AMNA NAWAZ: Well, meanwhile, as Liz reported, Congress is not meeting today.

It's in part to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

But when the Senate returns tomorrow, the question is, will anything change?

What is the way out of this shutdown?

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, has more.

LISA DESJARDINS: Party leaders are not budging.

President Trump is increasingly threatening Democrats and acting against Democratic states.

But there are some in the Senate trying to talk across the aisle and find a way forward.

One of those is Republican Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who joins me now.

Senator, you were center stage yesterday on the Senate floor during one of the votes.

You had an exchange of ideas with Democrats.

Obviously, there's no deal, but other than Democrats suddenly agreeing to your funding bill, what are the possible ways forward here?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): There really is no other way to start than starting government and opening it up again.

And that's part of the message that we're trying to share is, there's lots of ways using regular order, the traditional way in which we do appropriations and everything, to accomplish a lot of really good things in the Senate.

But nothing will happen until we get government opened up again.

And the best way to do that is with the continuing resolution that we have offered that would end on November 21.

That's just simply the best way to approach it while we have still got time is to open government back up.

And that's the message we're trying to share with our Democrat colleagues.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, you and I talked about this.

I know that you told Democrats you understand their health care concerns.

But talking to one of the key senators involved, Gary Peters, who I know you're working with, he says trust is really an issue here.

And he points out that President Trump has pulled back funding that Congress appropriated.

He's done that on his own.

He's frozen programs that Congress has approved.

Why should Democrats trust you that there will be a real health care way forward later?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: Let's just say that they don't trust us and let's just say they keep government shut down.

Then everything that they're working for is gone.

The best approach is to open government back up and allow the appropriations process, which was working correctly, to actually proceed.

We don't see another alternative to that.

LISA DESJARDINS: But you understand their concern, right?

Is there no mechanism where you can offer an incentive?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: There's not going to be any negotiations with them until they get the shutdown completed.

Once that happens then under regular order, there's lots of negotiations that can go on.

But it's really difficult to do negotiations when you have got a government shutdown going on.

And I think a lot of our colleagues have said, look, until we get that, it just means we will have one more demand after another demand.

We won't get anyplace.

And in the meantime, as I have shared with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, you are running out of time as well, because one of the things that they do care about, and like a lot of us, is, how do you address this thing for people that have been stuck with Obamacare and who, because of the expenses on it, are definitely going to want to have some assistance on it?

But the negotiations on that won't be worth much value come about the end of October.

So for those of us here, we're trying to tell them, you're running out of time.

Get past this shutdown and let's get back to regular order so we can really talk about the stuff.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Democrats say the time is urgent because while the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act run out at the end of December, open enrollment is just a month away, and insurers are already announcing those prices, those price increases.

What about that?

How do you respond to that concern, that you all really need to act now?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: We agree with them.

And the sooner they get passed the shutdown and get back to regular order, we can get into the middle of it.

It's going to take work on the part of the Finance Committee, on the part of the Health Committee to actually craft a way to get rid of some of the fraud and abuse that has been occurring, that's been acknowledged, and there's been criminal charges already filed because of some of it.

But in order to move forward, we have to get past the shutdown.

And every day that they keep the government in a shutdown is one last day that they have to actually work through regular order on appropriations in order to get anything done.

LISA DESJARDINS: The president, in his own words, is targeting Democratic states, freezing funding for some, and also saying he wants to target what he calls Democratic agencies.

That's really unprecedented in modern times.

Do you feel like that's appropriate?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: What I have told people is, is, look, I can't influence the president on the approach that he wants to take.

He's going to try to do everything he can to put pressure on our Democrat colleagues.

What he does is something that he will have to make the decisions on.

It's not something that we can go in and stop him from doing.

But what we can do is to get rid of the government shutdown.

And if we get rid of the shutdown, there's no reason for him to be doing that.

And so once again, look, we're within days of having enough time to actually work our way through everything else.

So my message, once again, get rid of the shutdown.

I know we're going back in.

We're talking about this on a Thursday evening.

On a Friday, we're going to have everybody come back in, and we're going to vote again.

We're hoping to be able to have our Democrat colleagues take a look at just the evidence of what we have had already with regard to appropriations this year, how far we have come already, and the goodwill that that's already developed.

And if we can get them back to regular order, we're convinced that lots of good things can happen.

And there's no limitation on the amendments and so forth that can be considered, moved, and so forth on those bills.

So -- but we're not going to negotiate until we get government shutdown out of the way.

LISA DESJARDINS: Senator, I know you say that the president's choices are his own, but you yourself are an important lawmaker.

And I know you're someone who cares about a nonpartisan civil service.

Are you concerned about this idea that the civil service is being used in a partisan way and that money's being cut off for Americans because of the way their state is perceived by the president?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: Look, right now, we're in the middle of a shutdown.

And in the middle of the shutdown, you have got a lot of those services being stopped and for no reason.

And so, look, some people will say, well, the president should do it different.

The president is saying, don't do a shutdown.

Number one, don't do a shutdown.

And if you're going to do a shutdown, then the executive branch has the ability then to respond accordingly.

And he's going to put pressure on them during this shutdown time period.

I used to tell people -- I worked as governor in South Dakota for a period of eight years.

And during that time, one of my messages to my legislative colleagues at that time was, you make the rules, you write the laws, but I play the game.

And that's something that I think our Democrat colleagues have got to remember.

The president will follow the law, but at this stage he has broad latitude about what he can do in the executive branch of government.

This goes moot if they will simply open government back up.

Open government back up.

Let's get back to what we were doing, which for the first time in years was the appropriations process.

Let's get back to that as soon as possible while they still have time to actually propose and to work on the modifications and additional things they want to do.

And they have got a time frame that they have got to get things done in as well that they feel strongly about.

I understand that.

Let's get this government shutdown behind us and let's go to work.

LISA DESJARDINS: Mass layoffs, the president is threatening them.

Are those required in a shutdown or is that a policy choice?

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: I think it'll be a policy choice, but remember, as the chief executive officer, as the president of the United States, he has very broad authority.

What our Democrat colleagues have got to remember is, if they make it easier for him to do those things, he has the decision-making process available to him.

He could -- they can stop that right now by simply not having a government shutdown.

LISA DESJARDINS: All right, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, thank you for joining us.

SEN.

MIKE ROUNDS: Thank you.