we begin with the shutdown itself.

Senate Republicans need a handful of votes from Democrats in order to reopen the government, and fund it until November 21st, but most Democrats say they won't budge until Republicans extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of this year.

There are only two Democrats in the Senate who are breaking from their party, though, and one of them joins us now.

Nevada senior U.S.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, thank you for joining Nevada Week as we speak.

It is October 30th, day 30 of the shutdown.

You were on MSNBC this morning and about the shutdown ending.

You said the break is going to happen because senators are coming together to talk.

How soon will this shut down?

And do you think?

Well, the only thing I can tell you is the conversations are taking place and they need to.

And, Republicans and Democrats are talking, we're talking about how we end this impasse and move forward.

And I think that's important.

I can't I can't put a timeline on it.

But it's important that we continue to talk and move as quickly as possible.

How would you compare the amount of talking that's being done now compared to maybe a couple of weeks ago?

Well, I can tell you, I have been since the shutdown in constant conversation, with some of my Democratic colleagues and my Republican colleagues.

So that's been ongoing.

And I think it's important it continues.

And, what I have seen is there more of an uptick?

Yes, there is.

I think that is important as well.

And I ask about a timeline because is it possible that the government could reopen in time for Snap recipients to get their benefits on November 1st?

Well, you know, the Republicans are in control.

So today I'm going to find out whether, Republicans, at least on the Senate side, whether Majority Leader Thune is going to keep us here to work or not.

We their control, they control the calendar.

So we'll know this afternoon whether or not he is going to adjourn for the weekend, which I think is crazy.

And we should stay here and work.

And by the way, we don't even understand.

The house isn't even in session.

House has been gone for four weeks.

The speaker of the House has decided it's beneficial for him just to stay and keep everybody home, even though they're getting paid.

Your stance on breaking with Democrats has been that government shutdowns hurt people, and that federal workers should not be pawns.

And for that, you are receiving praise from the Trump administration, including from the US Energy secretary, Chris Wright.

He was in Nevada recently to announce the furloughing of 68 federal employees at the Nevada National Security site.

Let's listen to that.

This is among the most critical workers in our country.

They test, maintain, and ultimately construct the modernized version of our nuclear stockpile.

We need to take that deathly serious.

We've never had to furlough workers in this area before.

We need to end this as soon as possible.

Again, I thank Senator, Cortez Masto and I plead to Senator Rosen, who has stood for these workers and has stood for the importance of our nuclear security, to move her vote from abstain to in favor of continuing the funding.

Senator, your thoughts on what was said?

Well, I think from my perspective, and this is why I've always really focused on doing our job here.

And keeping the government open.

If we close it, people aren't going to get paid.

Federal workers are going to be furloughed or independent contractors that work right out there at the at the test site, may not get paid at all.

Right?

Federal workers will get furloughed.

They eventually get their pay back, but some independent contractors will not.

And then we have federal workers that are airports.

Right.

And so there's a number of people who would be harmed.

I'm also concerned by shutting down the government.

It's going to impact our tourism economy, which is already been impacted by the bad policies of this administration.

And this administration has gone through a process of, really kind of burning down the executive branch.

I don't want to give them more power to decide which agencies they want to open up or not open up.

So I've always been listen, I believe that we can keep the government open, do our jobs as appropriators, and still address what we see happening here, including in Nevada.

Is this looming health care crisis, particularly around the ACA tax credits right now?

And because of that health care crisis, that's why your fellow Democrats are holding out.

Have you spoken with Senator Jacky Rosen, your colleague from Nevada, who has said that she thinks a vote to reopen the government without a solid plan in place about extending those health care subsidies would be a little naive.

I talked to Jackie all the time.

I was just in a meeting with her.

So, let me just say Jackie and I are both fighting for Nevadans, and we're fighting to address the health care crisis in this country.

We just have a different way of going about doing it.

But our end game and the goal here is the same.

What has the political backlash been, if any, to breaking from Democrats I can tell you I have heard from people in our state, listen, I've heard from federal workers who thanked me.

I have heard from individuals, who have supported my position and understood it.

People who may disagree with me when I talk to them about why I felt it was important that, I believe we came to the governor's open and still solve Americans problems, including lowering health care crisis and, lowering prices at the grocery store, lowering energy prices, addressing the housing crisis.

We have, when I explain that, I think we can do both.

That's our job.

They understand it.

So, I, you know, for me, this is really about how we ensure we're working on behalf of Americans and solving their problems, not adding to it.

And I think that is important for us in Congress to do this.

It's okay to work across the aisle.

It's okay to compromise as long as we're working together to solve problems.

And there is too much Partizan bickering right now.

There's too much partizanship in in Congress.

And we've got to get back to a time where we are working together on behalf of the American public, because I can tell you, the number one issue I hear from events is high grocery costs, high prices, that they're dealing with the looming health care crisis.

Those are valid concerns of Nevadans, and that's where our focus should be.

One more note about the Nevada National Security site.

It is in the news because President Trump has directed the Pentagon to test nuclear weapons.

And conceivably that is where it would happen, is here in Nevada.

What do you think about that?

Absolutely not.

Let me just say this is another example of where Jackie and I have been talking together, about this very issue, including the entire delegation.

It's not going to happen.

And it should.

Absolutely not.

We have not tested out Nevada test sites since 1992, because right now they're already doing, testing on our nuclear stockpile in a safe and effective way to ensure that our nuclear stockpile, is, safe.

And there's a way to do it without having to blow anything up.

My concern is this president doesn't understand that.

And that's one of the reasons why I'm concerned about him being, the president of the United States.

But clearly, this is an example of where we need to be focused together and understanding our future and ensuring, by the way, that we have employees out there working.

If you recall, when the president first got into office and Doge happened and they started firing a lot of people, they let people go out at that test site that were actually responsible for protecting our nuclear stockpile.

So this is an example of where we need to work together and understand that we're protecting our national security.

That's a priority.

And you demonstrated bipartisanship, bipartisanship again on Wednesday when you sponsored two bills, one from Republicans, one from Democrats.

And that is to ensure that Americans have access to Snap benefits.

But even if these passed the Senate and they passed the House, why do you think that President Trump would sign them into law when he's already not honoring the money that Congress has appropriated in that contingency fund from the USDA in the event of an emergency that we're currently experiencing?

Well, that's something the president's going to have to explain to the American public.

But for my purposes, we should be saying, first of all, the government should be open.

But if it's not, we should be ensuring that we're protecting Americans.

And one of the eight is ensuring that the appropriations, the appropriate funding for Snap and Wick and everything else we're doing gets to Americans where they need it.

And let me just put a finer point on this.

As appropriators here in Congress, we appropriated the funds, even during a shutdown for that money to go to recipients of Snap.

This president and this administration has decided not to send that money out there.

That is just illegal.

And and it is something that is wrong and it's harming Americans.

And it goes back to what I'm saying.

There's too much partizan bickering, just too much political payments, mischief, for Partizanship here.

And it is harming Americans.

We have to get back to a time where we are working together to solve the problems of Americans across this country.

So of course, I'm going to support programing that gets essential funds to Nevadans, including Snap and Wick and anywhere else that we need to do to solve problems.

It makes life a little bit easier, for for Nevadans and Americans across this country.

Last thing.

All that work requires perhaps a lot of coffee.

Do you drink coffee?

I do, and I'm glad you brought it up, because it's a perfect example of, a policy of this administration.

These blanket tariffs that this administration has imposed is harming this country in the in the form of higher prices.

And these tariffs are taxes on consumers.

One perfect example is because of this blanket tariffs.

There are now taxes on Americans importing coffee from other countries.

Now keep in mind, 99% of the coffee that we consume in the United States comes in from other countries, because we don't have the, the, the opportunity or the enough growth, right, the to grow the coffee that we need.

So we import it most of the coffee comes from Brazil right now there's a 50% tax on Brazil, 50%.

And with a blanket tariffs on the other countries where we import, it's costing consumers more for their coffee.

This is one of the reasons why prior to this administration, we actually didn't put tariffs on coffee because 99% of it we import from other countries.

So we wanted to keep costs low for the consumer.

That's why Senator Paul and I introduced, the No Tax on Coffee Act, because we think this is a perfect example where, where we can have be smart about where we put our tariffs or where we do not.

This is an example where we need to keep costs down for consumers, even when it comes to your cup of coffee in the morning.

Senator Cortez Masto, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

Thank you.