Senate Democrats have voted down a Republican bill to keep funding the government, putting it on a near-certain path to a shutdown after midnight Wednesday for the first time in almost seven years.
What we know:
A partisan standoff over health care and spending may cause the first U.S. government shutdown in seven years.
The Senate has voted down two short-term spending bills — one Democratic proposal and one Republican proposal.
Senate Democrats demand health care subsidies and Medicaid cuts be addressed before passing a funding bill.
Thousands of federal workers face furloughs or layoffs if the government shuts down at midnight Wednesday.
There are currently 4 hours before the government shuts down.
The 55-45 vote Tuesday on the bill to extend federal funding for seven weeks fell short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation. It came as Democrats are making good on their threat to close the government if President Donald Trump and Republicans won’t accede to their health care demands. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans are trying to “bully” Democrats by refusing to negotiate on an extension of health care benefits and other priorities.
A government closure would mean that hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed or laid off. Trump threatened retribution on Democrats for a potential shutdown, saying Tuesday that it could include “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
Instead of negotiating, Democrats and Republicans angrily blamed each other Tuesday and refused to budge from their positions.
“It’s only the president who can do this. We know he runs the show here,” Schumer said Tuesday morning, after a bipartisan White House meeting the day before yielded little progress. “Republicans have until midnight tonight to get serious with us,” Schumer said.
Trump and his fellow Republicans said they won’t entertain any changes to the legislation, arguing that it’s a stripped-down, “clean” bill that should be noncontroversial.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune. R-S.D., said Republicans “are not going to be held hostage” by the Democrats’ demands. The GOP-led House was on a weeklong recess, unavailable for immediate votes even if the Senate did find bipartisan agreement. And far from entering into negotiations, Trump instead posted a fake, mocking video of Democrats on Monday evening after the White House meeting.
After Tuesday’s votes, it was increasingly unlikely that either side would blink before the deadline.
Latest from Capitol Hill (all times eastern)
7:45 p.m.
On the heels of a failed vote to fund the government, Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid the blame at the feet of Democrats and said he would continue to press them to vote for a temporary funding bill.
“The Democratic Caucus here in the Senate has chosen to shut down the government over a clean, nonpartisan funding bill,” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said.
Republican leaders say they were encouraged that three members of the Democratic Caucus voted for their bill.
“We can reopen it tomorrow,” Thune said, adding that he was looking for a handful of Democrats to break party lines.
7:20 p.m.
The 55-45 vote on the bill to extend federal funding for seven weeks has fallen short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation.
The failed vote comes as Democrats are making good on their threat to close the government if Trump and Republicans won’t accede to their health care demands. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans are trying to “bully” Democrats by refusing to negotiate on an extension of health care benefits and other priorities.
Instead of negotiating, Democrats and Republicans have angrily blamed each other and refused to budge from their positions.
6:15 p.m.
The Senate is voting — one more time — on a temporary bill to fund the government and avert a federal shutdown.
But the outcome may be no different than the last time.
Democrats are rejecting the Republican bill that would fund operations into mid-November because it fails to include funds they are demanding to save health care programs. A Democratic-led bill that includes funding was again defeated.
5 p.m.
Sen. John Kennedy is arguing that Democrats’ demands in the government funding fight are not really about policy, but instead placating the demands of their political base.
“This shutdown is about politics,” The Louisiana Republican said in a floor speech.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer did indeed face fierce backlash from liberal groups for allowing a government funding bill to advance to a final vote in March. This time, Democrats have made clear policy demands and are arguing that President Donald Trump is at fault for refusing to compromise with them.
But as a shutdown approached, Kennedy also predicted that it would be difficult to resolve the impasse if funding lapses after midnight.
“We’re not going to give into their demands,” Kennedy said.
4:15 p.m.
A group of labor unions filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Office of Management and Budget, its Director Russ Vought, Office of Personnel Management and its Director Scott Kupor, claiming that the Trump administration violated the law by threatening to perform a mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown.
The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are plaintiffs in the suit.
They allege that the administration’s plan to fire federal employees during a shutdown is an unlawful abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress and violates the very laws that govern how shutdowns are supposed to function.
“Announcing plans to fire potentially tens of thousands of federal employees simply because Congress and the administration are at odds on funding the government past the end of the fiscal year is not only illegal – it’s immoral and unconscionable,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a news release.
3:30 p.m.
Concern has lingered among Democrats that some senators may vote with Republicans to prevent a shutdown.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Sen. Angus King have declined to say how they will vote. But they did appear together in an informal hearing on the impacts of expiring ACA tax credits, saying the issue needed to be addressed now.
“There’s real urgency to extending the ACA premium tax credit payments now, because kicking the can down the road is going to make a real difference,” Shaheen said.
“The clock is ticking. Each day we wait makes the solution harder,” she added. “Waiting to act will leave more Americans uninsured.”
King told the Associated Press after the hearing that he hadn’t decided how he would vote, but that the hearing “underlines the importance of this.”
2:45 p.m.
With two months left in the Atlantic hurricane season, authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program is set to expire at the end of Tuesday if Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill.
Millions of policyholders rely on the NFIP to secure flood coverage that’s rarely part of standard homeowners policies and is required for mortgages in areas deemed high-risk.
While NFIP claims can still be paid during a lapse, new policies cannot be sold and existing ones can’t add coverage or be renewed.
Past freezes have wrought havoc on real estate transactions in flood-prone areas. When NFIP authorization lapsed for about 30 days in June 2010, an estimated 1,400 home sales were canceled or delayed daily, according to the National Association of Realtors.
2:15 p.m.
Mike Johnson’s office displays a video criticizing Democrats for past shutdown comments.
Tourists walking through the Capitol halls stopped to watch the looped video message on a wide-screen TV stationed in front of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
It began with a title screen, “Democrats on shutdowns in their words,” and showed past comments from lawmakers when they condemned potential shutdowns. The videos included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Katherine Clarke, the Democratic Whip, as well as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.
“Under President Trump their tune has suddenly changed…” a message reads before shifting to news headlines that describe how Democrats have called for a government shutdown if a bipartisan deal isn’t reached to extend the current federal budget.
1:45 p.m.
GOP senator John Kennedy warns that the White House budget director will make the shutdown ‘very painful’ for Democrats.
“I don’t think they have thought through what I believe the OMB director is going to do while government is shut down, I think they’re going to make it very painful,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican.
Kennedy said he had “no inside information” about how Russ Vought, the White House’s director for the Office of Management, planned to respond to a potential government shutdown.
1:15 p.m.
The president continued to attempt to blame congressional Democrats, despite Republicans controlling both chamber of Congress and the White House.
“They are shutting it down, we’re not shutting it down,” he said.
Trump also threatened political retribution unless a funding deal is reached.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible that are bad for them, and then irreversible by them,” he said, suggesting reductions to federal programs Democrats support.
Trump didn’t elaborate but said actions during a shutdown could include “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
12:45 p.m.
The Environmental Protection Agency says a contingency plan for a possible government shutdown would leave more than 10% of its staff in place to handle “significant agency activities” that are required by law or necessary to protect life and property.
Activities that would continue include protection of EPA land, buildings, equipment and ongoing research, as well as law enforcement and criminal investigations and emergency and disaster assistance, according to a contingency plan obtained by The Associated Press.
Response work on certain Superfund clean-up sites also would continue, especially in cases where a failure to maintain operations would pose an imminent threat to human life, the memo says.
More than 1,700 employees would be required to go to work if a shutdown begins on Wednesday, the memo said. The agency had about 15,000 employees when Trump began his second term in January but has laid off hundreds of employees and offered voluntary retirement or deferred resignations to thousands more as part of a broader effort by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce.
Trump’s proposed budget for EPA says 12,856 employees are expected in the budget year that starts Wednesday.
12:30 p.m. House Democrats filled the House chamber as they tried to show they were ready to take up government funding — as long as it is on their terms.
The House was holding a pro forma session — a session where the House chamber is quickly opened and closed without any legislative business — but Democrats, who are in Washington to show support for their government shutdown fight, filled their side of the chamber.
They took the opportunity to try to offer up their bill to fund the government while also funding their health care priorities.
Still, the session was closed without the Democrats gaining acknowledgement.
The lawmakers protested, some of them chanting “shame on you,” while others snapped photos of the crowd in the chamber.
11 a.m.
“It’s only the president who can do this. We know he runs the show here,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday morning after a bipartisan White House meeting the day before yielded little apparent progress. Schumer said Republicans are trying to “bully” Democrats by refusing to negotiate.
10 a.m.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says about 97% of its workforce will continue to work if there’s a government shutdown and its medical centers, clinics and vet centers will stay open.
But some programs, such as transition program assistance, career counseling and benefits regional offices, won’t be available, according to the federal agency’s contingency plans. The agency will continue to deliver benefits, perform burials at VA cemeteries and operate suicide prevention programs.
In an unusually partisan statement, the agency blamed “radical liberals in Congress” for a shutdown and said, “If they succeed, they will stop critical Veterans care and assistance programs.”
For a full story on the prospects of a government shutdown, read below.
Blame game escalates
While partisan stalemates over government spending are a frequent occurrence in Washington, the current impasse comes as Democrats see a rare opportunity to use their leverage to achieve policy goals and as their base voters are spoiling for a fight with Trump. Republicans who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate would likely need at least eight votes from Democrats to end a filibuster and pass the bill with 60 votes, since Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to vote against it.
Still, Schumer said Trump and Republicans would be to blame if the government shuts down.
A handful of Democrats said they were still deciding how to vote, holding out for a last-minute compromise. Thune said he is “hoping there are Democrats out there who are reasonable and understand what’s at stake here.”
The last shutdown was in Trump’s first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, when he demanded that Congress give him money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.
Democrats’ health care asks
Millions of people could face higher insurance premiums if the health care subsidies expire at the end of the year. Congress first put them in place in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats say they want the subsidies immediately extended. They have also demanded that Republicans reverse the Medicaid cuts that were enacted as a part of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” this summer and for the White House to promise it will not move to rescind spending passed by Congress.
“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
Thune has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later. Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits, but many are strongly opposed to it.
In rare, pointed back-and-forth with Schumer on the Senate floor Tuesday morning, Thune said Republicans “are happy to fix the ACA issue” and have offered to negotiate with Democrats — if they will vote to keep the government open until Nov. 21.
No agreement at the White House
The bipartisan meeting at the White House on Monday was Trump’s first with all four leaders in Congress since retaking the White House for his second term. But Trump made it clear he had little interest in negotiations.
“Their ideas are not very good ones,” Trump said of Democrats before the meeting.
Schumer had appeared to be holding out hope that Trump could be open to a deal. He told reporters afterward that the group had “had candid, frank discussions” about health care. He said Trump “was not aware” of the potential for health insurance costs to skyrocket once expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits expire Dec. 31.
But Trump did not appear to be ready for serious talks. Hours later, Trump posted a fake video of Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries taken from footage of their real press conference outside of the White House after the meeting. In the altered video, a voiceover that sounds like Schumer’s voice makes fun of Democrats and Jeffries stands beside him with a cartoon sombrero and mustache. Mexican music plays in the background.
At a news conference on the Capitol steps Tuesday morning, Jeffries said it was a “racist and fake AI video.”
Schumer said that “we have less than a day to figure this out” and Trump is trolling on the Internet “like a 10-year-old.”
Democrats’ health care asks
Millions of people could face higher insurance premiums if the health care subsidies expire at the end of the year. Congress first put them in place in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats say they want the subsidies immediately extended. They have also demanded that Republicans reverse the Medicaid cuts that were enacted as a part of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” this summer and for the White House to promise it will not move to rescind spending passed by Congress.
“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later. Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits, but many are strongly opposed to it. Thune has said Republicans would want new limits on the expanded subsidies — something Democrats would not likely agree to.
In a back-and-forth with Schumer on the Senate floor Tuesday morning, Thune said Republicans “are happy to fix the ACA issue” and have offered to negotiate with Democrats — if they will vote to keep the government open until Nov. 21. Thune said Democrats would “have the same leverage then” as they do now.
A crucial, and unusual, vote for Democrats
Democrats are in an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive, and it’s unclear how or when it would end. But party activists and voters have argued that Democrats need to do something to stand up to Trump.
Some groups called for Schumer’s resignation in March after he and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote.
Schumer said then that he voted to keep the government open because a shutdown would have made things worse as Trump’s administration was slashing government jobs. He says now that he believes things have changed, including the passage this summer of the massive GOP tax cut bill that reduced Medicaid.
Some of the Democrats who voted with Schumer in March to keep the government open were still holding out hope for a compromise. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters said Monday there’s still time before the early Wednesday deadline.
“A lot can happen in this place in a short period of time,” Peters said.
Shutdown preparations begin
The stakes are huge for federal workers across the country as the White House told agencies last week that they should consider “a reduction in force” for many federal programs if the government shuts down.
That means that workers who are not deemed essential could be fired instead of just furloughed. Either way, most would not get paid.
Trump said Tuesday that “we may do a lot” of layoffs, “and it’s only because of the Democrats.”
Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, told reporters at the White House that a shutdown would be managed “appropriately, but it is something that can all be avoided” if Senate Democrats accepted the House-passed bill.