LIVE UPDATES
Government shutdown updates: Senate vote marks step towards ending federal shutdown
The bill advanced by a vote of 60-40.
President Donald Trump on Sunday offered a bit more insight into his proposal that Obamacare subsidies should go directly to Americans' Health Savings Accounts to pay for health care rather than sending funds to insurance companies through the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, the Senate voted Sunday night on a test vote that would fund the government through Jan. 31 and end the 40-day government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history. Enough Democrats voted to pass the bill.
And the Department of Agriculture in a late Saturday night memo ordered states to reverse any steps they've taken to issue SNAP benefits and threatened to impose financial penalties on states that do not “comply” quickly.
Key Headlines
Thune affirms Dem proposal is 'non-starter,' says short term funding bill is 'only way out'
In remarks on the Senate floor on Saturday, Majority Leader John Thune called the Democratic proposal presented by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a "non-starter.”
The plan, which Schumer outlined on the Senate floor on Friday, would have seen Democrats approving a short-term extension of government funding if Republicans agreed to include a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
"The Democrat leader's proposal is a non-starter for the Republican majority,” Thune said. “The Democrat leader wants to believe that this is a quote simple proposal. That it is some sort of compromise. But it is not. He is talking about throwing tens of billions more tax payer dollars at a program that even democrats admit has failed to lower health care costs.”
Republicans have consistently said they want to make reforms to Obamacare. They've also said they're unwilling to negotiate on the ACA until the government is reopened.
"Republicans are not about to further burden taxpayers by blindly extending a flawed program,” Thune said. “The Democrat's proposal is just more of the same: Masking rising premiums and padding insurance companies’ profits with more taxpayer dollars.”
However, Thune did say that the proposal presented by Schumer on Friday suggests that Democrats may be ready to engage on reopening the government.
Thune continued to assert that passing the clean short term funding bill remains the "only way out" of the shutdown.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
Thune says discussion on ACA funds won't happen until after government reopens
After President Donald Trump suggested that the Senate should redirect Affordable Care Act funds away from insurance companies and "directly to the people,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune dodged giving any specific indication on how this would happen, but said it’s a conversation that the Senate would like to engage in only after the government is reopened.
"I think what's clear -- which is what's been clear all along -- that it is not going to be part of reopening the government,” Thune said. “It is a discussion that the president and all of us want to have. And I think he is now focused in on it and wants to have a solution to the healthcare crisis in this country, which is skyrocketing premiums. And so, you know, but that's got to -- that'll happen after the government reopens.”
Thune has repeatedly insisted that Senate Republicans would not negotiate on healthcare until the government is funded.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
Trump says ACA funds should be sent 'directly' to Americans
President Donald Trump said Saturday that senators should redirect Affordable Care Act funds away from insurance companies and suggested the money instad be sent “directly to the people.”
Trump claimed people could purchase their own “much better healthcare” and have money “left over” if funds weren’t allocated to “money sucking Insurance Companies” through the ACA.
“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It’s unclear how senators would implement this directive.
Separately, Trump has continued to urge Senate Republicans to terminate the filibuster. The Senate will be in session on Saturday.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
South Africa reacts after Trump claims no US official is going to G20 Summit
President Donald Trump said no U.S. government official will attend the G20 Summit in South Africa later this month. In a post on Truth Social, the president continued to amplify false claims that there are racially motivated mass killings against white Afrikaners in the region.
The South African Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said in response, “The characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution, is not substantiated by fact. … Drawing on our own journey from racial and ethnic division to democracy, our nation is uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity, where shared prosperity bridges deep inequalities.”
The G20 summit in Johannesburg will take place on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23.