At least eight moderate Senate Democrats are meeting in hopes of finding a deal to end the monthlong government shutdown, but sources familiar with the closely held conversations say they will need strong assurances from the GOP before voting to reopen the government.

The eight Democrats, who include Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Jon Ossoff (Ga.), the latter a top Republican target in 2026, will need to feel comfortable with whatever is offered by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and they may need to hear from President Trump himself, sources told The Hill.

The group huddled in the Capitol basement during votes Thursday in an attempt to put themselves in a position to end the shutdown before the scheduled Veterans Day recess.

“Bipartisan conversations are continuing, and that’s a good sign,” Ossoff told The Hill.

Asked how optimistic he was of reaching a deal this week, Ossoff, who voted earlier this month to pay essential federal workers during the shutdown, said, “We need a resolution that does right by our constituents.”

“My constituents don’t want their health insurance premiums to skyrocket. They want the government reopened,” he said. “It’s good that bipartisan conversations are continuing.”

The senators viewed as most likely to vote for a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government are Shaheen, Ossoff and Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).

The eight lawmakers were spotted emerging from a meeting in a Capitol hideaway Thursday before the Senate adjourned for the week, and some of them, including Shaheen and Kelly, said they wanted the chamber to stay in session over the weekend to get the deal done.

Along with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King (I-Maine), they would be able to provide more than enough votes to reopen federal departments and agencies this week.

Fetterman, Cortez Masto and King have voted repeatedly for a House-passed bill to fund the government through Nov. 21.

A Democratic senator who requested anonymity to comment on the prospect of a deal this week said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is eager to end the shutdown after funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits expired and the open enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace started Saturday.

“They don’t want to go through another week with federal employees not getting paid and the food banks being shut off,” said the Democratic lawmaker, referring to Democratic colleagues eager to reopen the government later this week.

The senator said Schumer, who is under intense pressure from the party’s liberal base not to capitulate to Republicans, won’t vote for the House-passed bill to reopen the government. but he’s not going to crack down on moderate colleagues who change their positions and vote for it.

“It’s not going to provoke a war, it’s the way it works around here,” the senator said of the prospect of a group of centrist Democrats breaking with Schumer and members of his leadership team voting with Republicans to reopen the government.

The expiration of SNAP benefits is a major source of concern for wavering Democratic senators who are looking for a face-saving reason to reopen the government.

Fetterman, who has voted repeatedly for the House-passed funding bill, said allowing nearly 42 million Americans to miss food assistance would be a “betrayal” of Democratic values.

He said the lapse in SNAP benefits impacts 2 million people in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t have an answer for them. I’m apologizing to people. It’s an absolute failure,” he said.

He asked what is going to happen to mothers with “two or three kids” to feed when their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards are empty.

“We are brutalizing at that point, and it’s despicable,” he said. “I am deeply frustrated.”

Fetterman said many of his Democratic colleagues are “afraid” of the Democratic Party’s liberal base.

“The difference between me and them is they are afraid of the base and I am not,” he said. “If it’s wrong for a Democrat to say, ‘Feed 2 million people in my state,’ SNAP recipients, that’s the core, core, core part of our base. These are the kind of people we really fight for. It’s a fundamental betrayal of our values.”

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) asked for unanimous consent on the Senate floor last week to pass a bill to fund SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) during the shutdown, but Thune objected.

Thune accused Democrats of trying to turn federal funding of SNAP and WIC into a “political game.”

Sources familiar with the talks say the conversations remain highly “sensitive” and caution there needs to be a concrete assurance from Thune that Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would seriously consider any proposal to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies that passes the Senate.

Thune has promised Democrats they will get a vote on any bill they want to put on the Senate floor to extend the enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act due to expire in January.

He has also pledged Trump is ready to negotiate with Democrats on reducing health care costs as soon as the government is open again.

“The president does like to negotiate, and I don’t know where that would lead. I can’t predict that. That’s what I told the Democrats here, that I can’t guarantee an outcome or result,” Thune said Thursday afternoon.

“What I can promise them is a process. They would get their vote, and they can have their vote by a date certain, which … initially, at least, a lot of them were asking for,” he said.

Moderate Democrats are weighing whether Thune can help them deliver a bill to keep health insurance premiums in check that can pass the House and secure Trump’s signature.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a prominent centrist who is up for reelection next year, said he’s skeptical of any deal with Republicans that doesn’t have Trump’s blessing.

“I have a concern that so many of my Republican friends, who I know are concerned about the government being shut down, health care costs, the SNAP benefits — I do worry … whether they are willing to make that deal with the president’s sign-off,” he said.

“Unlike in the past, we probably got to get the president deeply engaged,” he said. “It goes back to trust.”

Written by Alexander Bolton for The Hill ~ November3, 2025