On the first day of the government shutdown, Republicans laid out a simple response to Democrats’ refusal to support a seven-week funding extension—not giving in to any of their demands. “Democrats could have worked with us in a bipartisan manner to avert this unnecessary and very harmful shutdown. Even if all Senate Republicans unite in support of the bill, they still need at least seven Democrat votes to proceed. Republicans backed the bill nearly unanimously, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who disagrees with extending Biden-era spending, being the only defection. We literally did not put one single partisan provision in the bill,” Johnson said.