Senate Republicans are moving to try to end the government shutdown by preparing a new bipartisan package of spending bills and daring Democrats to vote for it, but it was unclear if their plan would work.

Many Democrats said they would continue to hold out for an extension of expiring health care subsidies, which was not expected to be part of the legislation.

Senate Democrats, who have now voted 14 times not to reopen the government, left their second caucus meeting of the week Thursday with few answers about whether they eventually could find a compromise with Republicans — or even with each other — on how to end the shutdown.

A test vote on the new package, which had not yet been publicly revealed, could come as soon as Friday. Democrats will then have a crucial choice to make: Do they keep fighting for a meaningful deal on extending health care subsidies that expire in January, while extending the pain of the shutdown? Or do they vote to reopen the government and hope for the best as Republicans promise an eventual health care vote, but not a guaranteed outcome?

Emboldened by overwhelmingly favorable elections earlier this week, many Democrats say the fight isn’t over until Republicans and President Donald Trump negotiate with them on an extension.

"We're not asking to fix all the problems in the health care system. We're not asking you to erase all the damage they did in the big, beautiful bill. We're just saying put off the 100-200% premium increases on families in this country," said Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut.

Murphy also said the shutdown could end quickly, if Republicans negotiated with Democrats.

"The Republicans and Donald Trump refuse to negotiate with Democrats. We didn't have any shutdowns when Joe Biden was president, not because there weren't big disagreements between Republicans and Democrats, but because Democrats negotiated with Republicans. So the minute we have a negotiation, we'll be able to solve this in ten minutes," he said.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said the problem is the Democrats' insistence on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.

"Republicans are not going to vote to extend the Obamacare subsidies for the exchanges without changes. I'm not even sure what the changes are, we will agree to do it with changes. But I know we're not going to have Democrats what they want. If the Democrats insist on a vote, and the last time I talked to them, they wanted a vote on the Obamacare subsidies and a guaranteed passage, then we're going to be shut down for a long time. Because that's just not going to happen," he said.