U.S. Government Shutdown Begins After Senate Rejects Funding Bill, 750,000 Workers Face Furloughs
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The federal government shut down early Wednesday after Senate Democrats blocked a Republican funding measure, triggering the first lapse in government operations in more than six years and furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal workers with no clear path to resolution.
The shutdown began at midnight after Democrats refused to support a House-passed stopgap bill that would extend current funding levels for seven weeks, demanding Republicans negotiate over enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire later this year. Republicans rejected those demands and vowed to force repeated votes on their funding plan until Democrats yield.
“Let me be clear: Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. This is their shutdown,” former Vice President Kamala Harris said in a post on social media platform X.
House Speaker Mike Johnson countered that assessment, declaring on the same platform: “Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government.”
The White House website now features a ticking clock marking the duration of the shutdown alongside text stating “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government,” making clear the administration’s position in the escalating blame game between the parties.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a joint statement placing responsibility squarely on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
“After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people,” the Democratic leaders said.
Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Tuesday they will not negotiate until the government reopens, creating an impasse with Democrats who are leveraging their votes to force healthcare discussions.
The shutdown means hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed, while others considered essential must continue reporting for work without immediate pay. Some federal workers will continue collecting paychecks since their jobs are not funded through annual appropriations from Congress
.
Trump said at the White House before the deadline that “we don’t want it to shut down,” but the president, who met privately with congressional leadership this week, failed to broker any agreement between the parties.
The Office of Management and Budget ordered federal agencies hours before midnight to launch their shutdown plans. Director Russell Vought’s letter to agency heads blamed Democrats for the funding lapse.
“President Trump supports passage of H.R. 5371, but it is now clear that Democrats will prevent passage of this clean CR prior to 11:59pm tonight and force a government shutdown,” Vought wrote. “As such, affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.”
The Senate voted along party lines to reject both a Democratic proposal that included healthcare subsidies and the Republican stopgap measure. Senate GOP leaders plan to hold repeated votes on their funding plan.
Thune vowed to force continued votes on the Republican-backed measure in an effort to pressure at least five more Senate Democrats to support the package.
“If the senator, Leader Schumer wants to sit down, have a conversation, he knows where I am,” Thune told CNN. “But we are going to give him additional opportunities to vote on this on keeping it open.”
The Republican leader threw cold water on changing the package to secure Democratic votes.
“We need to keep the government the government open, we can talk about whatever else they want to talk about after that,” he said.
Only three Democrats who voted to keep the government funded in March joined most Senate Republicans in supporting the stopgap: Sens. John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Senate Democrats who blocked the funding measure said they voted against it to force Republicans to the negotiating table over healthcare subsidies.
“We’ve watched President Trump over the last six months destroy our government, put families at risk, hike costs on health care, to have another increase on people’s access to health care is another increase they can’t afford,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told CNN.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring after this term, said: “When I first came into office, I fought for the Affordable Care Act so that people could have quality affordable health care, and as I’m leaving, I don’t want to see that eroded away.”
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said she decided to vote against the bill to force Republicans into talks on Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“I thought getting this done so that we can now hopefully get back to the negotiating table was the best approach,” she said.
Schumer said he was eager to discuss a deal over $1 trillion in healthcare subsidies, warning that 20 million Americans would soon receive insurance rate hikes unless Republicans agree to act.
“There are going to be millions of American families sitting down and saying, how are we going to pay these damn bills?” Schumer said. “There’s going to be a crescendo through the beginning of October, the vast majority of Americans get those bills and they’re going to say, what the heck are we going to do?”
Johnson told CNN that the shutdown was “inevitable now,” casting blame at Schumer for not securing Democratic support for the GOP proposal.
“There’s nothing to negotiate,” Johnson said. “So the only question tonight is how long will Chuck Schumer keep the government closed? It’s a dangerous gambit.”
The speaker said House Republicans will return to Congress next week but added there would not be significant floor activity until the government reopens.
Johnson also addressed Trump’s comments that “a lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” saying the administration must now make tough choices about which services are essential.
“Chuck Schumer has just given the White House unilateral authority to make those permanent decisions about programs that should survive and those that should be eliminated,” Johnson said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stressed that Democrats remain willing to negotiate on government funding.
“We’re saying let’s fund the government. Let’s sit down and have a conversation,” Jeffries told CNN.
When asked about Trump posting what was described as a racist, AI-generated video of himself and Schumer, Jeffries called the president “an unserious individual.”
“We just don’t have serious negotiating partners right now,” Jeffries said.
Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean confronted Johnson off the House floor over the video, which Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Not your style? It’s disgraceful. It’s racist. You should call it out,” Dean told the speaker when he said the video “wasn’t my style.”
Johnson responded: “I love you and I respect you, OK?”
Vought said Schumer could still “come back from the brink” to avoid extended shutdown consequences, warning that layoffs could result otherwise.
“There are all manner of authorities to be able to keep this administration’s policy agenda moving forward, and that includes reducing the size and scope of the federal government, and we will be looking for their opportunities to do that,” Vought said on Fox Business.
He said the government has authority to cut jobs and programs rather than just furlough workers.
“We have the authority to make permanent change to the bureaucracy here in government,” Vought said, though he did not specify how much the federal employee count could be reduced.
The White House also displayed a video compilation of Democratic leaders from previous years warning about government shutdown consequences and criticizing Republican “hostage” tactics, highlighting what the administration views as Democratic hypocrisy.
Schumer said Tuesday that the difference now is the current Republican bill “has not one iota of Democratic input.”
“That is never how we’ve done this before,” he added.
The shutdown marks the first federal funding lapse since 2019. Leaders of both parties are privately and publicly adamant they will not be blamed for the closure.
Republicans insist Democrats need to simply agree to extend current funding for seven weeks. Democrats refuse without major concessions on healthcare subsidies.
Senators left the Capitol in deep uncertainty about how long the shutdown could last. The Senate is scheduled to vote again Wednesday morning on the same GOP funding plan, which Republican leaders vowed to put on the floor repeatedly until enough Democrats yield
.
Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a video from Capitol Hill: “Make no mistake, our government has shut down because Republicans refuse to negotiate with Democrats and do their job.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett echoed similar sentiments, saying Republicans “had every tool to govern and chose chaos instead.”
House Republicans responded on social media: “Democrats have officially shut down the federal government. They’re putting illegal aliens FIRST and hurting hardworking Americans in the process.”
Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis said in a statement: “It’s time for Senate Democrats to stop these political games and join Republicans in doing the right thing for the American people by voting to keep our government and National Parks funded.”
The impasse leaves federal operations in limbo with no clear timeline for resolution as both parties maintain hardline positions and blame each other for the shutdown’s consequences.
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