Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and his Republican leadership team are scrambling for new ideas to end the 38-day government shutdown after it became clear Friday that tactics to pressure Democrats to vote for a House-passed funding bill have failed so far.

Senate Republicans are batting around various ideas to break the stalemate, such as voting on a new Senate-drafted bill that would fund a large swath of the federal government through fiscal year 2026.

This approach, championed by members of the Appropriations Committee, would entail voting on three regular appropriations bills that passed the Senate earlier this year with strong bipartisan support and which have been vetted with House Republicans.

Another idea, promoted by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), is to unveil a Republican-drafted bill that would seek to lower rising health care costs — tackling the issue at the center of the battle over government funding.

A third proposal, touted by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), is to encourage the Trump administration to raid federally funded projects in Democratic states such as California and New York to come up with additional funding to pay active-duty members of the military and air traffic controllers during the shutdown.

Senate Republican leaders are looking for new tactics to end the shutdown as rank-and-file GOP lawmakers tire of voting repeatedly on a House-passed clean continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 21.

Senate Democrats have blocked the House-passed bill 14 times, and Thune has been unable to increase the number of Democrats supporting the measures despite repeated entreaties to his colleagues.

“There’s no reason to vote on the same stuff that we voted in the past just to do it again,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told reporters Friday.

So far, only three members of the Senate Democratic caucus have voted for a clean........

© The Hill