President Trump says there are negotiations ongoing with Democrats about finding a way out of the government shutdown, undercutting congressional Republicans’ demand that the Democrats simply pass a clean funding bill. The president says he would be happy to make a deal on subsidies for health insurance in exchange for their votes.  

Senator Chuck Schumer and 43 of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate have so far blocked the funding bill four times, and are expected to do so again Monday night when Republicans hold a vote on a procedural motion to advance the bill. The measure requires 60 votes in order to succeed in the Senate.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump said Republicans have started talking with the opposition party.

“We have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things, and I’m talking about good things with regard to healthcare,” Mr. Trump said. “We are speaking with the Democrats.”

“I’d make a deal,” he added. When asked specifically about the extension of health insurance subsidies, the president said, “I’m not saying that’s gonna happen.”

Mr. Schumer, however, denied that any talks were under way. “Trump’s claim isn’t true — but if he’s finally ready to work with Democrats, we’ll be at the table,” he said in a statement after the president’s comments.

Mr. Schumer insists that Democrats will win the political war when Americans begin to see their health insurance costs rise in the coming weeks. The GOP says its leaders will not negotiate on the issue so long as the government is closed. 

“There’s nothing for us to negotiate,” Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference on Monday morning. “It is 100 percent totally clean. It is an exact status quo replica of what we’re doing right now, which again, is Biden-era policies and spending levels.”

“No gimmicks, no tricks, no nothing,” he added. “I don’t have anything to give.”

Democrats have been trying to put pressure on the GOP to engage on the spending issue in some way, though the speaker has kept his Republican members out of town for the last two weeks even though they were scheduled to be in session. Mr. Johnson has also canceled votes this week, and has said he will not call the House back into session until the Senate passes the short-term funding bill. 

The House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, said in a letter to Mr. Johnson on Monday that the two leaders ought to debate on the House floor about the funding legislation. Mr. Johnson, however, says he has no time for his colleague’s “theatrics.”

“My friend Hakeem had his shot. We debated all this on the House floor, as you know, before we passed our bill,” Mr. Johnson said. “They argued and they stomped their feet and screamed at us and all that, and still, we passed the bill in bipartisan fashion.” Only one Democrat voted for the funding bill in the House.

“The House has done its job,” he told reporters. “The ball is in the Senate’s court.”

The Senate majority leader, John Thune, echoed those sentiments in a speech on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon. 

“The only reason the government is shut down is because Democrats refuse to accept a clean, nonpartisan funding extension,” he said on the floor. “We didn’t ask Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies. … We simply asked them to agree to a clean, nonpartisan bill.” 

“When their far-left base demanded a showdown with the president, Democrats fell in line, and now it’s the American people who are suffering the consequences,” he added. “Three Democrats have rejected their party’s shutdown politics and voted with Republicans to reopen the government.

“All Democrats will get another chance to vote to reopen the government later today. For the sake of the American people, I hope at least a few more Democrats will join us,” Mr. Thune concluded. 

Mr. Thune has lost just one of his 53 Republican members in the funding battle, meaning he needs eight Democrats to break with Mr. Schumer and vote to fund the government. He has said that his plan is to simply force Democrats to vote continuously on the same legislation until he wins the requisite number of Democrats. 

Mr. Johnson says he tried to appeal to the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Patty Murray, who has been one of the chief advocates of Democrats’ tactics in the funding battle. The speaker says he promised her that he would bring any and all appropriations bills that come out of the bipartisan conference committee process to the House floor for votes, in the hopes of swaying her.  

“I had a fruitful discussion with Senator Patty Murray about two days ago,” Mr. Johnson said at his press conference. “I told her it is my full intention that if we break this impasse … whatever the conference committee comes up with, I will put on the floor. I’m ready to go, but we’ve gotta open government up.”

Ms. Murray, however, says she is not going to give up until the Affordable Care Act subsidies are extended. 

“I’ll reiterate now what I told @SpeakerJohnson: the only path forward begins with him & @LeaderJohnThune talking with Leaders Schumer & Jeffries,” Ms. Murray wrote on X. “Premium hikes are going out THIS MONTH. We need a deal that reopens the government & stops premiums from doubling.”