US Government Enters Shutdown as Congress Fails to Reach Funding Deal

The United States government entered a shutdown after midnight on Wednesday following a breakdown in budget negotiations between Congress and President Donald Trump. The talks, marked by acrimony, centred on Democratic demands for health care funding.

This marks the first government shutdown in nearly seven years since the record-breaking 35-day closure, halting operations at multiple federal departments and agencies, and affecting hundreds of thousands of government employees.

President Trump placed the blame squarely on the Democratic Party, threatening to target progressive priorities and enforce large-scale public sector job cuts during the shutdown.

“So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns… get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things.”

Government operations began to halt at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) after a last-minute Senate attempt to approve a short-term funding resolution—already passed by the House of Representatives—collapsed.

Negotiations had been on a knife-edge since Monday, when a final White House meeting yielded no progress.

While Congress frequently faces deadlines to agree on spending plans, shutdowns are usually avoided.

Democrats, in the minority in both chambers, sought to use their rare leverage eight months into Trump’s second term, amid broader government dismantling efforts.

Trump’s threats of additional job cuts heightened anxiety among federal employees, who had already experienced large-scale firings earlier this year under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The Senate, comprising 100 members, requires 60 votes for funding bills to pass—seven more than Republican control allows.

Almost all Senate Democrats voted against a House-passed seven-week stop-gap measure just hours before the midnight deadline.

The Trump administration has indicated it may eliminate Obamacare provisions for low-income households, a key sticking point in negotiations.

Since 1976, the federal government has experienced 21 shutdowns under the modern budget process.

Some shutdowns were brief, having little operational impact, while others, such as the 2018 record closure, had severe consequences for federal employees.

The Senate returned to session on Wednesday, but the House of Representatives is on recess all week, preventing rapid approval of any new deal.

The Senate will observe Yom Kippur on Thursday but may remain in session through the weekend.

Essential services, including the Postal Service, military, and welfare programmes such as Social Security and food stamps, will continue.

However, up to 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed each day, unpaid until the shutdown ends, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The length of the shutdown remains uncertain, with negotiations expected to continue amid deep partisan divisions.