Senate Democrats will soon have their eighth and final chance to pass their version of a short-term funding bill to reopen the government, as GOP leaders will no longer allow votes on what they say is an unrealistic measure.

For weeks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has permitted Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to bring up Democrats’ proposal, which has an array of progressive priorities, including a permanent extension for expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are the epicenter of the shutdown.

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“You don’t hijack the federal government to try and create $1.5 trillion of new spending, free healthcare for noncitizens,” Thune told reporters Friday. “This isn’t even realistic. They’re not serious people, and it’s time they came to their senses and did the right thing.”

Under Senate rules, the GOP majority has afforded the Democratic minority courtesy votes for the past seven failed attempts. Based on procedural steps taken on Thursday, Democrats will be afforded one more vote to be held at their discretion.

The new strategy is part of a broader GOP effort to place increased pressure on Senate Democrats to reach a 60-vote filibuster threshold and end what became a 10-day shutdown on Friday.

Only the GOP’s “clean” House-passed stopgap proposal will be considered rather than holding more back-to-back votes on the dueling funding bills that on Thursday failed for their seventh time to overcome a Democratic filibuster. The decision was made by Thune just hours later, after Democrats labeled insufficient a possible shutdown off-ramp from Republicans for a stand-alone vote on Obamacare subsidies, according to a senior GOP aide.

The Senate departed on Thursday and will not return until Tuesday, ensuring that the shutdown will extend into a third week and result in missed paychecks for most federal workers, including active-duty military members.

In addition to a permanent pandemic-era subsidy extension, a nonstarter for both GOP-controlled chambers, the Democratic proposal would reverse Medicaid changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and restore public media funding, rescissions, impoundment, and other spending freezes by the Trump administration.

“What they’re talking about is unserious,” Thune said. “It’s been unserious from the very beginning. A conversation about what we do on the expiring enhanced ACA subsidies — there’s a lot of conversations going on around that, but that doesn’t happen until we get the government open.”

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Schumer did not respond to a request for comment, but the change was set to undoubtedly prompt pushback from Democrats.

“In plain English: Senate Republicans won’t even allow a vote on lowering your health care costs,” posted David Bergstein, a spokesman for Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).