A large part of the federal government is now shut down after Republicans and Democrats in the Senate failed to reach an agreement on government funding.
The Republican-controlled House approved a bill earlier this month that would keep the government funded at current levels until November 21. Senate Democrats refused to support that bill in an attempt to force Republicans to negotiate on Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
Democrats introduced their own short-term measure that would fund the government until the end of October and extend those expiring health subsidies. Republicans blocked that measure. Both proposals needed 60 votes to pass, and both failed largely along party lines.
Shortly after the failed votes on Tuesday, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought instructed affected federal agencies to “execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.”
It is unclear how widespread the shutdown’s impact will be or how long the funding suspensions will last. Critical services, including Social Security, VA benefits, and Medicare and Medicaid payments, will continue, but people who need those resources may face delays.
Non-essential federal jobs will face the most direct impacts, meaning there may be slowdowns in some government services and many federal employees will go without pay.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 750,000 federal employees could be placed on unpaid furlough daily.
The Senate plans to vote again on both short-term funding measures on Wednesday, though it is unlikely that either will pass. Congress will be in recess on Thursday in observance of Yom Kippur.
President Trump also indicated he may take additional actions to reform the government. On Tuesday afternoon, he alluded to the possibility of mass firings of federal employees and eliminating programs in the event of a shutdown.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “We can fire a large number of people. We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Some impacts will be immediate, while others will only take effect if the shutdown drags on.
Hundreds of thousands of federal and active-duty military employees could miss their paychecks starting in mid-October. Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration employees are considered essential, but some have missed work during previous shutdowns when asked to work without pay.
The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — known as WIC — may soon run out of money.
It is unclear whether national parks will remain open. During the last shutdown, the parks stayed open even without staff.
On Day 1 of the shutdown, Democrats and Republicans dig in
Lawmakers intensified mutual accusations on Wednesday as the first impacts of the shutdown began to take effect.
Republicans accused Democrats of holding the federal budget hostage to advance their policy goals. Speaking from the Capitol on Wednesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., highlighted some of the shutdown’s effects on the federal workforce.
“As we speak here this morning, there are hundreds of thousands of federal employees receiving their furlough notices,” Johnson said. “Our troops and our border patrol agents will have to go to work, but they’ll work without pay. Food assistance, veterans’ benefits, and vital support for women and children are all stopping.”
Democrats continue arguing that they are fighting to protect Americans’ health while pushing to extend insurance subsidies and also trying to repeal health program cuts that were approved in the GOP tax and spending bill passed earlier this summer.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on his Republican colleagues to negotiate a bipartisan package to address funding and health costs.
“Donald Trump and Republicans dragged us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect Americans’ health,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “It’s clear that the path out of this shutdown is to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to address the looming health crisis facing tens of millions of American families.”
As the funding deadline approached, lawmakers ramped up mutual accusations over the impending shutdown.
How long will the shutdown last?
Republican leaders say they plan to continue holding votes on their stopgap funding measure, hoping to attract more Democrats as the shutdown drags on.
“When we had a vote on our proposal to keep the government open right before the recess, we had one Democratic vote,” Republican Whip John Barrasso said Tuesday night. “Tonight, we had three. So, the cracks are starting to show.”
Two Democrats, Senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and one independent, Angus King of Maine — who caucuses with Democrats — voted for the Republican bill on Tuesday.
“We need a bipartisan solution to address this looming health crisis, but we shouldn’t trade one group of Americans’ pain for another’s,” Cortez Masto said.
But six Democrats who voted yes on the continuing resolution when it was first voted on in March refused to support the measure this time. And, like Thune, Schumer also said he believes some members on the other side may eventually find their position untenable.
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Republican to oppose the measure on Tuesday.
The last government shutdown, from December 2018 to January 2019, lasted 35 days and was the longest in U.S. history.
With Republicans and Democrats signaling they are unwilling to budge, there is no clarity on the path out of the shutdown — or how long it will last.
Source: npr.org by Sam Gringlas, Lexie Schapitl, Elena Moore