Senators

Miner fight stalls as shutdown looms

by Jordain Carney - 12/08/16 12:28 PM ET

A stalled fight over health benefits for coal miners is threatening to push a government spending bill past Friday night’s deadline to avoid a shutdown.

{mosads}Democrats are demanding the continuing resolution (CR) includes one year in health benefits for thousands of miners and their families. The current proposal includes a four-month extension.

Unless lawmakers can reach a deal or Democrats—led by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—cave, the earliest they’ll be able to take an initial procedural vote is Saturday, meaning the government will shut down unless without a stopgap measure.

If lawmakers don’t pass legislation by the end of the year, thousands of coal miners and their families will lose healthcare. A separate pension is also headed toward insolvency, though both parties have acknowledged they will have to save that fight until next year.

“Everybody in the caucus is insisting,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters when asked if he and Manchin had support of the caucus to delay the CR.

He added that leaving before getting a long-term fix on healthcare is “morally reprehensible.”

The House passed the CR on Thursday, sending it to the Senate.

Democrats repeatedly stopped short of saying they would block the CR, stressing they were still working to find a solution.

“What everybody is hoping is that we’ll find a longer-term solution for women who have lost their husbands,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) told reporters after a meeting with Minority Leader Harry Reid’s office. “We hope we’ll be able to get relief and be able to deliver a Christmas present to the most sympathetic working people in America.”

Asked if she thought a fix would need to happen next year or they could still try to get a provision in the CR, Heitkamp called the talk “premature.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) added, separately, that Democrats were waiting to see how the fight “unfolds” but “hadn’t made a final decision.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, signaled on Thursday that the Senate is heading for a rare weekend session as they try to wrap up their work for the year.

“Yeah, we’re going to be here,” Cornyn said when asked if Manchin should cancel his Friday meeting at Trump Tower. “And there’s some rumor we’re going to be taking the weekend off, ain’t going to happen. We’re going to grind it out.”

But he called the need to pass a days-long short-term funding patch a “worst case” scenario.

Cornyn countered on Thursday that Democrats should be “grateful” for the four-month extension and warned that Manchin’s hardline made it less likely lawmakers would work with him next year.

“By sort of making everybody mad, and keeping everybody here a long time, it doesn’t strike me as a way to get a lot of cooperation,” he said.

Manchin indicated as he was heading into Reid’s office that their strategy was still in flux, but that he would cancel his meeting with President-Elect Donald Trump if lawmakers were still in session.

Dem leadership indicated earlier this week that much of the caucus was united behind Manchin, though Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined to answer questions on Thursday.

Manchin indicated on Wednesday night that it wasn’t Senate Republicans, but their counterparts in the House, that were blocking a longer solution.

But Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that he agrees with Manchin’s efforts on healthcare but “we can’t let the government shut down.”

A Senate GOP aide added Thursday that the Appropriations Committee remained firm on the bill’s current language for the miner program.

With less 36 hours until the government funding deadline, senators posted the finger of which party would be to blame for a shutdown.

Cornyn (R-Texas) said Democrats would be seen as responsible if “truth and justice” prevailed.

But Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters “if Republicans want to shut it down, they will. They run the thing.”

“We are all very committed that we need to find healthcare for miners and widows for a year,” he said.

But asked if he was voting against cloture, Kaine shot back: “I didn’t say that.”

-Sarah Ferris contributed

– Updated at 3:15 p.m.