Senate Democrats are resisting calls from the nation’s largest union representing federal workers — a longtime political ally — to accept Republicans’ “clean” stopgap to reopen the government.

It is the latest display of how outside pressure and deadlines have failed to move the parties away from their entrenched positions surrounding Democrats’ demands to negotiate on health care as the shutdown reaches its fourth week.

“I get where they're coming from. We want the shutdown to end too. But fundamentally, if Trump and Republicans continue to refuse to negotiate with us to figure out how to lower health care costs, we're in the same place that we've always been,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents more than 800,000 workers in the federal government and Washington, D.C., on Monday effectively sided with Republicans who have been calling on Democrats to accept a GOP-crafted, House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through Nov. 21.

“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

Republicans hailed the statement, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) quoting Kelley at a Tuesday press conference and calling for Democrats to support a Republican stopgap measure to reopen the government. And Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday night the statement would........

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