1 of 7 | Vice President JD Vance accused Senate Democrats of holding the federal government hostage and forcing a shutdown during a press briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
Senate Republicans seek the support of five more Senate Democrats to join with three others who voted to approve a clean continuing resolution to fund the federal government.
Vice President JD Vance, who also is the Senate president, fielded questions during the White House press conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.
He commended Democratic Party Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King, I-Maine, for voting to approve the continuing resolution that the House already had approved to fund the government for another seven weeks while negotiating a 2026 fiscal year budget.
If President Donald Trump and Vance can get five more Senate Democrats to vote in favor of the continuing resolution that extends the same measure that won Senate approval six months ago, they can reopen the government.
Vance blamed the “Chuck Schumer and AOC wing” of the Democratic Party for refusing keep the government open for seven more weeks and negotiate health-care issues.
Once the federal government is open, then the GOP can negotiate with congressional Democrats’ health care demands, but not until the government is open, the vice president said.
Vance: Dems holding government hostage
The vice president accused Senate and House Democrats of demanding $1.5 trillion in spending to keep the federal government open for several more weeks to reopen the government.
Their demand includes extending tax credits for health insurance premiums that expired with the fiscal year 2025 budget, which Vance said would include providing health care for “health care for illegal migrants.”
Vance said the Biden administration “waived the magic wand of amnesty” to grant legal status to millions of migrants, which President Trump ended.
The migrants obtained health care coverage through several states, which Vance said were reimbursed for those costs by the federal government, but that has ended.
He said Democrats who voted against keeping the federal government open have presented proposed legislative text that would restore federal funding to pay for health care for ‘illegal migrants.”
“The text is very clear,” Vance told reporters. “They tried to turn on two separate provisions that would give health care benefits to ‘illegal aliens.'”
“We think the American people’s government should benefit Americans,” Vance said. “You don’t shut down the government over disagreements.”
He said Republicans want to provide access to better healthcare services and “are willing to have a conversation about health care policy while the government is open.”
“We’ve got to reopen the government first,” he added.
Schumer, Jeffries call for ‘intervention’
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused the president and congressional Republicans of acting to “plunge the country into a shutdown” in a joint statement on Wednesday.
They said Trump and Republicans have made “life harder and more expensive” over the past several months and shut down the federal government “because they do not want to protect the health care of the American people.”
They said Senate and House Democrats are ready to work on a bipartisan bill to fund and reopen the government “in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican health care crisis.”
“Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged,” the lawmakers said.
“Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos,” they added, while referencing recent posts made on the president’s Truth Social account.
“We need a credible partner,” Schumer and Jeffries said. “The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown.”
Vance: Schumer fears primary challenge
Schumer’s Senate seat is on the ballot in 2026, and Vance on Wednesday suggested the senator is afraid of facing a primary challenge that he might not win.
Schumer, D-N.Y., “is listening to the radical wing of the Democratic Party because he is terrified of a primary challenge” from Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Vance said.
The vice president said Schumer opposes a clean continuing resolution despite supporting the same funding measure six months ago to keep the federal government open for the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year, which ended on Tuesday.
He said several Senate Democrats are willing to negotiate with the GOP to fund the government and estimated the shutdown won’t last more than a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration will “do everything we can to ensure the people can get the essential services that they need” while the federal government is shut down.
Such services include flood insurance, paying the military, keeping air traffic controllers working and ensuring the nation’s poor can get food, according to Vance.
Vance also referenced the president’s announcement on Tuesday that Pfizer officials have agreed to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
He said the GOP is working to lower health care costs while Democrats shut down the federal government over health care for non-citizens who are not legal residents.
