House Democrats and progressive activists are fuming over the deal a handful of breakaway Senate Democrats brokered with Republicans to end the government shutdown, The Independent has learned.
Eight Democratic senators defected from the caucus on a motion to proceed to pass a continuing resolution to kick it back to the House of Representatives for a vote to reopen the government. The final vote will happen on Monday evening.
According to a section-by-section breakdown of the agreement, the deal brokered by a handful of moderates and Senate Republicans would reopen the government until January 2026, ensure backpay for federal workers who did not receive a check and undo the reductions in force that the Trump administration put in place during the shutdown.
But it would not address a key plank for Democratic leaders who have opposed a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution — an extension of Covid-era enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace.
“We’re three weeks out from the largest protest in American history, less than one week out from a stunningly successful election nationwide,” Greenberg told The Independent via text message, making reference to the “No Kings” rallies across the country.
“What on Earth does the base have to do to convince Dems they need to fight?”
The deal brokered Sunday night reportedly guarantees that Republicans would allow for a vote on extending the Obamacare tax credits in the future. Still, that does not mean that the House of Representatives, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, would be guaranteed to hold a vote, given many of his Republican members, swayed by President Donald Trump, have opposed the tax credits.
But many Democratic activists repudiated the deal almost immediately. Leah Greenberg, a cofounder of the group Indivisible, called it a “senseless surrender.”
The agreement comes less than a week after Democrats blew out Republicans in races as small as the Georgia public service commission elections to the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey.
But in the days that followed, photos and videos abounded of people stuck at airports during travel as the Federal Aviation Administration cut flight schedules ahead of the busiest days of travel in the year for Thanksgiving.
In addition, the Trump administration has aggressively fought efforts in court to make it resume funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
But even some members of the Democratic National Committee lambasted the agreement Sunday.
“This ‘deal’ doesn’t come close to meeting the seriousness of this moment. I mean, it’s not even in the same Zip code,” DNC Vice Chairman Malcolm Kenyatta told The Independent.
“Healthcare costs are exploding in ways that will make it completely out of reach for many of my neighbors. I have a job to speak up with and for them. This shutdown has always been the sole property of Donald Trump and Republicans. They should own the pain they are gleefully inflicting on the American people.”
A group of three former governors — New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine — broke the six-week stalemate on Sunday when they agreed to vote to advance three bipartisan annual spending bills and extend the rest of government funding until late January in exchange for a mid-December vote on extending the health care tax credits.
In addition to Shaheen, King and Hassan, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, home to tens of thousands of federal workers, also voted in favor of moving forward on the agreement. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen also voted yes.
But despite Durbin voting for the agreement, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker blasted the agreement.
“This is not a deal — it's an empty promise,” Pritzker, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, said on X. “Trump and his Republican Congress are making healthcare more expensive for the middle class and ending it for working families.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, another candidate for president, also criticized the measure.
“Pathetic.,” he said on X. “This isn’t a deal. It’s a surrender. Don’t bend the knee!”
Their words proved useless as the measure opassed by a 60-40 vote.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lambasted the agreement on the floor on Sunday evening and said the ability to have a vote on health care was a sham.
“As everybody here knows, that is a totally meaningless gesture,” he said. You can get 100 votes here in the Senate, won't mean anything, because the House is not going to take it up, and the president of the United States certainly will not sign it.”
Avast majority of Democratic senators opposed the agreement. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized it after he spent most of the shutdown holding the line. Democrats harshly criticized him in March after he voted for a Republican continuing resolution and his approval ratings in New York plummeted.
“So, in conclusion, the contrast between the two parties is clear: Republicans are the party hell-bent on taking people’s healthcare away, all to bow to the billionaire elite and special interests. Democrats are united as the party of lower healthcare costs and improving our healthcare system,” Schumer said.
But House Democrats were not as generous.
“If people believe this is a ‘deal,’ I have a bridge to sell you,” Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee that handles SNAP, tweeted. “I’m not going to put 24 million Americans at risk of losing their health care. I’m a no.”
Other moderates like Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) also criticized the agreement.
“That’s not a deal,” he said. “It’s an unconditional surrender that abandons the 24 million Americans whose health care premiums are about to double.”
It wasn’t just Torres. Some of the most steadfast Democratic activists and fundraisers criticized the agreement. Others said that Democrats were not level with their voters about what could happen during the government shutdown.
“There were always only two options: Democrats cave or Republicans nuke the filibuster,” Shannon Watts, who founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, texted The Independent. Watts faulted Schumer for not being transparent with activists about what would happen.
“If Schumer were better at messaging and organizing we would have all understood this going into today,” she said. “Instead of being angry at our own party, we’d be going to war with Republicans and preparing to hold them accountable over the next year. It’s exhausting.”
Watts criticized the lack of communication with activists and voters. She said how Republicans had resorted to talking about health savings accounts while Democrats were talking about ending the shutdown when nobody understood why.
“The days of leaders going into back rooms and hammering out deals without explaining their strategy with the public is over, but our leaders don’t realize that yet,” she said.
But the biggest obstacle to voting on the health care subsidies remains the House of Representatives. Johnson so far has kept the House out of session since September largely pushing for the Senate to pass the continuing resolution it passed that month.
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