When do they vote again to open the government

1. Why there’s still no clear vote — gridlock and strategic leverage

The Senate’s calendar showed reconvening at 10 a.m. on November 7, yet leaders did not lock in a vote because key actors were positioning for leverage rather than committing to immediate passage. Republicans proposed tying a government-reopening vote to a package of three longer-term appropriations bills and a future vote to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, but House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to promise a House vote on those subsidies, undercutting the Senate GOP’s bargaining point and leaving Democrats skeptical that a Senate vote would translate into enacted law ^[1]. This strategic impasse explains why Senate Majority Leader John Thune said senators could stay through the weekend if a credible path to a vote existed, signaling procedural openness but not a scheduled roll call ^{[1] [2]}.

2. The arithmetic problem: 60 votes still needed and 14 failed attempts

Senators repeatedly failed to reach cloture on the House-passed continuing resolution, with the most recent count showing 54–44 and at least 14 unsuccessful votes to advance that measure, illustrating the practical hurdle of the 60-vote threshold in the evenly divided Senate. The repeated defeats reflect both partisan opposition and intra-party divisions that make passage impossible without cross-aisle support; Republicans argue for stopgap funding coupled to broader appropriations, while Democrats insist on restoring policy items such as Medicaid funding and ACA subsidies before supporting any CR ^{[4] [3]}. The tally of failed motions and the need for 60 votes mean that even with Senate floor time, an actual vote to end the shutdown requires either a negotiated bipartisan package or a change in voting rules, neither of which had been secured as of the latest updates ^{[3] [5]}.

3. Timing dynamics: calendars, work periods, and the pressure of services disrupted

Senators remained on Capitol Hill for weekdays through November 7 and then planned a state work period from November 10–14, a scheduling reality that compresses opportunities to negotiate and vote. Operational pressures — flight reductions announced by the FAA, partial SNAP benefits, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees missing paychecks — increased political and public urgency, yet those pressures did not immediately translate into a scheduled Senate vote ^{[1] [3]}. Betting markets and political observers placed nontrivial odds that the shutdown could extend to mid-November or later, underlining that calendar mechanics and constituent impacts were creating urgency without guaranteeing immediate legislative resolution ^[5].

4. Competing narratives: Republicans’ package vs. Democrats’ demands

Republicans framed their approach as coupling a short-term reopening with progress on three appropriations bills and a later vote on health-care tax credits, positioning this as a pathway to longer-term fiscal work; they emphasize process and linking bills to secure conservative priorities ^[1]. Democrats countered that supporting a CR without reversing proposed Medicaid cuts or ensuring ACA subsidies would leave vulnerable populations exposed, and they viewed any Senate-level vote as hollow unless the House agreed to follow through—hence their resistance to the House-passed measure and skepticism about the Senate scheduling a meaningful vote ^{[1] [3]}. Each side’s rhetoric reflects both substantive policy disputes and tactical calculations about electoral and procedural advantage.

5. What was likely next — weekend flexibility and political contingency

All sides signaled contingency: Thune said senators could work through the weekend if a path forward materialized, while leaders on both sides left open the possibility of further votes once specific concessions or schedules were clarified ^[1]. Stakeholders outside Congress, including unions and industry groups, urged immediate passage of a clean continuing resolution to avert broader harm, amplifying pressure on lawmakers but not altering the Senate’s procedural math ^[6]. Given 14 prior failures, an unresolved House commitment on ACA subsidies, and an evenly divided chamber, the most realistic short-term outcome as of the latest reporting was continued negotiating with the potential for additional cloture attempts rather than a guaranteed reopening vote on November 7 ^{[2] [3]}.