Democrats have called for changes to health care funding in exchange for backing a measure to prevent a Sept. 30 government shutdown.
Democratic leaders in Congress, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Saturday requested a meeting with President Donald Trump as the threat of a government shutdown looms.
“We write to demand a meeting in connection with your decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the healthcare of the American people,” the two New York Democrats wrote in a message to the White House.
They said that Democrats “have been clear and consistent in our position.”
“We are ready to work toward a bipartisan spending agreement that improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”
Democrats want modifications to federal health care laws in exchange for their backing to pass a stopgap funding bill preventing a government shutdown. The government is currently set to enter a shutdown after midnight on Sept. 30, unless Congress can pass legislation to keep the government funded.
The bill to avert a shutdown could rely on Democratic support to pass the House, and will certainly require such support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.
However, Democrats have indicated that they won’t give this backing unless Republicans agree to modify the health care sections of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut nearly a trillion dollars in Medicaid spending.
Republican backers of the bill say that these cuts solely targeted waste, fraud, and abuse. The legislation’s critics have pointed to Congressional Budget Office estimates that more than 10 million Americans will lose coverage under the bill and highlights the potential impacts the plan could have on small rural hospitals.
In exchange for their backing of a resolution to keep the government open, Democrats have demanded an extension in subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans who purchased health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. The proposal would also reverse Medicaid cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
By Joseph Lord
