Sen. Rand Paul has a new idea to end the government shutdown, calling on President Donald Trump to appoint a bipartisan commission to address the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies at the heart of negotiations.
“I suggest that President Trump come forward and name three Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate to an official commission to figure this out over a one-month period and come back with a solution,” Paul said in a Sunday interview with Fox News. “But in exchange for that, I think the Democrats need to open the government for a month, and then we need to pay the workers, pay our soldiers.”
Paul has been the lone Senate Republican in recent weeks to vote against the GOP funding proposal, citing his concern over increased deficit spending — the same reason he voted against the president’s massive federal spending bill earlier this year.
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Trump, in response, has singled out Paul in recent attacks. The Kentucky Republican was not included in a gathering of Republican Senators at the White House Rose Garden last week.
“Everybody showed up ... we’re just missing one person, you’ll never guess who that is,” Trump said at the event, hinting at Paul. “He automatically votes ‘no’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, it’s really not good politics. He’s an automatic ‘no.’”
Sen. Rand Paul on the government shutdown: "If you put Senator Kaine and I in a room, I think we could figure something out...I suggest President Trump come forward, name three Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate to an official commission to figure this out." pic.twitter.com/D5eP2d6vid
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) October 26, 2025
Paul told NOTUS earlier this month he felt the president “understands” him, but that was two days before Trump called him “a sick wacko” on Truth Social.
“Whatever happened to ‘Senator’ Rand Paul? He was never great, but he went really BAD! I got him elected, TWICE (in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky!), but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party,” Trump posted. “He’s a nasty liddle’ guy…a sick Wacko, who refuses to vote for our great Republican Party, MAGA, or America First. It’s really weird!!!”
The White House did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment on Paul’s proposal for an ACA commission. Despite the ongoing shutdown, Trump is on a trip through Asia, negotiating trade agreements and engaging in diplomacy.
The federal government has been shut down for nearly all of October, and negotiations have been at a standstill the entire time. Democrats refuse to back down from their position: demanding extensions to the expiring health care subsidies.
Some Senate Republicans have considered other unconventional methods of reopening the government, including eliminating the filibuster, which creates the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the spending bill.
The ACA open enrollment deadline is nearing, adding pressure to the negotiations as millions of Americans face increased health insurance premiums.
“A lot of Republicans I talked to know that these premium increases are going to be brutal on the folks they represent,” Vermont Sen. Peter Welch told NOTUS last week.
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