Sen. Ruben Gallego Slams Democrats For Agreeing To End The Shutdown Without Extending ACA Credits

Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego criticized his colleagues for reaching a tentative agreement to end the government shutdown without assurances to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.

"I will not turn my back on the 24 million Americans who will see their premiums more than double if we don't extend these tax credits," Gallego said, according to an NBC News report.

The outlet went on to note that the agreement does not include an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, a major concession from Democrats to end the shutdown. Should the funds lapse, insurance premiums for millions of people would raise. Democrats settled for a promise that a bill on the matter by the second week of December. Its outcome is already uncertain, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying he wouldn't promise the vote will take place.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected the deal, saying: "Because of Republicans, Americans are going to suffer immensely as this health care crisis gets worse." "Therefore, I must vote no," he added.

Another Democrat, Sen. Chris Murphy, warned his colleagues they were making a mistake: "This bill doesn't do anything to arrest the health care catastrophe, nor does it constrain in any meaningful way President Trump's illegality," he said.

"I think the voters were pretty clear on Tuesday night what they wanted Congress to do, and more specifically, what they wanted Democrats to do. And I'm really saddened that we didn't listen to them."

In contrast, Sen. John Fetterman, one of the eight Democrats who supported the deal, apologized for the protracted shutdown.

"After 40 days as a consistent voice against shutting our government down, I voted YES for the 15th time to REOPEN. I'm sorry to our military, SNAP recipients, gov workers, and Capitol Police who haven't been paid in weeks. It should've never come to this. This was a failure," Fetterman said in a social media publication.

The agreement was passed on a 60-40 vote on Sunday night. However, it still has to clear the House of Representatives, something that could take days, according to NBC News. Then President Donald Trump would have to sign it into law.

The outlet added that the agreement contains a "minibus" and a continuing resolution to fund the rest of the government at existing spending levels through the end of January. The agreement would also fund SNAP through next September and reverses the attempted layoff of federal workers.