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Capito weighs in as federal government shutdown breaks records

Says talks between Senate Republicans, Democrats continue

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., right, speaks during a news conference to address the shutdown, at the Capitol, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

CHARLESTON — On Tuesday, the federal government shutdown broke the previous record for a shutdown during President Donald Trump’s first term, with the current shutdown entering day 38 Friday while Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate continue negotiations.

Speaking Thursday morning during a conference call with West Virginia reporters from Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said she was hopeful that both sides can come to table by the end of this weekend and support a plan to fund the government through the end of the calendar year and finish work on long-term appropriations bills to fund the government for the remainder of the federal fiscal year.

“Hopefully, it’s good weather to reopen the government this weekend,” said Capito, R-W.Va., the fourth ranking member of Senate Republican majority leadership and a subcommittee chairwoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Honestly, the refusal and the obstruction and the hijacking of the American people, it has got to come to an end,” Capito continued. “There’s some blue sky that maybe it will, but there are no promises here. We will know more as the day unfolds, but it’s really, I think, very, very wearing on the American public and in West Virginia in particular.”

The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1, the beginning of fiscal year 2026, with Tuesday exceeding the previous government shutdown record that began on Dec. 22, 2018, and ended Jan. 25, 2019 – a 35-day period.

Tuesday marked the 14th time that the U.S. Senate voted to invoke cloture for H.R.5371, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act. The clean continuing resolution (CR) passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in September would keep the federal government funded at current levels through Friday, Nov. 21. But the bill has never been able to reach the 60-vote threshold to be considered by the full Senate, with Tuesday’s vote failing 54-44.

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have held out in supporting the clean CR, demanding that any CR include an extension of COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire by the end of December. In West Virginia, as many as 60,000 residents could see their health insurance premiums increase by approximately 133% if the subsidies are allowed to expire.

Senate Republicans have said they are willing to put on a future agenda a vote on extending the ACA subsidies, but not until the Senate Democratic caucus supports a clean CR and re-opens the federal government.

“I’ve made this very clear to them, I can’t guarantee them an outcome,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to Semafor’s Burgess Everett. “I can guarantee them a process, and they can litigate the issue, get the vote on the floor. And presumably they have some way of getting a vote in the House at some point. But I can’t speak for the House, and obviously I can’t guarantee an outcome here. And they know that.”

“(Thune) has said all along he’s willing – and many of us have said this, including the President – to talk about the premium subsidy issue in healthcare, but (the Senate Democrats) are unwilling to open the government to begin those discussions,” Capito said.

A bipartisan group of Senate Republicans and Democrats have been negotiating a new CR that could re-open the federal government and keep it funded through the end of the year. According to Politico, the latest deal could include the rehiring of federal workers that were laid off by the Trump administration as a way to gain Democratic votes. But a new CR would require the House – which has been in recess since the end of September – to return to Capitol Hill and concur.

“We know that we have to have Democrats to reopen the government,” Capito said. “The hang ups are that we can’t get the Democrats to open the government before we begin negotiating. That’s always been the deal…I am hearing that there are at least 10 Democrats that are tired of this, realizing the pain that they inflicted, and they want to get out.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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