WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The first glimmers toward ending a near-record long federal government shutdown were seen in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, as leading Senate Republicans and Democrats talked of a possible "off-ramp" to the disruption.
For 34 days, a standoff between Congress and President Donald Trump has shuttered a range of federal programs including those that provide aid for low-income Americans, U.S. soldiers' paychecks and airport operations.
A new fiscal year began on October 1 with no legislation enacted to fund these activities. Thousands of federal workers have now been furloughed, and the battle has hung up around $1.7 trillion in discretionary funds that account for about one-third of total U.S. spending annually.
"I’m optimistic," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, told reporters when asked about prospects for ending the government shutdown that has many federal employees performing their jobs without paychecks.
Asked if he was confident of ending the shutdown, Thune, of South Dakota, hedged, saying: "Don’t push it."
The comment was a small but significant change in tone. Democrats have linked government funding to extending a U.S. health insurance subsidy that is on the verge of expiring.
Low-income families are seeing their food stamp benefits expire or only partially funded.
"Based on, sort of, my gut of how these things operate, I think we're getting close to an off-ramp here," Thune said.
The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois said, "I sense that, too." But he quickly added: "We're still stuck with this premise of what we're going to do about healthcare costs."
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins of Maine told reporters that progress was made with Democrats offering specific language to break the impasse and staffs from both parties laboring over the weekend. "It just feels better this week," she said.
Nonetheless, Collins admonished: "It could all fall apart again. And I don't mean to imply there's an agreement."
Meanwhile, a bipartisan handful of House of Representatives moderates floated a compromise plan.
Axios reported a group of four House centrists, three Republicans and one Democrat, offered a plan to extend the expanded Affordable Care Act tax credit for two years, but with new caps on people whose income is at the upper end of qualifying.
Since October 1, groups of Senate Republicans and Democrats have held sporadic private meetings to look at ways to resolve the gridlock that has consumed Washington but so far have been unable to get to the finish line.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Bo Erickson, Writing by Richard Cowan; Editing by David Gregorio)
