Copyright Anchorage Daily News
Alaska’s two U.S. senators voted Sunday in favor of a bill that could pave the way to ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The shutdown, which as of Monday was in its 41st day, stemmed from a stalemate along party lives over Senate Democrats’ central demand — the extension of health care subsidies used by millions of Americans, including thousands of Alaskans. Without the subsidies, known as Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, the cost of insurance plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act could become unaffordable to many. Most Republicans said they wanted to first fund the government and then debate the subsidies, but Democrats said that without the leverage created by the shutdown, a deal on the subsidies was unlikely. The subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year without action from Congress. But on Sunday, eight members of the Democratic Senate minority — responding to fallout from the shutdown — joined Republicans in voting to advance a bill that would fund the government through the end of January without guaranteeing an extension of the subsidies. The bill includes an agreement to hold a vote on a Democratic proposal to extend health care tax credits by mid-December. The bill must still be voted on by the full Senate and House, and signed by President Donald Trump, a process that could take several days. The impacts of the shutdown have been felt acutely in Alaska, with thousands of federal employees going without pay, tens of thousands of Alaskans facing uncertainty in receiving food benefits, and the threat of flight delays and cancellations reaching Alaska’s busiest airport. [Speaker Johnson says House members will return to D.C. for voting on shutdown deal] U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski had been one of the few Senate Republicans who openly called for a deal to end the shutdown to include extension of enhanced premium tax credits, along with restoring funding to public radio stations that had been rescinded by Republicans earlier in the year. The deal she voted for on Sunday includes neither, but it does include a promise to back-pay furloughed federal workers, as required by law, and temporarily halt Trump’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. In a statement, she acknowledged that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, had agreed to vote on a Democratic proposal to extend the tax credits by the end of the year, but Murkowski did not say whether she would support that proposal, which has not yet been finalized. Without action from Congress, premiums for some of the roughly 25,000 Alaskans who purchase their health insurance plans through the federal marketplace could increase by thousands of dollars a month, in some cases doubling or tripling. Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who like most of his GOP colleagues blamed Democrats for the shutdown, said in a video posted on social media Sunday night that it had been “the most senseless, unnecessary shutdown I’ve ever seen.” He called the Sunday vote “an important night, a good step forward.” “I’ve been in discussions with my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats across the aisle, for weeks on getting something moving like this,” he said. Asked whether he supports extending the tax credits in an interview with Alaska’s News Source last week, Sullivan said the subsidies were a failed policy that had caused Alaskans’ health care costs to go up. But he said he is “working very diligently on reforms and extensions.” Alaska’s lone U.S. House Rep. Nick Begich had not commented as of Monday on the bill to reopen the government, nor on whether he supports extending the health care subsidies.
