Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will speak Friday afternoon on the Senate floor about a proposal to end the shutdown.
Democrats have been strident in their efforts to return Affordable Care Act subsidies to those who have received them for years, but Republicans have refused. Senate Republicans have been more willing to support restoring those subsidies, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and many other Republican members refuse to support the plan.
Thus far, senators have agreed only to allow a vote on restoring the subsidies, not to support the passage of a bill. Democrats have opposed Republican promises because there's no assurance they'll abide by the deal once they get what they want.
For the first time, the country did not deliver Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, food benefits to those who receive them, making life even more expensive for families that need the help.
The recently passed "big beautiful bill" made "structural changes to SNAP that we find will result in the program being substantially and detrimentally less responsive to deteriorating or poor economic conditions," the Brookings Institute wrote in an analysis. "Unless OBBBA’s SNAP cuts are reversed, those cuts will greatly diminish or end SNAP’s critical role as a national automatic stabilizer."
The American Medical Association explained the GOP law as also making "significant funding cuts and policy changes to Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplaces, Medicare physician payment and medical student loans, among other health care related items, all of which will worsen patient access to care."