Federal government shuts down after Senate fails to pass funding measures

(WASHINGTON) — The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday after the Senate was unable to pass Democratic and Republican proposals on Tuesday.

Both proposals fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass. The Democratic plan which would have restored $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts passed into law this summer on top of a permanent extension of the Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, went down along party lines, 47-53.

Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman and independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, voted for the Republican plan that would have extended funding for seven weeks, but it failed on a 55-45 vote. Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican to vote against it.

Congressional leaders pointed fingers at one another over the course of the day leading up to the votes.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon that Democrats had voted for continuing resolutions to keep the government funded 13 times when they were in the majority.

“It begs the question as to what’s changed. And I think what’s changed is President Trump is in the White House. That’s what this is about. This is politics and there isn’t any substantive reason why there ought to be a government shutdown.”

The Republicans’ “clean” continuing resolution would have kept the government funded through mid-November after passing one in March that carried the government through the end of the fiscal year.

But Democrats are holding out for a deal that would restore Medicaid cuts that were part of President Donald Trump’s tax and policy bill passed into law this summer on top of a permanent extension of the Obamacare subsidies that were set to expire at the end of the year, saving health insurance for 3.8 million people at a cost of $350 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held firm to his belief that Republicans will own this shutdown for refusing to negotiate with Democrats on health care priorities.

“They call it clean, we call it extremely partisan. Not one discussion, House or Senate, between the two leaders. That is not how you negotiate and that is not how you pass appropriation bills,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

House Republicans passed their stopgap measure to keep the government open through Nov. 21, but that measure stalled in the Senate earlier this month.

Republicans crafted a clean seven-week funding bill in order to create more time for congressional appropriators to work through regular order: 12 separate full-year funding bills. Congress has not passed all 12 appropriations bills through regular order since 1997, and the task has been completed only four times since 1977 when current budget rules took effect.

Ahead of the votes, Senate Democrats appeared unlikely to vote with Republicans to pass the continuing resolution as several did in March.

“I have never seen Democratic senators more unified and resolute,” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. “We are absolutely determined that this ticking clock will not deter us from saving American health care. Literally, it’s about real lives, sickness that can’t wait for a so-called CR, continuing resolution extension of funding. They can filibuster a lot of things, but not people getting sick, and particularly children needing care.”

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Monday’s meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump and congressional leaders from both parties was a missed opportunity to avert a shutdown.

“I think yesterday was an opportunity that was missed. The gathering of the White House was a chance for the legislative leaders with the president to avoid a government shutdown, and there wasn’t any follow-up whatsoever,” Durbin said. “We haven’t had one meeting at the table of the leadership to talk about ending this. It happened yesterday in the White House, but apparently no follow-up.”

Meanwhile, Trump appeared to waver Tuesday on whether there would be a shutdown while continuing to push false claims about what Democrats want in the funding bill.

“Nothing is inevitable, but I would say it’s probably likely, because they want to give health care to illegal immigrants, which will destroy health care for everybody else in our country. And I didn’t see them bend even a little bit when I said, we can’t do that,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

But he later said, “We’re not shutting it down. We don’t want it to shut down because we have the greatest period of time ever. I told you, we have $17 trillion being invested. So the last person that wants to shut down is us.”

Trump said Democrats were “taking a risk” in not supporting the Republicans’ clean continuing resolution, “because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people. We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste and abuse.”

ABC News confirmed last week that the White House had alerted agencies to prepare for furloughs ahead of a possible government shutdown and also threatening mass firings that could become permanent if a shutdown is not averted.

Asked if he thought it was appropriate to fire federal workers during a shutdown, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “I think you could reduce the federal work force and probably not hurt outcomes.”

Trump appeared open to more discussions earlier Tuesday as he returned from a speech to generals and admirals with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. Asked if he would talk to Democrats before the deadline, Trump replied, “Yes.”

Earlier Tuesday, 150 House Democrats rallied on the House steps, presenting unity as each party attempts to place blame for a lapse in funding.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries fired up Democrats, addressing a deepfake video generated by artificial intelligence shared Monday night by President Donald Trump, which disparaged Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“Mr. President, allow me to reintroduce myself,” Jeffries said, quoting the opening lyrics from Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement” and receiving a loud round of applause from the caucus. “I’m the House Democratic Leader. Our caucus is 217 members strong. We serve in a separate and coequal branch of government. We don’t work for you. We work for the American people.”

In the post on his social media platform, Trump shared the video that presented Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Jeffries during their remarks at the White House after meeting with Trump and Republican leaders, but dubbed Schumer saying disparaging things about his party.

The video also showed Jeffries wearing a sombrero, prompting Jeffries to call it “bigoted.”

“Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face!” Jeffries boomed.

Jeffries sharply criticized House Republicans for canceling votes this week.

“Shame on them for being on vacation all across the country and across the world on the eve of a government shutdown,” he said. “They’re on vacation because they’d rather shut the government down than protect the health care of the American people. That’s unfathomable, that’s unacceptable, that’s unconscionable, and that’s un-American. Do your job.”

Johnson posted Tuesday morning that Schumer and Democrats are “planning to SHUT DOWN the government — simply to oppose President Trump and appease their far-left base.”