Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday that there would be “strong” support within the Senate Republican conference for a proposal offered to Democrats by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to pay all federal workers — both essential and furloughed — during the government shutdown.

Democrats will be under pressure to support the proposal after Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called on Congress Monday to “pass a clean continuing resolution” to “end this shutdown today.”

Johnson, the lead GOP negotiator on paying federal employees during the shutdown, has made a major concession by proposing to pay all federal workers — essential and furloughed employees — during the shutdown. His Shutdown Fairness Act initially would have

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