Government shutdown continues as Senate fails to advance GOP bill and Democrat gives 22-hour speech

The Senate vote on advancing the continuing resolution to end the shutdown failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to succeed for a 12th time. 

The final vote was 54-46. Three Democrats voted in favor of the GOP-backed bill, echoing every vote since the shutdown began.

Following Merkley's marathon address, the Senate has begun the 12th procedural vote on advancing the Republican continuing resolution to extend government funding until Nov. 21 and end the shutdown. Sixty votes are needed for the bill to move forward.

Senate Republicans have not been able to attract any more Democrats to vote to advance the bill since the shutdown began, and there were no indications on Wednesday that the outcome will be different this time.

Merkley wrapped up his marathon speech after 22 hours and 37 minutes, concluding his remarks at 4:58 p.m.

"I've been on the Senate floor to ring the alarm bells for a long time," Merkley said as he began wrapping up, with about half of his Democratic colleagues looking on in the chamber.

He thanked members of his staff and the Capitol Police and staff who stayed to continue the chamber's operations, and colleagues who engaged with him during the speech.

"We are in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the civil war," Merkley said. "President Trump is shredding our Constitution."

He concluded: "I'm proud to be colleagues with all of you in this effort. Thank you very much, and I yield the floor.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso's office says that the Senate will take up the procedural vote on the GOP funding bill at 5:15 p.m. ET, following Merkley's speech.

Merkley said on the floor a few minutes ago that he plans to speak for about another hour.

"I am on the verge of falling over, but I've got an hour more before we're going to wrap up this effort," he told fellow Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont.

The ongoing floor speech by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley has become the fifth-longest Senate floor speech since 1900, according to figures from the Senate Press Gallery, surpassing an address by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in 2013 that lasted 21 hours and 19 minutes.

The next-longest speech was by Sen. Wayne Morse in 1953, which, at 22 hours 26 minutes, is the longest speech by a senator from Oregon on record. Merkley will surpass that mark if he holds the floor until 4:47 p.m. ET.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer chimed in during Sen. Jeff Merkley's ongoing speech to ask an extended question of the Oregon Democrat on the Senate floor. Schumer railed against President Trump for refusing to negotiate on the ongoing shutdown and health care issues.

Schumer accused the president of "spending all his time on eroding democracy, taking away our rights."

"The people expect him not to go on a foreign trip, this president who fancies himself a king," Schumer said, referring to the president's upcoming trip to Asia. "But instead, to do the people's business and help us, sit down with us, negotiate a way out of this health care crisis."

The New York Democrat outlined how he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries requested a meeting with the president to negotiate on the health insurance tax credits that are a top priority for the  party.

"Jeffries and I asked him yesterday, we demanded really, he sit down and talk to us, and negotiate — not just talk to us — negotiate a serious approach to avoid all the devastating things that will occur," Schumer said. "And he said four hours later, after conferring with Thune and Johnson, no, he wouldn't. Well, that is a disgrace."

Schumer said Mr. Trump "is the focal point of this health care crisis," House Speaker Mike Johnson "is paralyzed because of the divisions in his caucus" and Senate Majority Leader John Thune "just goes along."

"President Trump is the person who could get Republicans to pass a decent proposal," Schumer said. 

At his daily press conference, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York was asked about President Trump's refusal to meet with him and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to kickstart negotiations aimed at extending health care subsidies and ending the shutdown. He said Mr. Trump has spent "more time on the golf course than he has in talking to Democrats on Capitol Hill to reopen the government."

"His behavior — unpresidential, unhinged, unpatriotic, unAmerican, throughout this process — speaks for itself, and makes clear that Republicans shut the government down and have had zero interest in opening it up," Jeffries told reporters.

On Tuesday, Schumer said that he and Jeffries "reached out to the president today and urged him to sit down and negotiate with us to resolve the health care crisis, address it, and end the Trump shutdown."

The president said he would meet with the Democratic leaders, but only after Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government. House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated that position in a post on X: "Leader Thune and I visited with President Trump this afternoon and he confirmed he is ready and willing for the three of us to meet with Leader Jeffries and Senator Schumer as soon as Schumer reopens the government."

The Senate can't hold a vote on advancing the continuing resolution — or anything else, for that matter — until Sen. Jeff Merkley ends his marathon floor speech, which has now surpassed the 18-hour mark. 

Exactly when Merkley will wrap up remains to be seen. His office said earlier in the morning that he "plans to go as long as he is able to bring attention to how Trump is ripping up the Constitution and eroding our democratic institutions."

House Democratic leaders and members of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee are holding a meeting to highlight the effects of the government shutdown Wednesday morning, criticizing House Republicans for remaining away from Washington as the funding lapse enters a fourth week. 

"Today's Day 22 of the Trump-Republican shutdown of the federal government, and all across the country, every day Americans are hurting," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in opening remarks.

The lawmakers are hearing testimony from federal employees.

GOP Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, spoke at Johnson's press conference to highlight the impact of the shutdown on national parks and public lands. 

Most national parks have stayed open during the shutdown, albeit with reduced staffing and services. But Westerman said that could change if the funding lapse continues. 

"This can't continue indefinitely. Despite all the extraordinary efforts being made, at some point, without funding, the public lands will not be accessible to the public," Westerman said. "The longer this unnecessary shutdown lasts, the more negative consequences it will start to [have]. Without regular staffing, litter will pile up, and park ecosystems will be affected."

GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, the chairman of the subcommittee that oversees appropriations for the Interior Department, noted that families who have vacations planned are canceling their trips due to the shutdown.

"It's a great time to visit our national parks. But we have families who have been planning to visit our national parks, for years sometimes, putting aside the resources, that are now canceling their visits to our national parks because of this shutdown and the impact that it could potentially have on their vacations," said Simpson. "Unfortunately that's very damaging."

Both lawmakers praised the Trump administration for trying to keep the accessible areas of the parks open, in contrast to the shutdown of 2013, when the Obama administration closed parks.

At his daily press conference at the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged that the shutdown is now the second-longest in U.S. history, and laid the blame for it at the feet of the Democrats.

"While it's already been, as we noted yesterday, the longest full government shutdown in history, Oct. 22 marks another landmark. This is now the second-longest government shutdown of any kind ever, in the history of our country," Johnson said. "And it's just shameful. Democrats keep making history, but they're doing it for all the wrong reasons."

Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, is speaking on the Senate floor in protest of President Trump's policies. He began speaking at 6:21 p.m. on Tuesday evening and has carried on speaking through the night. 

You can watch a live stream of Merkley's speech in the player at the top of this page.

Read more here.

A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to approve funding for federal agencies. Before 1980, agencies largely continued operating during a lapse in funding with the assumption that Congress would act quickly. But in 1980 and 1981, then-Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti authored a series of legal opinions that found government agencies didn't have the authority to continue running during a gap in funding.

President Ronald Reagan oversaw eight shutdowns during his time in office, the longest of which lasted three days. There were three funding gaps between 1990 and 1995, then none until 2013.

The longest shutdown occurred from late 2018 into early 2019, which stretched on for 35 days. The 1995 shutdown lasted 21 days, which the current shutdown has now eclipsed.

Read more about the history of shutdowns here.

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a House-passed measure to fund the government until Nov. 21. 

The vote marks the twelfth attempt to advance the measure in the upper chamber. It last fell short of the 60 votes needed on Monday, winning no new support from Democrats despite the suggestion from GOP leaders that they may find more support from across the aisle after the weekend's "No Kings" protests. 

All but one Republican have consistently supported the measure, along with two Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats, meaning support from five more Democrats is needed to clear the hurdle. The bill has failed to gain any new votes from across the aisle since the shutdown began.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at a lunch meeting at the White House Tuesday that the Senate would vote again Wednesday on the House-passed measure, saying Republicans are unified on the effort to reopen the government with the bill.

"We're hopeful that this will be the week when we break out of this, and the Democrats come to their senses and decide to open up the government," he said.