Senate Republicans’ bid to pass a short-term government funding extension was foiled by Senate Democrats as the deadline to fund the government fast approaches.

While the proposal easily glided through the House with little drama, it hit a brick wall in the Senate and failed 44-48. Only one lawmaker, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., crossed the aisle to support the Republican plan. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also voted against the bill.

Their failure to send the House GOP’s continuing resolution (CR) to President Donald Trump’s desk came on the heels of Democrats’ failed attempt to advance their own counter-proposal to the Republicans’ plan.

It also comes as lawmakers gear up to leave Washington, D.C., for a week to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. They’re expected to return with just two working days left before the deadline to fund the government on Sept. 30.

‘The House has acted,’ said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. ‘The president’s ready to sign the bill. We’ve got the appropriations committee and a lot of senators who are ready to go to work to pass bipartisan appropriations bills to fund the government by allowing these additional weeks into November. In order to do that, Democrats have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.’

The CR would have kept the government open until Nov. 21, and it included tens of millions for increased security for lawmakers and the judicial and executive branches.

Senate Democrats have dug in against the GOP’s proposal, not so much because of what’s in the bill, but what’s not in it. They have also hung the possibility of a government shutdown on Trump, who demanded that Republicans cut Democrats out of the process.

Thune charged that if Democrats were ‘serious’ about funding the government, they wouldn’t have ‘put out the most partisan piece of legislation you possibly could.’

‘I mean, it’s kind of mind-boggling,’ he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has also accused Thune of not negotiating with him — a point Thune has pushed back against and noted throughout the week that his office is less than 25 yards from Schumer’s.  

‘We have two weeks. They should sit down and talk to us, and we maybe can get a good proposal,’ Schumer said. ‘Let’s see. But when they don’t talk to us, there’s no hope of getting a good proposal. And that makes no sense.’

‘And again, when Donald Trump says don’t negotiate with Democrats, because he doesn’t know what the Senate is like, or he doesn’t know how to count, because without Democrats, they’re going to end up shutting down the government,’ he continued.

However, the demands Schumer and Democrats laid out in their counter are a bridge too far for Republicans.

Included in the bill were a permanent extension to COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, efforts to repeal the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ and a clawback of canceled NPR and PBS funding.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital that the legislation was a ‘Trojan horse by the Democrats.’

‘It’s to me, it’s a preview of what they’re going to want to do,’ he said.

‘Schumer has to play to the far-left fringe that is actually running the Democrat Party right now,’ Barrasso continued.

Senate Democrats are adamant that the Obamacare credits, in particular, need to be dealt with now rather than near the deadline. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers ‘have to do it now.’

‘All the [insurance rate] notices go out Oct. 1, so you have to have it now,’ Peters said.

However, Republicans argue that including an extension to the tax credits to a short-term extension isn’t germane to the bill, especially one geared toward trying to give Congress time to fund the government with spending bills. And Thune has said that the credits would be ‘addressed’ after a shutdown was averted.

But for now, the issue at hand still boils down to communication between Thune and Schumer.

‘I mean, these are the leaders of the U.S. Senate,’ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. ‘I expect them to step up. And if one’s not actually reaching out, the other one should at least demonstrate that they are — they’re trying to negotiate in good faith. If they don’t, then they get what they get.’ 

Senate Democrats’ counteroffer to congressional Republicans’ short-term government funding extension was torpedoed by the GOP on Friday.

The bill, which varies drastically from the House’s proposal that passed earlier in the day, was filled with Democratic priorities that they say are the only sweeteners that would convince them to keep the government open. But the provisions were a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.  

The Democrats’ bill, which was unveiled late Wednesday night, failed 47-45 along party lines. However, the GOP’s CR will be voted on right after. The fate of that bill is in the air, given that Democrats have vowed to oppose it throughout the week.

The deadline to pass a government funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is Sept. 30, and lawmakers are expected to leave Washington, D.C., Friday night for a weeklong recess to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

House Republicans unveiled their CR on Tuesday and have lauded the bill as a ‘clean’ funding extension until Nov. 21. While it doesn’t include partisan policy riders, it does include tens of millions to beef up security measures for lawmakers.

However, Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opted to go with their own version of a CR, not because they disliked what was in Republicans’ bill, but what was not in it. They’ve also dug in against President Donald Trump’s demand that Republicans cut Democrats out of the process. 

Their plan would have kept the government open until Oct. 31, permanently extended expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, undoing the ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ Medicaid cuts, and clawing back the canceled funding for NPR and PBS.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., panned the bill and argued that the Republicans’ legislation was everything Democrats had pushed when they controlled the Senate under former President Joe Biden.

‘It’s not clean – it’s filthy,’ Thune said. ‘It’s packed full of partisan policies and measures designed to appeal to Democrats’ leftist base.’

However, Schumer has accused Thune of not coming to the negotiating table and directly engaging with him to find a path forward to avert a government shutdown.

Democrats particularly want a deal on the expiring Obamacare subsidies, along with some assurances on future rescissions and impoundments.

‘We’ll sit down and negotiate, if they will sit down and negotiate,’ Schumer said. ‘We don’t have a red line, but we know we have to help the American people.’

The Senate confirmed the last member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet on Friday after months of delay from Senate Democrats.

Lawmakers confirmed Mike Waltz to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations on a bipartisan 47-45 vote. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., crossed the aisle to confirm him.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to vote against his confirmation. He also voted against Waltz’s advancing out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Waltz’s confirmation ends a nearly nine-month gap during which the U.S. was without a representative at the U.N., and it comes as the organization gears up for its General Assembly in New York City next week.

Waltz, a retired Army National Guard colonel and former Green Beret, previously served as a House Republican from Florida before being tapped to serve as Trump’s national security advisor.

However, he was dismissed from his position at the National Security Council following the ‘Signalgate’ controversy after Waltz added a journalist to a group chat with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Vice President JD Vance and others as they discussed strikes in Yemen.

Waltz took responsibility for the blunder and told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham at the time, ‘It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.’

Despite the hiccup, Trump tapped Waltz in May to be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

The move came after he subbed out Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., from the position. At the time, Trump cited concerns that losing her from the House would make it difficult to pass legislation, particularly his ‘big, beautiful bill,’ given the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the lower chamber.

Still, Waltz was scrutinized by Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearing in July, where lawmakers accused the former House Republican of an ‘amateurish’ move for including a journalist into a sensitive conversation. Waltz pushed back that there was no classified information shared in the chat.

During the hearing, Waltz advocated for reforms at the U.N. and argued that ‘we should have one place in the world where everyone can talk.’

‘Where China, Russia, Europe, the developing world, can come together and resolve conflicts,’ he said. ‘But after 80 years, it’s drifted from its core mission of peacemaking.’

President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to permit enforcement of a passport policy requiring transgender and nonbinary applicants to list their sex as male or female according to their birth certificate.

Due to a lower court order, transgender and nonbinary people can receive passports with an ‘X’ identification marker instead of male or female. The Justice Department has appealed that order, the Associated Press reported.

In its filing on Friday, Justice Department lawyers argued, ‘Private citizens cannot force the government to use inaccurate sex designations on identification documents that fail to reflect the person’s biological sex — especially not on identification documents that are government property and an exercise of the President’s constitutional and statutory power to communicate with foreign governments.’

On Jan. 20, President Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to recognize only male or female designations based on ‘an individual’s immutable biological classification.’ 

The order instructed the State Department to issue official documents, including passports, in line with that standard.

A federal judge in Massachusetts later ruled the State Department must provide transgender and nonbinary applicants with passports reflecting the gender designation they select. 

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block that order while the case moves forward, prompting the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court.

For more than three decades before the Trump administration, the State Department permitted people to update the sex designation on their passports.

In 2022, the Biden administration introduced the option for applicants to choose ‘X’ as a gender-neutral designation and to select ‘M’ or ‘F’ to indicate male or female, according to Reuters.

Fox News’ Bill Mears and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.

As conservatives reflect on the legacy of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk ahead of his celebration of life in Arizona on Sunday, some Republicans credit him with helping President Donald Trump win over young voters in 2024. 

Former TPUSA staffer Anthony DeWitt explained that the grassroots element of Kirk’s work likely played a ‘monumental’ role in ‘energizing the youth to get out and vote in 2024.’

‘Charlie created something that finally lifted the voices and work of not only grassroots, but young people, people like myself who were just entering politics and gave us something that traditionally was only achieved by those who have had a lifetime in politics,’ DeWitt stated.

‘Getting young people knocking doors, chasing ballots, getting signatures, signing up new voters, attending conferences — that was the key to winning the 2024 election.’

A Fox News voter analysis had Trump wooing 47% of voters aged 18-29, with former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly winning the demographic with 51%.

In the battleground state of Michigan, the analysis found that Trump won the age group with 50%, compared to 48% for Harris. He also came close with 48% in Arizona, where TPUSA is headquartered, with 51% of those surveyed backing Harris.

Trump ultimately ended up sweeping the battleground states, including Michigan and Arizona, winning 312 electoral votes and the popular vote.

However, it is an 11% increase from the 36% of voters in the same age range in 2020, with former President Joe Biden carrying the demographic with 61%.

Colin Reed, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican strategist, noted how Kirk plays a unique role in ‘expanding the tent’ for the party.

‘A generation ago, it would have been unthinkable for a Republican candidate to run nearly equal among younger voters against a Democratic standard-bearer who had every Hollywood and celebrity endorser under the sun, but that’s precisely what happened in 2024,’ Reed wrote to Fox News Digital, alluding to Harris’ star-studded, but short campaign after Biden dropped out in July.

‘Charlie opened the doors for younger people to not only consider the conservative movement but embrace it and champion its principles as a ticket to prosperity and happiness.’

Those close to Kirk, including Turning Point Action’s leader Tyler Bowyer, dubbed 2026 the ‘Charlie Kirk election’ at a vigil at Arizona State University Monday.

‘2028 will be the Kirk-Vance election,’ he said, and the organization is expected to rally around Vice President JD Vance to be Trump’s successor.  

A man who pleaded guilty to attempting to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022 is now using a female name and pronouns, according to a court document filed Friday. 

Nicholas Roske, who is scheduled to be sentenced next month, is using the name Sophie Roske and a ‘Ms.’ title for the first time in a court filing in a case that has stretched for three years.

The court filing was a routine request in anticipation of Roske’s sentencing, which is set for Oct. 3. But the filing referenced Roske by the name ‘Sophia,’ while a footnote revealed that Nicholas remains Roske’s legal first name.

‘Out of respect for Ms. Roske, the balance of this pleading and counsel’s in-court argument will refer to her as Sophie and use female pronouns,’ the footnote stated.

It is unclear if Roske is undergoing any treatments to become transgender. Fox News Digital reached out to the defendant’s defense team for comment.

Roske arrived at Kavanaugh’s house June 8, 2022, with a pistol, ammunition, a knife, a crowbar and tactical gear. Roske eventually called 9-1-1 and turned himself in after receiving a call from his sister and observing U.S. marshals in front of the justice’s house.

The incident occurred just two weeks before the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade, an expected decision that had drawn protesters to the Supreme Court building and conservative justices’ houses for weeks leading up to it.

The Department of Justice is seeking a 30-year sentence. In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors referenced ‘mental health issues’ the defendant has had for about a decade that included thoughts of violently murdering his sister. He has received treatment for the issues, specifics of which were not included in the memorandum.

‘While the defendant has mental health issues, those issues do not detract from the gravity of the defendant’s crime: the defendant researched and targeted multiple members of the judiciary, and intended to alter the composition of the Supreme Court for ideological reasons,’ prosecutors wrote.

The revelation of the gender label switch comes as the DOJ has internally discussed concerns with transgender people owning guns and as conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, was discovered to have been in a romantic relationship with a transgender person. While the investigation remains open and authorities are still developing an understanding of the motive, authorities have said Robinson felt Kirk spread hate, which drove him to carry out the killing.

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News the bureau could not confirm details about any gender-related treatments Roske may have received.

‘For privacy, safety and security reasons, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) does not comment on the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including health information status or treatments,’ the spokesperson said.

President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is a bold roadmap for American renewal, aggressively implementing conservative ideas to drive economic growth and energy self-sufficiency. It’s squarely focused on delivering for what Trump terms the ‘forgotten Americans’ — the working men and women whose interests have long been ignored by elites from both political parties. This agenda is exactly what Trump ran on last year. Yet today, a group of Democrat trial lawyers are trying to short-circuit Trump on issue after issue — working to achieve through lawfare what they failed to at the ballot box.

Weaponizing the law against political opponents — known as lawfare — is most commonly associated with the actions of the FBI against President Trump during the Obama and Biden years. We now see this playbook being used by activist attorneys to systematically block key elements of the Trump agenda from being enacted – all while collecting big legal fees.

Most recently, lawfare has come for an executive order Trump signed in August that aims to democratize access to alternative assets in 401(k) plans. The EO aims to allow the 90 million-plus everyday Americans who save for retirement through traditional 401(k) plans to invest in assets typically reserved for the wealthy and well-connected – namely, private equity and cryptocurrencies. These investments have regularly outperformed the public stock market and help diversify investors’ portfolios, which many believe are too heavily exposed to the ‘Magnificent 7’ Big Tech stocks. This is why major investors like large state pension funds tend to hold around one-third of their assets in private market investments.

The order directs the Department of Labor (DOL) to reexamine fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and propose rules that could include a legal safe harbor for plan sponsors choosing to include high-quality alternative investment options. A few days later, the DOL rescinded Biden-era language that had discouraged such options, opening the door for American savers to these asset classes, which are typically limited to so-called ‘accredited investors,’ with high income and net worth.

Yet trial lawyers are already plotting lawsuits to cancel this reform before it can start, and aim to win a big payday in doing so. As a prominent plaintiffs’ lawyer stated recently to Bloomberg Law: ‘I would joke and say that I hope employers add alternative investments, because I have some kids I need to put through college.’ Indeed, unless the Trump administration insists on strong rulemaking and clear safe harbor in place, these lawyers plan to use the court system to extract multimillion dollar settlements that benefit themselves, while denying average Americans the wealth-building tools that have long been reserved for the elite.

On energy, President Trump made a decisive move with his executive order unleashing American energy, encouraging exploration on federal lands, eliminating burdensome electric vehicle mandates, revoking outdated climate-related directives, and streamlining permitting processes. Yet, environmental trial lawyers have mounted a fierce counteroffensive, using lawfare to hold up these vital changes, resulting in delays that keep energy prices higher, stifle job growth in America’s heartland, and prolong reliance on America’s adversaries for energy resources.  

The pattern continues with Trump’s drive for a smaller, more efficient federal workforce. In March, he signed an executive order to address workforce efficiency, instructing agencies to terminate collective bargaining agreements – some of which were signed in the final days of the Biden Administration to hamstring President Trump. Labor union lawyers have deployed lawfare to preserve the entrenched system and challenge the order in multiple federal courts, securing court stays. Their efforts delay essential efficiencies, perpetuating a bloated federal workforce that drains taxpayer dollars and slows government responsiveness.

This well-coordinated effort shows the threat to Trump’s agenda from those trying using the courts to override the will of the American voter. These trial lawyers, motivated by both ideology and profit, seek to accomplish through the courts what they couldn’t in the 2024 election: Stop Trump at any cost. Our movement’s challenge is to fight back, reclaiming policy-making from the courts and restore it to the people’s representatives.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed in her upcoming book, ‘107 Days,’ that then-President Joe Biden rattled her right before she went head-to-head with then-candidate Donald Trump on the debate stage.

Biden reportedly called Harris as she sat in a hotel room preparing for the only debate of her abbreviated campaign. He apparently wanted to wish her luck — and to scold her.

The then-president said, ‘My brother called. He’s been talking to a group of real power brokers in Philly,’ according to an excerpt of the book in The Guardian. He then allegedly asked if Harris was familiar with several people related to the matter, which she was not.

‘His brother had told him that those guys were not going to support me because I’d been saying bad things about him. He wasn’t inclined to believe it, he claimed, but he thought I should know in case my team had been encouraging me to put daylight between the two of us,’ Harris wrote in the book, according to an excerpt of the book in The Guardian.

Biden then went on to talk about his past debate performances, leaving Harris confused, ‘angry and disappointed,’ according to The Guardian. She was upset that her boss had called before a critical moment in her political career and made ‘it all about himself.’ Harris added that Biden was ‘distracting me with worry about hostile power-brokers in the biggest city of the most important state.’

Then-first gentleman Doug Emhoff apparently noticed his wife was in distress and advised her to ‘let it go’ before facing off against Trump.

While Harris avoided criticizing Biden during her campaign, she has used her upcoming book to shed light on the tensions between them as she took his place as the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris’ book is set to hit shelves on Sept. 23, but it has already sparked conversations about the 2024 election cycle.

In another section, Harris said while ‘it’s Joe and Jill’s decision’ became a mantra ahead of the 2024 election cycle, she said it was ‘recklessness,’ rather than ‘grace,’ according to an excerpt released by The Atlantic.

”It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision,’ Harris wrote.

Harris also revealed in her book that then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was her ‘first choice’ as running mate, not Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. However, she said it was ‘too big of a risk’ because the campaign was ‘already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man.’

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Recently, Rebecca Taibleson appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing to a Wisconsin-based seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a key step toward further solidifying President Trump’s strong judicial legacy. In choosing Taibleson, Trump selected a standout from a highly qualified field. She’s not only a seasoned prosecutor and sharp legal thinker, but she’s a proven defender of the Constitution and conservative values.

Taibleson spent over a decade as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, putting violent criminals behind bars. She doesn’t just theorize about public safety–she delivers it. She handles complex appeals and knows how to write strong legal arguments, and she wins cases and protects communities. Every day in her career, she applies the law with clarity, discipline, and purpose.

Most importantly, in her role as the co‑chief of the Appellate Division of that U.S. Attorney’s office for nearly a decade, not only did Taibleson imprison violent and dangerous criminals who were terrorizing the community, she ensured they stayed there. There are too many weak judges who free criminals when they should rot in prison for their crimes. Rebecca Taibleson is not one of them.

Her credentials speak for themselves. She clerked for the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia and then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh. She embraced a constitutionalist philosophy early in her career and never wavered. At her Senate confirmation hearing, she made it crystal clear: judges must interpret the law as written, not how they wish it were written. Judges must not rewrite laws based on personal views or political trends. She follows the original public meaning of the law and honors the Constitution.

Taibleson also knows how to stand her ground. During one of the most brutal nomination fights in recent memory, she stepped up and testified in support of her former boss Brett Kavanaugh, a nomination fight for which I helped lead the charge as Chairman Chuck Grassley’s chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee. While the left smeared and attacked, Rebecca Taibleson didn’t flinch. She stood firm in defense of the rule of law and the truth. That moment proved her courage and character.

She also served in President Trump’s solicitor general’s office — the top government appellate advocates. She fought and won legal battles at the Supreme Court. She defended Trump administration policies on immigration, religious liberty, and constitutional limits. She didn’t just serve under President Trump, she helped him win. Her record shows loyalty, competence, and backbone.

Some groups have raised concerns—and even opposition before they had a chance to watch her testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing. Some are fair points; most are not. They wanted someone else. They’re circulating misleading claims and ignoring facts. They’re criticizing a nominee who far exceeds the standard for confirmation. President Trump and his team reviewed many good candidates. Like with any nominee, they balanced all the pros and cons. While no nominee is ever perfect, Rebecca Taibleson proved through her long record and unflinching public testimony that she is outstanding. She has a proven track record of being bold and fearless.

Taibleson handled her confirmation hearing exactly the way a strong nominee should. She didn’t dodge questions or pander. She answered directly and confidently and laid out her commitment to textualism, originalism, and constitutionalism. She emphasized the separation of powers and reminded the Senate that judges don’t make policy. Elected officials do.

On precedent, she spoke with clarity. She said Dobbs v. Jackson controls abortion law, and she will follow it. She refused to play politics with hot-button issues, but she left no doubt about her commitment to the Constitution.

She also promised to bring civility and discipline to the bench. She won’t use opinions to take swipes at parties, public officials, or opposing views. She respects the role of the judiciary and knows the difference between law and politics. She pledged to uphold judicial restraint.

Taibleson’s background shows real-world depth. Early in her career, she worked with Israel’s national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance, and blood bank service Magen David Adom during the Second Intifada. She helped defend civilians from terrorist attacks. That experience gave her a deeper understanding of law, national security, justice, and what is at stake for Western civilization. It also showed her values: courage, service, and loyalty to free societies under attack.

Taibleson has answered the questions raised by her detractors from the left and the right. She addressed every issue and demonstrated exactly why she belongs on the Seventh Circuit. Her hearing and record proves her fitness. She showed strength, clarity, and deep legal knowledge. And she put to bed any concerns.

President Trump built the best judicial legacy in a generation. He transformed the Supreme Court into the first constitutionalist Court in 90 years. He reshaped the federal judiciary with principled, constitutionalist judges. He made those choices carefully, and he made the same careful decision here. Rebecca Taibleson fits that mold. She brings real experience, proven loyalty, and a first-rate legal mind.

The Senate must confirm this bold and fearless judicial nominee. She earned this seat by standing up when it counted. She served President Trump with distinction and fought for her country in the courts. She prosecuted criminals and protected communities. She embraces originalism and the rule of law.

President Trump chose right. The Senate must finish the job.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he believes Senate Democrats are posturing for a government shutdown to score a political win with their base, and he’s trying to prevent it.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Thune argued that Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., lack a real reason for not backing the GOP’s short-term government funding extension other than to appease the ‘far left.’

Thune said that in March, when Democrats last joined Republicans to keep the government open, Schumer and his caucus made a ‘very different argument’ about averting a partial government shutdown, but the move was unpopular with their political base.

‘It’s getting to the point now where their base [has] got so much influence in the party, and they’re so demanding on just resisting and fighting everything, with respect to the Trump administration, that they can’t see straight,’ Thune said.  

‘It is borderline pathological. It’s like a disease,’ he continued. ‘They just — that this is something with which they’re afflicted, and I think it really blurs their vision. And I think they run the risk with this, again, of putting themselves in a position of where they are viewed as the party that’s trying to block the government from being funded.’

House Republicans unveiled their stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), earlier this week that would keep the government open under current spending levels until Nov. 21.

The bill is ‘clean,’ meaning there aren’t partisan policy or spending riders, save for the millions meant for beefing up security measures for lawmakers, the judicial branch and the administration, and funding meant for Washington, D.C.’s budget.

While the Republican-controlled House is expected to pass the bill on Friday, the Senate is a different story. Despite Thune commanding a majority in the upper chamber, he will need Senate Democrats to support the bill. And so far, they aren’t budging.

Thune contended that the bill is everything that Democrats — when they controlled the Senate under former President Joe Biden — dreamed of: a clean, short-term bill. But the issue at hand now is a matter of communication.

Schumer has accused Thune of not speaking with him, or Senate Democrats more broadly, about the bill, and he has labeled the GOP’s push to avert a partial government shutdown a partisan effort led by President Donald Trump.

But Thune said he did try to talk to Schumer last week when the GOP was gearing up to change Senate rules to blast through Democrats’ blockade of Trump’s nominees.

Thune went to Schumer on the floor to discuss the then-ongoing talks between Republicans and Democrats on a since-failed deal for confirmations, but he recalled that the Democratic leader brushed him off.

‘He couldn’t get out of the conversation fast enough,’ Thune said. ‘He was, like, running off the floor. So, I mean, there was certainly an opportunity there to say, ‘We need to sit down and talk about, you know, a CR and how to fund the government.’ I just think this is more political posturing.’

‘That’s the way it’s supposed to work. But the way Schumer likes it to work, and I think this is, again, part of his business model, is you go into his back office, behind closed doors and write this, you know, in the dark of night, and that’s just not the way we’re doing business,’ he continued.

Senate Democrats unveiled their own counter-proposal to the GOP’s bill late Wednesday night that includes a slew of their priorities not included in the clean CR, like permanently extending expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, undoing the ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ Medicaid cuts, and clawing back the canceled funding for NPR and PBS.

Thune said that some of the issues that Democrats were pushing in a short-term extension ‘don’t fit there,’ but that conversations, particularly on finding a deal for the healthcare insurance tax credits, could be had later on.

Still, he viewed Democrats’ resistance as not ‘serious,’ given that the end goal of the short-term extension is to actually pass the dozen spending bills to fund the government — a feat that hasn’t been pulled off in Congress since the 1990s.

The House and Senate are currently working on a path forward for three spending bills, which both chambers have already passed. Thune hoped that if lawmakers were able to avert a partial shutdown, that work could continue with the remaining nine funding bills.

‘This will test the seriousness of whether or not they actually want a real appropriations process, and whether they want to have a bipartisan way of funding the government,’ Thune said.

‘And if the Democrats would give us consent to get on them and work with us, we could have a bipartisan process on the floor like we did with those other three, and we could fund most of the government the old-fashioned way, which is the way it’s supposed to be done,’ he continued.

But before any of that can happen, the bill has to make its way to the upper chamber. Thune is leaving the door open for the Senate to work into the weekend, but the Sept. 30 deadline is fast-approaching.

Congress also has a recess scheduled for next week to observe the Jewish New Year, and a vast majority of Republicans will be in Arizona for conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. 

There are also several procedural hurdles in the Senate that will have to be dealt with, further bogging down the process. Ultimately, Thune believed that it would be ‘up to the Democrats.’

‘If they want to put a vote up sooner, later, and our members again — if the Democrats are going to fight us and make us do this the hard way — may just decide, let’s just set this up for votes,’ Thune said. ‘When we get back here, and we get up against the deadline, when it becomes real, then we use live ammo.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment, but did not immediately hear back.