Why did John Fetterman vote with Republicans to reopen the government?
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) has said he will never support a shutdown, and he made that clear again Wednesday when he voted for the GOP plan to reopen the government.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill closed out Day One of the government shutdown Wednesday with no resolution in sight.
The Republican plan to reopen the government failed earlier Wednesday, lacking Democratic support. Senators will return to vote again on the GOP measure on Friday.
Well, for the most part.
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) joined two other members of the Democratic caucus — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King, a Maine independent — to vote for the GOP proposal to reopen and fund the government.
So far, no other Democratic senator has signaled their support for the plan.
Democrats and Republicans have been engaging in a finger-pointing match to blame each other for the lapse in government funding.
Democrats have demanded healthcare provisions be added to the GOP plan, but Republicans have said that’s a nonstarter.
And while Fetterman has repeatedly indicated support for his party’s proposals, he has also been consistent about one thing: He’s staunchly opposed to government shutdowns.
And he’ll vote for whatever plan will end it.
What has Fetterman said about his reasons for backing the GOP plan?
Fetterman said in March (when a possible shutdown was looming): “I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote to shut our government down."
And he’s been consistent with that approach.
During this shutdown and the days and weeks proceeding it, Fetterman has voted for both Democratic and GOP proposals to fund the government.
For instance, on Sept. 19 Fetterman was the lone Democrat to support the Republican plan and said in a statement that his vote “affirms that, despite their refusal to restore health care, I am unwilling to vote to shut down our government and unleash massive, national chaos.”
But he also voted for the Democratic plan and said in the statement that he was “deeply disappointed that it was not adopted.”
On the eve of the shutdown, Fetterman again voted for both parties’ proposals, neither of which came close to meeting the required 60-vote threshold in the narrowly divided Senate.
“My vote was our country over my party,” Fetterman said on X Tuesday evening.
Has John Fetterman crossed party lines before?
Fetterman has been known to frequently work across the aisle, sometimes frustrating Democratic constituents in Pennsylvania.
So, his support for GOP proposals to reopen a government shutdown should not come as a shock.
Earlier this year, he voted to confirm some of President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks and even visited the president at his residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Fetterman has also taken issue with the way that some Democrats were framing the impending shutdown. He told The Hill last month that Democratic rhetoric about Trump creating an “autocracy” in the United States does not align with the party’s strategy to pass a funding plan.
“If Democrats truly believe we’re on a rocket sled to autocracy, why would we hand a shuttered government over to Trump and [Office of Management and Budget Director Russell] Vought’s woodchipper at the OMB?” Fetterman said in a statement to The Hill.
Fetterman’s tendency to cross the aisle has created a strange dynamic in polls where Republicans hold a more favorable view of him than members of his own party.
A striking 62% of Republicans approve of the Democratic senator’s job performance compared to just 21% who disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week. Meanwhile, a majority of 54% of Democrats disapprove of the senator’s performance compared to 33% who approved. Independents are evenly split at 43% for both categories.
What do other Democrats think?
In an interview with The Inquirer Monday evening, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat, called Fetterman “Trump’s favorite Democrat” for breaking with the party on the shutdown vote.
“Ninety-nine percent of Democrats on Capitol Hill, however, view the situation very differently from John Fetterman," said Boyle, the ranking member of the Budget committee in the House.
The six-term Philly lawmaker said this moment — where Democratic votes are needed to pass any GOP plan — is the “last, best chance” to undo healthcare cuts that could impact Pennsylvanians.
Over time, Fetterman has been joined by other senators, like Cortez Masto and King, who crossed party lines to support the Republican proposal.
Cortez Masto said in a statement that the policies of Trump and congressional Republicans are “hurting Nevadans” and that’s why she opposes a shutdown.
“We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another,” she said.