The federal government shutdown, which began on October 1, 2025, continues. And the fundamental issues have not changed.

Yet neither of our senators, Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dave McCormick, are on the right side.

The Republicans seek to pass a continuing resolution (CR) that would extend the budget from the year that ended on September 30th through sometime in November when, presumably, a full-year budget would be passed.

That bill must be approved by a majority of the House and, because of the filibuster, 60 votes in the Senate. To get to 60 votes, the Republicans need seven Democrats to vote for the CR. Because some Republicans in the House seek cuts to the budget, some Democratic votes may be necessary to pass the bill there as well. 

The need for Democratic votes means that this is a unique moment at which Democrats—and perhaps even a few Republicans who have concerns about recent policy changes—have some leverage over the budget.

Senators Fetterman and McCormick should be using their leverage to protect our health care and democracy. But they’re not.

Please use this online tool today to ask your representative and Senators Fetterman and McCormick to use this leverage to attain two important goals:

• Help millions of Americans to secure health insurance by rolling back the cuts to Medicaid in the huge, ugly reconciliation bill and permanently extending the expanded tax credits for people who get insurance through the ACA exchanges. 

• Take steps to stop President Trump from ignoring the will of the people and Congress by unilaterally freezing spending that has been lawfully enacted. 

Click here for more information about the current budget fight and what we are encouraging our representatives and senators to do.

These demands have led to a temporary shutdown of the federal government. And the lack of public services has been painful for some people. We regret this and will be sending out some ideas to mitigate the pain soon. But people will die if they lose health insurance and we think that some short-term pain is worth suffering to fight for health insurance for our fellow citizens and for the rights of the people and Congress, not President Trump, to determine our spending priorities.

In addition, we believe this effort will both educate the public about what's at stake in the budget and mobilize people to oppose the Trump / Republican attacks on health care and democracy.