Senators on Capitol Hill are in a stalemate over health care. The Senate is expected to take its sixth vote today on stopgap funding bills that would reopen the government, but with deliberations at a standstill, it appears unlikely that this will happen.

Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat, has been serving in the Senate in 2023. A member of the Senate Finance Committee, he was Vermont’s representative to Congress for 16 years. In an interview on Vermont Edition, Senator Welch weighed in the federal government shutdown.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mikaela Lefrak: Senator, Democrats are saying that this standoff on Capitol Hill right now all comes down to one key issue, health care. You and other Democrats have decided to shut down the federal governmen

See Full Page