Earlier on Friday, Senate Democrats voted down a motion to invoke cloture on a piece of legislation that was introduced by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), which would have paid federal workers and members of the military as the Schumer Shutdown slouches on through its 37th day. The motion fell by a tally of 53-43, with three Dems crossing the aisle to vote aye in a losing bid to invoke cloture and call it up for a final vote on the measure:
Those bipartisan votes came from Sens. Ben Ray Luján (NM), Jon Ossoff, and Raphael Warnock (the latter two of GA).
Indeed, as we wrote earlier, there seemed on Friday morning to be a "thaw" in the Congressional Cold War in the air.
We've seen a little of everything today, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) offering a deal — which Republicans were quick to reject — that would reopen the government and guarantee an extension of Obamacare subsidies for a year. One of the Republicans who roundly ridiculed that deal was Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), and he had two bills to offer of his own; these would withhold the paychecks of Congress members and senators during the Schumer Shutdown, as my colleague Katie Jerkovich wrote.
What happens next? On the Senate voting to reopen the government, Punchbowl News' Samantha Handler wrote that here's what came straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (SD), via the reporter's X account:
THUNE says it “remains to be seen” if something comes together for the Senate to vote on tomorrow.
Says “fingers crossed” on whether there’s any update on minibus negotiations.
Sen. Thune has now adjourned the upper chamber until tomorrow. But check out what Thune has in store for Democrats on Saturday, according to HuffPost writer Igor Bobic:
In case you can't see the post, Bobic wrote, "Thune just adjourned the Senate till tomorrow, with no votes scheduled. He placed on the calendar a bill to rescind unused COVID funding."
Now, that is a surprise, right? To call the concept of the government clawing back otherwise wasted COVID funds from states intriguing is an understatement. Let's see where the Republican caucus and Thune are going with this move. It could be fun, readers. As this is a developing story, RedState will provide updates as warranted.
UPDATE [9:33 PM Eastern]: This is just too wonderful to leave out, readers — a brief clip of Leader Thune making it official. Let the Democrats' ongoing kabuki theater continue to rage into the weekend: