as the man who invented the Sunday press conference. Whether he was spending the end of the weekend in Chateaugay bemoaning an attempt to trademark the word “parmesan,” or announcing millions of dollars of transportation funding on Long Island, he found ways to dominate the news cycle on a day when not much else was happening.

His last “Chuck Around New York” appearance in New York on a Sunday came when he attended Rep. George Latimer’s ceremonial oath of office in January.

Fast forward to the fall, and the political headaches have only mounted for Schumer.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway of last week’s elections is that New York City Democrats are open to a generational shift in leadership. Schumer hails from two political generations ago — New Year’s Day, 1975, his first in the state Assembly, was the same day Mario Cuomo began his career in state government. That was 17 years before Mamdani was born.

And the Mamdani faction certainly isn’t rushing to embrace the minority leader.

“We gotta go,” the mayor-elect said when asked by POLITICO last week whether Schumer should face a 2028 challenge.

Mamdani had lunch with Ocasio-Cortez that same day.

While Schumer was a no vote on the Senate’s compromise plan, it’s clear that even moderate Democrats aren’t happy with the way his conference handled it: “This deal paves the way for devastating premium hikes that will drive up costs for New Yorkers,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul, a rare critic of her fellow party members.

And fairly or not, political observers are getting the message that Schumer’s to blame for the compromise.

“Either all eight senators who voted to capitulate coincidentally are not up for reelection in 2026, or Chuck Schumer worked behind the scenes to give into the Republicans while still protecting vulnerable Democrats — including himself,” Jon Stewart said Monday night on the Daily Show.

All that being said, plenty of time remains for Schumer to increase his visibility before a reelection run. And even his past foes say it’s too soon to count him out.

“Don’t underestimate Sen. Schumer,” said former Sen. Al D’Amato, who was ousted by Schumer in 1998. “He’s tough, he’s in a difficult position right now, but the election is almost three years away. So I wouldn’t predict his demise — and I think those who do are making a mistake.”

The monthslong bipartisan effort to sidestep Speaker Mike Johnson and force the release of all Justice Department files on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is kicking into high gear this week, setting up a December floor battle that President Donald Trump has sought to avoid.

The cascade of action is set to begin Wednesday evening, when Johnson will swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva right before the House votes to end the government shutdown, ending a 50-day wait following the Arizona Democrat’s election. Shortly afterward, Grijalva says she will affix the 218th and final signature to the discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to force a vote on the full release of DOJ’s Epstein files.

That in itself will be the culmination of months of drama that blew up into a full crisis for Johnson this summer, with a GOP mutiny grinding the floor to a halt and forcing leaders to send the House home early for August recess. The uproar over a possible Epstein cover-up faded but never disappeared entirely.

The completion of the discharge petition, a rarely used mechanism to sidestep the majority party leadership, will trigger a countdown for the bill to hit the House floor. It will still take seven legislative days for the petition to ripen, after which Johnson will have two legislative days to schedule a vote. Senior Republican and Democratic aides estimate a floor vote will come the first week of December, after the Thanksgiving recess.

The discharge petition tees up a “rule,” a procedural measure setting the terms of debate for the Epstein bill’s consideration on the House floor. This gives the effort’s leaders greater control over the bill, which will still require Senate approval if it passes the House.

Senate Republican leaders haven’t publicly committed to bringing up the Epstein measure if the House passes it. Republicans expect it will die in the Senate, but not before a contentious House fight.

While Johnson has options to short-circuit the effort before it gets to the floor, he said in an interview last month he would not seek to do so. Republicans on the Rules Committee have also warned Johnson they will not help him kill the bill in the panel, and he’s in turn privately assured some of them the Epstein measure will get floor consideration if the petition reaches 218 signatures.

At that point, the speaker can only defeat it if he siphons away enough Republican votes — a tall order in a majority where Johnson has only a two-vote margin after Grijalva is sworn in.

“I’m certain the House vote will succeed,” Massie said in an interview. “Some Republican members who are not signers of the petition have told me they will vote for the measure when the vote is called. I suspect there will be many more.”

He added, “I even wonder if Speaker Johnson might advise politically vulnerable members to vote for it.”

GOP leadership circles estimate several dozen Republicans are considering backing the effort on the floor, even after Trump officials convinced several hard-liners to keep their signature off the discharge petition.

Republicans and Democrats are closely watching three GOP women who made the rare move to buck party leadership and sign onto Massie’s effort. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina are still supportive of the measure, despite an intense pressure campaign by White House officials and senior Republicans in recent months to undercut Massie’s push.

“They’re all still on board,” Massie said.

But Trump has repeatedly tried to downplay the Epstein matter as a “Democratic hoax” and blasted Republicans on Capitol Hill and even his own voters for exacerbating the controversy about the files. He claimed in September the Justice Department had already “done its job” and released all the information it could.

Massie predicted a “last, desperate effort” from Trump officials to undercut the discharge petition. “But I expect that effort to fail,” he said.

“Even if one signer were to remove their name, there will be another member showing up later that will get us to 218,” Massie added, referring to a December special election in a safe Democratic seat in Texas. ”All that matters is we reach 218.”

Johnson in recent weeks has pivoted to trying to convince House Republicans to oppose the measure once it comes to the floor.

“The bipartisan House Oversight Committee is already accomplishing what the discharge petition, that gambit, sought — and much more,” Johnson said at a news conference last month.

All “credible information” would be released to the public as part of the panel’s monthslong probe into the matter, he said, while precautions are taken to protect Epstein’s accusers.

House GOP leadership has pointed to the Oversight Committee probe to argue that the effort led by Massie is unnecessary. The panel issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for materials related to Epstein’s case in August, and the administration has begun handing them over.

But the investigation, led by Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), has hit some roadblocks, too.

The Justice Department said earlier in the shutdown that it would resume cooperation with the House investigation only after Congress votes to reopen the government. As a result, the department has submitted few additional materials to congressional investigators since the probe began.

The Oversight Committee has turned to Epstein’s estate for a number of documents and materials, including the so-called “birthday book” that included a note apparently signed by Trump celebrating Epstein’s 50th. Trump denies drafting the letter and has sued the Wall Street Journal, which was first to report on its existence.

Despite the president’s apparent inclusion in the book, GOP lawmakers have argued the results of the Oversight probe exonerate Trump from wrongdoing. Still, Democrats have sought to stoke division among the president’s base by arguing his administration was slow-walking the release of information as part of a larger conspiracy.

The issue is likely to be a persistent headache for the GOP in the coming months. Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who sat for an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July, is preparing a commutation application for the administration to consider.

Trump has declined to rule out any sort of reprieve for Maxwell, a convicted sex offender now serving a 20-year sentence. Johnson said in a recent interview with Piers Morgan that he did not support a pardon.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is the target of liberal fury for a second time this year. His Democratic colleagues aren’t joining the pile-on.

The New York Democrat is facing calls to resign from his leadership post from a coalition of progressive outside groups, House Democrats and even some Senate hopefuls over the chamber’s approval of a bipartisan shutdown deal that he didn’t even vote for.

That’s a U-turn from March, when he assumed responsibility for helping advance a GOP-written government funding stopgap that sparked weeks of intense criticism and calls for his ouster from Democrats outside the Senate. This time, Schumer joined with most of the caucus to blast the agreement for not meeting Democrats’ top demand — an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Outside the Senate, that’s a distinction without a difference to Schumer’s critics, who believe he should have done more to stop eight Democratic caucus members from defecting. Inside the Senate, views are more nuanced.

“Chuck didn’t want this to happen. And I sat with him in rooms as he tried to stop this from occurring. This has got to be a caucus-wide conversation,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a fierce critic of the deal. “Because if this is really how 10 or 15 members are going to regularly conduct business, it’s hard for any leader to stop that from happening.”

The liberal pushback comes as Schumer, 74, faces larger questions about his long-term political future. Progressives are dreaming of a 2028 primary challenge, and he has repeatedly declined to say whether or not he will run for a sixth Senate term.

Instead, Schumer insists he’s keeping his focus on the 2026 midterm elections — and a chance of once again becoming majority leader.

While many Senate Democrats expressed frustration with the outcome of the shutdown fight, there is no appetite for an immediate Schumer ouster, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss internal caucus dynamics.

Schumer isn’t up for reelection as leader until after the 2026 midterms that he is expected to try to make a referendum on Trump and health care. He indicated earlier this year that he intends to run for the post again. So far, no one is chomping at the bit to challenge him nor is there a consensus on who, if anyone, could — though there’s also no real incentive for a challenger to emerge more than a year in advance.

“You can argue and I can make the case that Chuck Schumer has done a lot of bad things, but I think getting rid of him — who’s going to replace him?” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, adding that he views Schumer and most of the Senate Democratic Caucus as part of the “establishment.”

Schumer is brushing off the latest wave of criticism from the left flank of his party, believing it comes with the job of being the leader.

He’s hardly the first Senate leader to get flak from his party. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the longtime Republican leader, faced frequent and withering criticism from conservative critics but remained in the top spot for years — even defeating a challenger in 2022.

One thing the two have in common: Schumer and McConnell both spent time leading their party’s campaign committees and kept close control of political operations as leaders — meaning they played a key role in electing many of the lawmakers who in turn vote on leadership races. Schumer has recruited several big names to run this year, though some primary candidates he is not backing have already called for him to resign.

After the March funding fight, Schumer made a concerted effort to prevent another crack-up ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. He kept in close touch with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and they together strategized around making health care the centerpiece of their messaging.

The two leaders were not in perfect harmony during the six-week shutdown, but they mostly sang from the same songsheet. Jeffries gave his fellow Brooklynite a quick gesture of confidence after the Senate moved forward with the deal this week.

“Yes and yes,” he said, when asked if Schumer was effective as Senate minority leader and should keep his job. He went on to praise Schumer’s “valiant fight on behalf of the American people.”

In March, he responded to a similar query with, “Next question.”

But the progressive anger at Schumer is centered around a belief that he didn’t do enough to hold his members together to try to force concessions from Republicans on health care.

“The most generous case for Schumer is to believe him — that he and 39 other members of his caucus … all believed that one thing was the correct strategy and that he was able to get undermined by eight outliers. Well, what does that say about his leadership?” Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said Tuesday.

“We’ve worked very closely with his office, we did not call for him to step down in March when others like Indivisible did, but on many fronts after this saga it’s clear there is a failure of leadership and there needs to be a change,” he added.

Schumer has acknowledged he encouraged members of his caucus to talk with Republicans in the early weeks of the shutdown. But behind the scenes, he privately told the negotiators he couldn’t support the agreement they were envisioning and privately urged them to hold out to try to get more concessions, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

A core group of Democratic negotiators, however, believed no further concessions were going to happen no matter how long their caucus held out — and they were able to convince enough of their colleagues of that over the past week. Big victories in this month’s off-year elections delayed but did not destroy that conclusion.

“I know that there were number of my colleagues who thought that, well, we had this big victory on Tuesday, but that didn’t change the impact of the shutdown and I was convinced, as for the people who voted with me … that another day, another week, another month, was not going to make a difference,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

Shaheen said Schumer did not try to dissuade her but would not say if he was supportive of her efforts. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Schumer was “informed” but “he definitely did not bless it.” Schumer’s No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told reporters that Schumer gave the eight who voted for the deal neither a “blessing or a curse.”

Schumer “handled this well,” Durbin added. “It was a hard assignment.”

In addition to keeping tabs on the negotiators, Schumer met regularly with members of the progressive wing of his caucus. Privately, he made the case that Democrats were winning the shutdown fight and that cracks were starting to emerge from Republicans, the person close to the negotiations added. He also convinced Democrats who privately wanted to vote to reopen the government weeks ago to hold out.

The progressive bloc, however, isn’t running to his defense. At the same time, its members aren’t openly criticizing him, preferring instead to sidestep questions about his leadership.

“I think Democrats need to continue the fight to lower families’ costs, and we need to be more effective in that fight,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said when asked whether or not Schumer should remain leader.

Pressed if Schumer had been doing that, Warren said, “The Democrats did not hold the line.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Democrats “will have to figure out a better strategy going forward.” But he declined to discuss Schumer, adding that “I’m not going to get into all of that right now.”

Murphy said the underlying issues “would be difficult for any leader to manage.”

“We clearly have a repeating problem in our caucus, that the minority of members are reaching deals with Republicans,” he said. “That’s a problem that the whole caucus has to solve.”

Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Tim Kaine privately laid out weeks ago what he needed in return for his vote to end the government shutdown: a “moratorium on mischief.”

That’s what the Virginia Democrat told Senate Majority Leader John Thune that any deal had to include — undoing the firings President Donald Trump and budget director Russ Vought had carried out since the start of the shutdown, as well as protections against future firings of federal workers, who make up a significant portion of Kaine’s constituency.

It was a demand that Kaine wasn’t sure the White House and Trump would agree to fully meet until the final hours before the nail-biter vote Sunday that cemented a bipartisan breakthrough.

“There was a lot of resistance but they needed my vote,” Kaine said about the GOP reaction to his demands, adding that negotiators “reached a meeting of the minds” at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday.

About five hours later, the Senate voted to move forward with legislation ensuring any federal workers laid off during the shutdown are rehired and blocking future reductions in force, or RIFs, through at least the end of a new Jan. 30 stopgap spending bill.

Most of the attention to the six weeks of shutdown negotiation centered on Democrats’ demands surrounding health care, particularly the extension of key expiring health insurance subsidies. But the RIF language was the final piece that helped clinch the deal, according to interviews with six people involved in the bipartisan negotiations.

With only eight members of the Democratic caucus voting to advance the bill — the bare minimum for it to move forward — satisfying Kaine was critical to ending the conflict largely on the GOP’s terms while also giving Democrats, who have long worried about Trump taking a sledgehammer to the federal government, something to hold up as a consolation prize.

Kaine was, by his own admission, a latecomer to the bipartisan talks, only joining late last week. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Angus King (I-Maine) began talking with Republicans the first night of the shutdown, by Shaheen’s account. The core group of negotiators included Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.), among others.

Shaheen, asked about the RIF language, said that it was “something the White House put on the table weeks ago as something they were willing to take a look at.” Britt also said in an interview the idea was in the mix as she, Collins, Shaheen and others discussed possible paths to reopen the government.

But while senators spent weeks quietly circling around the same rough framework, they weren’t able to secure a breakthrough.

Things began to shift late last week, as Democrats’ elation over their big Election Day wins began to wear off and the reality of a record-setting shutdown — including unpaid federal workers, worsening air travel delays and missing food aid — began to set in.

Kaine gave a proposal Friday to Thune’s team and Collins, he recounted in an interview Monday. That sparked around-the-clock negotiations over the RIF language over the weekend, including direct talks starting Sunday morning between Kaine and Britt, an appropriator and key emissary between the various negotiators and the White House.

“I think I got off the phone at 12:30 a.m. [Sunday], I think Susan Collins was up for an hour past that and then at 5 a.m. I started getting text messages about this,” Britt said. “Tim Kaine and I talked a number of times both on the phone and in person.”

While senators were hammering out the RIF language, Collins and other appropriators were working to lock down another piece of the shutdown puzzle: a three-bill funding package that included money for veterans programs, food aid and other agencies, as well as Congress itself. Agreeing to the three bills, Democrats and Republicans believe, was key to helping rebuild enough trust to notch a broader deal to end the shutdown.

Senators and staff “worked night and day, literally,” Collins said Monday night after the bill passed. “It shows the Senate can work, we can produce the results that are needed.”

At the same time, Shaheen, King and Hassan led the effort to privately persuade their fellow members of the Senate Democratic Caucus that the agreement was the best offer they were going to get from Republicans, who hadn’t shifted in six weeks on their refusal to negotiate over the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

In the end, that wasn’t enough to get most members of the Senate Democratic caucus — including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who told members involved in the talks about two weeks ago he could not support the deal they were sketching out, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss details of the negotiations.

Schumer continued privately urging them to hold out even as they moved to concede this week, the person added. But the senators had seen enough.

“This was the option on the table,” Shaheen said Monday. She added that some Democratic colleagues who voted against the deal privately told her, “I’m so glad you did that, but I’m not going to vote with you.”

With Thune and Schumer at loggerheads, senators on both sides engaged in on-and-off shuttle diplomacy.

Britt, notably, spoke with Schumer late last month — a conversation aimed, she said, at making sure he was open to allowing the trio of full-year spending bills to move forward. Shaheen, Hassan and King met with Thune, who pledged that he would give them a vote on an ACA extension bill that they would have until mid-December to draft.

“We sat across from him, we looked him eye to eye,” Shaheen said about the talks with Thune.

The trio met repeatedly with each other, as well as a group of roughly a dozen Senate Democrats that eventually included Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the party’s whip and highest-ranking Democrat who backed the effort. Durbin said he also spoke with Thune on Sunday, telling the South Dakota Republican that “I was counting on him to keep his word” on the ACA vote.

“He assured me he would,” Durbin added.

Thune publicly reiterated his commitment to the vote Monday, though he stopped well short of predicting a breakthrough.

“I think there’s some goodwill on this issue,” he told reporters. “We’ll see if something lands.”

On the Republican side of the aisle, Collins kept in close contact with senators as she worked to lock down the appropriations bills and close out a deal that would reopen the government.

Collins had privately pitched a six-point plan for ending the shutdown, and the eventual deal largely aligned with what she set out: enacting the three-bill “minibus,” teeing up another package of full-year bills, guaranteeing back pay for furloughed employees, promising the ACA vote, beefing up security funding for lawmakers and passing a stopgap bill to reopen all agencies.

Trump never engaged directly with Democrats after an unfruitful late-September meeting with the top party leaders. But GOP senators, including Britt, made sure the White House was on the same page as what was being discussed among the lawmakers. Britt identified Vice President JD Vance, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair and director of legislative affairs James Braid as the key officials who helped land the shutdown agreement.

Vance, Britt added, told her “whatever you need, just let me know.”

The open line to the White House came in handy in the final 48 hours, as Britt, Kaine and other senators hashed out the final terms of the RIF agreement.

“Obviously the White House set the framework, and Senator Kaine knew what he needed to achieve,” Britt said, describing her role as “being a conduit … and trying to make sure nothing got lost in translation.”

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Senate Democrats are projecting optimism they’ll be able to strike a bipartisan deal to extend Obamacare subsidies in the coming weeks. But Senate Republicans have their own plans.

Republicans appear to be quickly pivoting from the debate around Affordable Care Act tax credits to developing their own health policy agenda, with many conservatives now feeling like they have the blessing of President Donald Trump to pursue alternative solutions to spiking insurance premiums. Among the ideas they’re considering is the creation of new health savings accounts.

The shutdown-ending deal the Senate passed Monday night lacked an extension of the Obamacare subsidies, which expire at the end of the year, and Democrats instead secured a commitment for a vote on the credits next month. Democrats who brokered that government funding compromise are insisting they’ll be able to make headway on negotiations over the tax credits and are looking to land the bipartisan health care compromise by the second week of December.

But the fractured conversations among Republicans are promising to bog down negotiations as Obamacare beneficiaries begin to lock in their rates for the year ahead. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are starting to privately admit it’s likely too late to avert a major premium hike for millions of Americans in 2026.

“Obviously our folks have an interest in having some of our own ideas out there,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday when asked whether Republicans would generate a counteroffer on the subsidies or collaborate with Democrats. “There’s some goodwill on this issue. We’ll see if something lands.”

Thune told reporters that Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo of Idaho, Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Senate GOP Steering Committee Chair Rick Scott of Florida and Finance Committee member Roger Marshall of Kansas will be among those spearheading talks with Democrats on a potential Obamacare compromise.

On the Democratic side, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to run point on health care talks, but other Democrats including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon will be involved, according to a person granted anonymity to share internal caucus dynamics.

Shaheen, fellow New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine brokered the shutdown-ending deal Schumer opposed for not including an ironclad promise to extend the credits.

GOP members of Senate Finance, which has jurisdiction over the ACA, huddled Monday afternoon to broach their own ideas, though they were tight-lipped afterward about what proposals were discussed.

The gathering came after Cassidy and Scott called on Republicans to ditch the Obamacare tax credits altogether and fund tax-advantaged health savings accounts for individuals to pay directly for care.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a retiring Finance Committee Republican, said in an interview Monday that it would probably be smart to extend current policy for a year because of the encroaching deadline and then implement changes the following year.

“If you really want to bend the curve on health care, then you gotta have a serious discussion about what works and what’s not working in Obamacare and fix it,” he said.

Senate Republicans appeared Monday to be largely split over whether to pursue the option endorsed by Tillis or plow ahead on a more ambitious conservative overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Cassidy has been exhorting his colleagues to back a new idea to put money into employer-sponsored accounts that would allow individuals to set aside pre-tax dollars for medical expenses.

Trump over the weekend gave a boost to the concept when he said in a Truth Social post that “the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies… [should] be sent to the people.”

“If we extend the enhanced premium tax credits, $26 billion go to insurance companies,” Cassidy told reporters Monday. “If we put it into a flexible spending account, 100 percent is going to the person who’s making a decision of where to spend their dollars.”

Cassidy added that he’s spoken to Democrats about the idea who “support it” and “want to know more.”

A challenge for Democrats in the coming weeks will be to train Republicans’ focus on the task of finding a compromise around the ACA credits, with the clock ticking to reach a deal.

“We have to write a version that is good for our values that helps people, but also is designed to get some Republican votes,” said Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was among the eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who voted to reopen the government Monday evening.

But even if Senate Democrats can cobble together a deal that attracts enough votes in their chamber, Speaker Mike Johnson remains non-commital about putting an Obamacare bill on the floor in the House.

Some Congressional Republicans who say they are committed to drafting an extension of the ACA subsidies are advocating for conservative modifications, including lowering the income cap that determines eligibility and restricting the subsidies from covering abortions. An income limit could get bipartisan buy-in, but abortion restrictions are likely a nonstarter for most Democrats.

Some House Republicans who see political peril in letting the subsidies lapse say privately that there’s enough support on their side of the aisle to help Democrats force a vote on the subsidies through a so-called discharge petition. But whether Republicans would actually forge ahead in bucking House leadership remains to be seen.

“I know that there are Republicans who want to fix this, but there’s no resolve, as far as I can tell, to take this up in the House if we’re able to pass it in the Senate,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who voted against the bill to reopen the government Monday night. “And that’s why I couldn’t agree to that package.”

Jennifer Scholtes and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

The Senate passed a government funding package Monday night that paves the way for ending the longest shutdown in history.

The 60-40 vote came roughly 24 hours after a bipartisan group of rank-and-file senators, in tandem with Majority Leader John Thune, reached an agreement that officially broke a weeks-long partisan stalemate.

The bipartisan bill still needs to pass the House and get signed by President Donald Trump before the government can reopen. Speaker Mike Johnson has advised his members the House could vote on the package as soon as Wednesday.

But Senate passage puts the federal funding lapse on track to be over by the end of the week. Trump is expected to lean on any potential House GOP holdouts, and a cadre of moderate House Democrats could support the plan in a break with party leaders, who are still smarting over the failure to secure an extension of expiring Obamacare tax credits.

Eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted to pass the deal, the same configuration of lawmakers who voted to advance the package the night before.

The package includes a three-bill “minibus” that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress for all of the current fiscal year — the product of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations between top appropriators. All other agencies would be funded through Jan. 30.

The shutdown-ending agreement brokered in the Senate guarantees that federal employees laid off during the shutdown are rehired and gives federal employees back pay. It would require agencies to give written notice to Congress about the withdrawal of the layoff notices issued during the funding lapse, plus details on the amount of back pay owed.

It also would prevent some future firings with a blanket prohibition on reductions in force in any department or agency at least until the Jan. 30 end date of the continuing resolution. Democrats will also get a vote by mid-December on a bill to extend the enhanced ACA subsidies that are set to sunset at the end of the year.

Negotiators for the Senate Democratic Caucus — led by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Angus King of Maine — said the ability to vote on the subsidies constituted a major win. Negotiators made the case privately to their colleagues that the framework agreement was the best offer they were going to get from the GOP, who did not budge during the private talks on their refusal to get an ACA deal while the government was shuttered.

But Democrats in both chambers, including members of leadership, questioned why they would support an agreement when Republicans didn’t come to the table on their one key demand — negotiating on the Obamacare credits.

Some House progressives and outside groups were seething Monday and searching for someone to blame, with some calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to resign from his leadership position even though he, too, voted against the deal.

“Republicans have refused to move an inch, so I cannot support the Republican bill that’s on the floor because it fails to do anything of substance to fix America’s health care crisis,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday, adding that the 41-day shutdown has “exposed the depths of Donald Trump’s cruelty.”

Despite opposition to the funding package from most Democrats and Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, lawmakers ultimately declined to slow-walk the process, choosing instead to vote on the bill early Monday evening so they could leave town for a weeklong recess the next day.

Thune also appealed to his colleagues not to further delay the shutdown pain, which has led to thousands of flight delays and cancellations and an ongoing legal battle over the disbursement of critical federal food aid.

“I would encourage every member of this body, Democrat or Republican, pro-bill or anti-bill, not to stand in the way of being able to deliver the relief quickly. ….Let’s not pointlessly drag this bill out,” Thune said ahead of the vote.

In exchange for speedier passage of the spending package, Republican leaders gave Paul a vote on an amendment that would strike legislative language cracking down on intoxicating hemp products. His proposal to essentially preserve the status quo was defeated 76-24

Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Senate Republicans secured a provision in the bipartisan, shutdown-ending government funding package that could award senators hundreds of thousands of dollars for having their phone records collected without their knowledge as part of a Biden-era investigation.

That legislative language came directly from Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

In an interview Monday evening, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — who claims he was one of the lawmakers to have his data subpoenaed as part of former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election — said Thune was responsible for the inclusion of provision.

“Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators,” Cruz said.

A person close with direct knowledge of the legislation’s negotiations, granted anonymity to speak candidly, confirmed Thune oversaw the inclusion of the provision. It was tucked into the legislative branch spending measure for fiscal year 2026, part of a three-bill “minibus” of appropriations measures that Senators were set to vote on Monday night alongside a continuing resolution to fund the government through Jan. 30. The House is expected to clear the package for President Donald Trump’s signature as early as Wednesday.

Thune’s involvement is notable as the revelations that Smith collected phone records for several Senate Republicans has emboldened GOP lawmakers, prompting them to deflect Democrats’ accusations of weaponization of the Trump Justice Department and claim that President Joe Biden’s DOJ was looking to target conservatives.

“The abuse of power from the Biden Justice Department is the worst single instance of politicization our country has ever seen,” he continued. “I think it is Joe Biden’s Watergate, and the statutory prohibition needs to have real teeth and real consequences.”

Senate and House Judiciary Committee Republicans are now demanding answers from Smith, with Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa seeking information from the administration relating to the probe and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio calling on Smith to sit for a transcribed interview.

Smith has said he is eager to appear before lawmakers in an open forum.

The provision states that electronic services providers must notify a Senate office if the provider receives a request to disclose the data from that senator, or senator’s office. Moreover, the legislative language stipulates that the provider cannot be barred from notifying the senate office under a court order, though that notification may be delayed in the event the senator in question is under criminal investigation.

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia District Court approved measures that would have precluded phone providers from notifying the senators that their data was requested by federal law enforcement officers. Lawmakers have since renewed calls for his impeachment over the move, viewing him as hostile on a number of fronts to Trump’s agenda.

This portion of the legislative branch appropriations bill also appears to provide a cash bonus for those Senators who were targeted by Smith’s probe. If the provision included in the bill is violated, the Senator can sue the federal government, and if the lawmaker succeeds in the case, the person will be awarded $500,000 or more for each violation by the government.

Cruz said the provision was “very directly” a response to Smith’s actions.

Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch were not consulted on the provision as part of the otherwise bipartisan bill, according to a senior Democratic legislative aide granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Asked whether the funding in the form of a payout for senators was taking money away from other programs across the federal government, Cruz criticized the Justice Department under Biden as “the worst single instance of politicization our country has ever seen.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), an outspoken privacy hawk, argued that the provision’s inclusion in the spending bill was “very troubling,” given the seeming lack of oversight or discussion around its development.

He added that his GOP colleagues appeared to be distancing themselves from the language’s origins, suggesting Thune might be providing cover for rank-and-file Republicans who could have demanded it.

“It seems that there’s quite an effort on the other side, people saying that they don’t know anything about it,” he said. “Which ought to be a wakeup call to everybody about the possibility of abuse.”

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.