WATCH LIVE: The Senate meets as Republicans prepare to vote on a bill without health care reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators are trying to end the government shutdown by preparing a bipartisan package of spending bills that they hope will win new Democratic votes. It is unclear whether their plan will succeed.

The Senate will meet at noon. Watch in the player above.

Democrats have voted 14 times not to reopen the government as they demand an extension of expiring health care subsidies, which are not expected to be part of the legislation. Many said Thursday they would continue to hold out until President Donald Trump and Republican leaders negotiate an extension with them.

“That’s what leaders do,” said Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. “You have the hammer, you have the majority, you have to bring people together.”

A trial vote on the new package, which has not been announced, could be held on Friday.

Democrats will then have a crucial choice: Do they continue to struggle to reach a real deal on extending benefits that expire in January, while prolonging the shutdown? Or do they vote to reopen the government and hope for the best while Republicans promise a final vote on health care, but no guaranteed outcome?

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has not yet weighed in. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Democrats are “clearly not unanimous” but “without something on health care, the vote is unlikely to succeed.”

However, some Democrats feel a growing urgency to alleviate the growing crisis at airports, pay government workers, and restore delayed food aid to millions of people now that the shutdown is the longest in U.S. history. A small group is working with Republicans on a deal that would reopen the government by agreeing only on future votes on health care.

Republicans have only five votes so far as they have made repeated calls to fund the government. Even a simple defection from the Democratic ranks could break the impasse.

Democrats “are working on unity and on health care,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

A new effort to reopen the government

Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s decision to keep the Senate in session on Friday, and possibly through the weekend, came after Trump urged Republicans at a White House breakfast on Wednesday to end the shutdown. Trump said he believed the six-week impasse was a “huge negative factor” for Republicans in Tuesday’s election, which overwhelmingly favored Democrats.

Thune’s bipartisan package would fund parts of the government — food aid, veterans programs, and the legislative branch, among others — and extend funding for everything else through December or January. The three individual spending bills that will be included are the product of bipartisan negotiations that have continued throughout the shutdown.

This package will replace the bill passed by the House of Representatives and repeatedly rejected by Democrats. It will extend government funding only until November 21, a date that is rapidly approaching after six weeks of inaction.

It reflects a tentative plan that moderate Democrats have been drawing up. The proposal, led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., would also address Republicans’ offer to hold a vote on extending expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies at a later date.

It was not clear what Thune, who refused to negotiate during the government shutdown, would pledge regarding health care.

Johnson deals a setback to the talks between the two parties

Democrats face pressure from unions eager to end the shutdown and from allied groups that want them to hold out. Many Democrats have argued that Democratic victories on Election Day show that voters want them to keep fighting until Republicans give in and agree to extend the health tax credits.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the vote on health care subsidies “has to mean something.” “This means a commitment from the Speaker of the House that he will support the legislation that the President will sign.”

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, made clear that he would not make any commitments. “I’m not promising anyone anything,” Johnson said when asked if he could promise a vote on the health care bill.

Johnson’s clear refusal was a setback for the negotiators. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, one of the moderate Democrats involved in the negotiations, said the speaker’s comments were “a big problem.”

“We have to make sure we reach an agreement that we can get broad support for,” Peters said.

As Democrats try to figure out what to do, Schumer has not said when he thinks the shutdown should end. He and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York have invited Trump to sit down with them and negotiate — a meeting that seems unlikely to happen.

“Clearly, Donald Trump is feeling pressure to end this shutdown,” Schumer said.

Closed negotiations become public

Democrats and Republicans speaking insisted they were making steady progress on reaching an agreement.

Republicans suggested Thursday that they might be open to including language in a final agreement that would reverse some of the mass firings of government employees by the White House, according to two people familiar with the private conversations who granted anonymity to discuss it. It was not clear whether this proposal would be included in the new package.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican who has been speaking with Democrats, says she wants furloughed workers to get paid again, and for workers who were laid off during the shutdown to be “recalled.”

“We are still negotiating that language,” she said.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.