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With the federal shutdown now becoming the second longest in US history, science that it could become the longest one ever, with both parties still far apart and far away from.
A deal, but there are lawmakers who are reaching across the aisle. Among them Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. We spoke with Senator Cortez Masto earlier today and we asked her about the YA boat and where the shutdown goes from here. Here's that conversation.
Well, I can tell you just in general, there's a group of US Democrats and Republicans trying to come together and help get through this impast there's an impass right now. We need to open up the government and we need to extend the healthcare subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. I think there's the ability to do both. And those are the conversations that are taking place with some of us right now, both RS and d's.
Well, depending on who you talked to right now, Senator, and I'm sure you know this all too well, are either a profile encourage or you're a problem for your party. And I'm wondering what the conversations are like in the cloak room, are you trying to get other Democrats to join you? And are you surprised that hasn't happened yet. I think it's twelve rounds today.
Right. Well, I can say this, we're all aligned in the sense that we're fighting for Americans, right We're fighting for this country, We're fighting for healthcare. We're taking on what we see are the bad policies of this administration. And it is not just unique to Democrats. I can tell you right now, there are some of my Republican colleagues that want to address the Affordable Care Act and
address the healthcare subsidies the tax credit. They need to because in their states, Americans will be harmed if we do not extend these healthcare subsidies. And that is true across the country. I don't care with your blue state, red state, purple state. It's about Americans and supporting them and helping them lower their healthcare costs.
This is one way we can do it.
And that's why both Democrats and there are some Republicans who want to this healthcare subsidy, and they should because if we don't, there's probably about twenty two million Americans across the country there are not only going to see their healthcare costs go up, some of them are going to lose access to healthcare because they can't afford it.
Senator you said that you believe that you can reopen the government and extend the subsidies. I'm curious in your conversations with the other senators, do you have some guarantees from Republicans that they will vote in favor of it.
Well, those are the conversations and negotiations now, because clearly we have to do both. And I will tell you a key part of this conversation is going to be the man in the White House, Donald Trump, because the leadership of Republicans in the Republican Party in Congress, they're only going to do what he says. So they have to be a part of this conversation. And Donald Trump has to be a part of this conversation. He can't
be flying around everywhere. He needs to be here in Washington, bringing the parties together and being a constructive part of addressing the healthcare costs that we have in this country. If he were to engage, that would help us move through this impass of opening up the government and addressing the Affordable Care Act subsidies so that we do not see healthcare insurance premiums increase for families. I can't stress this enough. And it's just not unique to Nevada. I
know my family's in Nevada, family of four. If you're making fifty six thousand dollars a year, you're going to see your healthcare premium go up by at least two hundred dollars.
That's crazy.
There's going to be a double digit increase for premiums for people and they are not going to be able to afford it.
That means we're going to lose.
People on healthcare and the only time now we will see them if they have an acute crisis and they're going to show up in emergency rooms. It's going to have a ripple effect for everybody's health care coverage in this country, and it's going to have an impact on all of our hospitals and our clinics.
Including in our urban and rural areas.
So we really need to come together to address this issue in this country, and that requires all of us talking and get beyond this impass and start addressing and solving the problems of the American public, and this is what they want us to do.
The continuing resolution that you've been voting for, Senator only runs through the twenty first of November, so there's been a question about whether that date needs to change. There's also a question about whether this could be extended by a much greater length of time. John Thune suggested just twenty four hours ago that a full year cr might
be the only way out of this. The White House has suggested it, and we spoke earlier today with the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Jason Smith, told us he would support such a move. So you're not facing potential shutdowns every couple of months here. How about you through December twenty twenty six. Would you vote for that?
Well, let me just say this, this is part of the problem. Instead of coming to talk leadership, talking amongst each other, Democrats and Republicans and all of us working together like we normally should, we're hearing conversations from the press and offers coming from the press. No offense to both of you, but this is where this should happen, right here in Washington, and us coming to the table having these conversations.
That's part of the impact.
And this is my frustration in some of my colleagues, we see the same frustration Republican leadership, Democratic leadership, the White House.
We need to all be in the same room.
We need to be working like the American of public expects us to do in Congress and do our jobs.
Senator, though you are not all in the same room. So what do you believe could be the turning point here?
I think it starts with the conversations around things that you've just said. We all obviously need to open up the government. We have to address and appropriation skills and still pass those. We're going to need time to get those done. And we have to fix the Affordable Care Act.
All of those things are on the tables. It's not going to change, and that's why we have to come together and start talking about those and how we vote on those, and what our agreements are around those very areas, and how we start moving those forward.
Each state is feeling this a little bit differently by way of furloughed federal workers, Senator, and your case in the VATA. Among the many furloughed are nuclear staffers inspectors who are watching the nuclear stock pile in your state. They have in many cases been furloughed as well by way of the Energy Secretary. I'm curious your reaction to sending those workers home and if this is a national security problem.
So most people don't know.
The Nuclear Security Agency has a number of sites across the country. One of them is the Nevada Site Security Site, where we actually have federal workers and contract workers overseeing our nuclear stockpile and ensuring its national security, testing the stockpile, ensuring its safety, and amongst other things. Those are central workers. They should not be furlowed, they should not be fired, and they should continue to get paid. It's essential for
a national security and for so many other reasons. Again, what I saw happen just recently with this Energy secretary is more of this politics is trying to put pressure and play political games. The end of the day, the only people that are suffering are these federal workers and Americans.
They're constantly ponds.
Federal workers and federal contracts are constantly ponds and at the whims of political agendas, and it's just outrageous to me. That's the reason why I don't support shutdowns. We can still do our jobs and get things done without using a federal worker as a pond. This is a very example of what the impact is in Nevada. And it's not just my contractors and federal workers at that test site out at the nuclear site. It is federal workers throughout my state. It is a tourism industry that's having
an impact of the bad policies from this administration. So we're sitting a downturn in tourism across the country, including in Nevada. I'm now hearing because I follow what's happening in my state. Housing is not moving as quickly as it could because there's no federal workers to do.
The permitting that we need. That's crazy to me.
My small businesses and businesses who rely on SBA loans are not getting those loans because there's no federal workers at the SPA to do those loans. I mean, it's just this is part of the problem why we should never have a government shutdown. We should be doing our jobs, appropriating, making sure we're moving forward, coming together to work together.
And that is my frustration.
That's some of the frustration I hear from colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans that are not in leadership, and that's why many of us have been talking and negotiating and trying to figure out a way out of this impasse.
Senator, just a short time ago, I do want to get to some quick foreign policy before we leave you. A short time ago, Scott Bess and the Treasury Secretary said to reporters outside of the White House quote, we are either going to announce after the close this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning, a substantial pickup in Russian sanctions. Just want to get your reaction to that.
Yeah. So, I sit on the Banking Committee.
I support sanctions against Russia and have in the past and will continue to do so. I think we need to put as much pressure as we can on Russia. I support Ukraine going on is outrageous, this illegal war of Putin, and we have to continue using the levers that we have here. Some of those are sanctions, in my case in the Banking Committee, those are financial sanctions that we have to continue to impose, and I hope we do use all the levers we can to hold Russia and putin accountable.
Our thanks to Senator Cortes Maso for joining us today.