The capitulation by a handful of moderate Senate Democrats, including Nevada’s two senators, to end the government shutdown came days after Nevada resort and tourism officials sided with the White House position on reopening the government.
Nevada’s Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who had been voting with Republicans from the start, and Sen. Jacky Rosen joined Republicans to approve a package Monday that restores pay and protections for federal workers harmed during the shutdown, but doesn’t deliver on the extension of the health care tax credits Democrats had been holding out for.
Rosen had held out since Oct. 1 for a commitment from Republicans to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, but received no such assurances in the end.
Throughout the shutdown, Republicans said they would negotiate on ACA premiums only if Democrats surrendered and voted for the Republican spending resolution bill.
Last month, noting the control President Donald Trump has exhibited over congressional Republicans, Rosen said taking Trump and Republicans at their word when “they violated that trust every single time, it’s a little naive on our part.”
What’s changed, according to a statement from Rosen this week, is Republicans “weaponizing their power in alarming ways to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on working people, like fully withholding SNAP benefits and gutting our tourism industry by grinding air travel to a halt.”
Rosen’s capitulation comes days after outreach from the tourism industry to congressional and White House leaders.
With Thanksgiving approaching, “the consequences of a continued shutdown will be immediate, deeply felt by millions of American travelers and economically devastating to communities in every state,” the U.S. Travel Association, representing hundreds of travel-related companies, including Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, MGM Resorts International and the Venetian Casino Resort, wrote to congressional leaders last week.
“We urge Congress to immediately pass a clean continuing resolution to reopen the federal government,” the letter said, echoing the position, and the language, reiterated by the Trump administration and Republican congressional leaders throughout the shutdown.
The LVCVA “informed Senator Rosen that we planned to sign U.S. Travel’s letter to congressional leaders, which was issued last week, and shared its general content with her in advance,” says Vice President of Public Relations and Communications Molly Castano.
Castano, in an email to the Nevada Current, noted the approach of “peak travel season,” including the Formula 1 race, National Finals Rodeo and New Year’s Eve. “Maintaining stable staffing levels for TSA, FAA and CBP (Customs and Border Enforcement) is essential to ensuring the smooth flow of holiday travel and major events that drive our economy.”
“No other state in the country is as dependent on the travel and tourism industry as Nevada,” the LVCVA, the Las Vegas Chamber and the Nevada Resort Association wrote in a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Travel Sean Duffy, adding they share Duffy’s “commitment to ensuring safe and reliable air travel and stand ready to collaborate with you to find balanced, practical solutions. However, we respectfully urge that our nation’s air service continue without reductions. Any reduction in service will reverberate far beyond Nevada — threatening jobs, small businesses and economic activity nationwide.”
The letter, dated Nov. 7, was copied to all of Nevada’s congressional delegates.
American Airlines, a major carrier at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, expressed gratitude in a news release to Cortez Masto and Rosen “for their leadership.”
The airline noted “for 40 days, federal aviation workers haven’t been paid, and our customers have endured thousands of delays and cancellations due to the government shutdown. It’s imperative that we get the hardworking aviation safety and security professionals paid, and that we get the country moving again.”
In statements, Cortez Masto and Rosen framed their decision as a pragmatic step to end the 40-day government shutdown while securing a promise from Republicans that they will take up a vote on extending the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits.
Republicans have refused to negotiate extensions to health insurance premium subsidies for people insured through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) until the government is reopened. Nevadans who get insurance through Nevada Health Link are facing a projected average 26% premium rate hike, though the increases could be far greater for many Nevadans.
Republicans say they will hold the promised vote to extend health care tax credits by mid-December. Passage of the extension is highly unlikely, but the Democrats making the deal with Republicans argue it will once again put Senate Republicans on the record on extending ACA tax credits.
Lee and Horsford mum
The bill still needs approval from the Republican-controlled House and the signature of the president before the shutdown ends. Trump has indicated he’ll sign it.
Many House Democrats, including Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, slammed the deal. Titus said she would “oppose the continuing resolution again for the same reasons I did earlier.”
“Senate passage of the continuing resolution without extending Affordable Care Act premium subsidies means thousands of Nevadans will lose their health insurance because they won’t be able to afford it,” Titus said.
“We have endured weeks of pain from a government shutdown — including cutting off SNAP benefits and not paying federal workers — for nothing. Nevadans will see their health insurance premiums double or triple, leaving many with no choice but to drop their coverage,” she continued.
Nevada Democratic Reps. Steven Horsford and Susie Lee did not respond to questions on how they plan to vote once the bill gets to the House.
Some progressive organizations in Nevada were more forthcoming.
Make the Road Nevada said they were “deeply disappointed in Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen for supporting the continuing resolution that fails to meet the real needs of working families.”
“This agreement does nothing to resolve the ongoing attacks on the Affordable Care Act,” said Jen Fleischmann Willoughby, director of development at Make The Road Nevada. “Our communities deserve lasting protections, not short-term compromises.”
Shelbie Swartz, the executive director of Battle Born Progress, also criticized the decision by Cortez Masto and Rosen to join Republicans in reopening “the government without a concrete fix for expiring ACA premium subsidies.”
Swartz added that the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — which provides food assistance for 500,000 Nevadans — put Nevada’s “senators into a difficult position.”
“We cannot allow the Trump administration to pit SNAP recipients against families who need affordable health coverage — Nevadans deserve both,” Swartz said. “ACA premiums are increasing in real time, and without the subsidy extension, many Nevadans will lose coverage altogether.”
Republicans say they will hold the vote to extend health care tax credits by mid-December. Passage of the extension is doubtful at most, but the Democrats making the deal with Republicans argue it will at least put Senate Republicans on the record.
The final version of the deal would extend government funding through January 2026.
The bill still needs approval from the House and the signature of the president before the shutdown ends.
In addition to reinstating all federal employees dismissed and furloughed during the shutdown, the bill also prohibits further layoffs through the end of January, when the continuing spending resolution would expire.
The length of the shutdown has had significant economic impacts on federal workers and industries that rely on those federal workers. In Nevada, nearly 14,000 federal workers have gone without a paycheck since the government shutdown.
“Most Americans wouldn’t continue showing up to work for 41 days without a paycheck, and we’re deeply grateful to those who did,” said Nevada State AFL-CIO’s executive secretary-treasurer Susie Martinez.
Martinez said she was “relieved to see movement toward reopening the government.” Referring to federal workers who have not been getting paid Martinez said she is also “encouraged that this legislative package includes critical support that help working people afford food and health care.”
“That said, this shutdown should have never happened. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees, contractors and those in the industries that depend on them have been forced to go weeks without pay or face job insecurity because of political brinkmanship. In Nevada that means families struggling to pay rent, feed their children and keep up with the rising costs of living,” Martinez said.
