GOP attempts to squeeze Democrats with vote to pay ‘essential workers,’ including troops and TSA agents

By Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — Senate GOP leaders are again shaking up their strategy as they look for more ways to pressure Democrats to end a three-week stalemate over government funding — this time, with a vote that would keep paychecks flowing to “essential” workers.

Democrats, however, are expected to widely reject the measure, leaving Congress no closer to resolving what is now the second longest government shutdown in history.

The Senate will vote Thursday on a bill that would require the government to pay workers deemed essential and required to work during the lapse — including those in the US military, border patrol and Transportation Security Administration — from the Treasury Department’s coffers during a shutdown. That vote comes a day before millions of federal workers miss their first full paycheck, and is intended to cause maximum political pain for Democrats on day 23 of the political standoff.

But Democrats say they oppose any bill that does not pay all federal workers and will instead propose a countermeasure on Thursday that would ensure furloughed workers, too, would be paid. It’s not clear that the measure will receive a vote, though even if it does, it would fail because it needs 60 votes to advance. The GOP’s measure, too, is likely to fall short of that 60-vote threshold.

“I don’t like the bill because it gives the president the ability to decide who’s essential and who’s not. And what we see is he is using this in a political and punitive way,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, who represents a large contingent of federal workers living in Virginia. “‘We’re going to cancel Democratic programs. We’re going to send troops to Democratic cities.’ He would use this discretionary power to punish some and reward others.”

“We want to pay all federal workers,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN this week. Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, a former civilian advisor at the State Department, said he also has “deep concerns” about the bill.

“I used to be a civil servant. I care a lot about them, but you can’t just choose a few, and not everybody, especially if Trump is making the decision,” Kim said. “They all deserve paychecks.”

GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have fiercely pushed back against the Democratic effort to also include furloughed federal workers, who are not currently receiving paychecks, but will get back pay after the shutdown ends.

“If they’re open for paying all federal workers, then why don’t they just reopen the government?” GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin asked of Democrats this week, arguing that his colleagues could guarantee pay for all federal employees if they would vote for the GOP stopgap bill to fund the government through November 21.

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, however, warned that finding a way to continue to pay federal workers amid the Capitol Hill impasse would take the “pressure” off of lawmakers to negotiate a way out.

Asked by CNN about Democrats’ desire for a bill to keep paychecks flowing to all federal workers, including those who have been furloughed, instead of making them wait to receive back pay, Tuberville responded, “Well, it’s called a shutdown. I mean, you start paying everybody then no pressure on anybody from either side.”

Congress, he said, should leave the issue “as it is,” adding that military and law enforcement should be paid amid the shutdown, and “everybody else, shut it off.”

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he hadn’t had recent conversations with Democrats on their position on his bill, which he drafted along with Sen. Todd Young of Indiana.

“We’ll see what they’re going to do. I mean, they ought to just open up the government,” Johnson said. If they oppose it, he said, “hopefully voters will hold them accountable.”

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