Capital Area Food Bank volunteers distribute produce to furloughed federal workers in partnership with No Limits Outreach Ministries in Hyattsville, Maryland, on October 28, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
This report has been updated.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday failed to advance a stopgap spending bill to fund the government for the 14th time as the ongoing shutdown lasted 35 days and is now tied for the 2018-2019 shutdown as the longest on record.
The vote tally was almost identical, 54 to 44 previous 13 votesbecause Republicans and Democrats were still unwilling to change their positions. According to the Senate’s legislative filibuster, a bill extending funding through Nov. 21 required at least 60 votes to pass.
Even though the upper chamber has been unable to pass an interim spending measure for more than a month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Tuesday that he believed senators were “making progress.”
He signed on, keeping the Senate in session next week. Due to the Veterans Day holiday, the House will be in recess.
“We’ll think about it as the week goes on, but hopefully we’ll make some progress,” he said.
Thune added that any stopgap spending bills would have to be extended until Nov. 21, “because right now we’re almost meeting the November deadline.”
Duffy warns of “chaos” on flights due to staff shortages
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy warned during Tuesday’s press conference at the Department of Transport that if the government shutdown continues next week, it will lead to “chaos” and some airspace will have to be closed due to a shortage of air traffic controllers who have continued to work despite the suspension.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, D-La., said at a separate news conference on Capitol Hill that if the Senate extends the funding deadline, he would return the House to a vote on the stopgap spending measure.
“If the Senate passes something, of course we will come back to it,” Johnson said. “We’re running out of (hour).”
Johnson said he was “not a fan” of extending the bill until December and would prefer a January deadline.
He said extending the Temporary Funds Act “through January makes sense, but of course we need to build consensus around it.”
Senators divided
In Tuesday’s Senate vote, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, both Democrats, and Maine independent Sen. Angus King voted with Republicans to advance the legislation. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul voted “no.”
Senate Democrats refused to support the House-passed GOP measure over concerns about the expiration of health care tax credits. With the start of open enrollment, people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace are seeing their premium costs boost dramatically.
Republicans maintain that any negotiations on health care must come after Democrats agree to fund the government.
The Trump administration also tried to pressure Democrats to accept the House stopgap spending measure by instructing the U.S. Department of Agriculture not to employ the emergency fund to provide needed food aid to 42 million Americans.
SNAP fight
Two federal courts have found guilty of the Trump administration acted illegally withholding these benefits, and on Monday the USDA announced it would do so partially release Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
But on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform that SNAP benefits would only become available if Democrats vote to reopen the government, which would likely violate both court orders.
“SNAP BENEFITS, which have increased by billions of dollars (MANY TIMES!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term (due to the fact that they were accidentally ‘given’ to anyone upon request, not just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will only be granted when the Radical Left Democrats open the government, which they can easily do, and not before!” – he wrote.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Tuesday’s briefing that the president’s social media post did not refer to the court’s ruling but did refer to future SNAP payments.
“The president doesn’t want to use this (emergency) fund in the future, and that’s what he talked about,” she said.
“The Republican Health Care Crisis”
During a Tuesday news conference on Capitol Hill, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., stood firm on his party’s demands for an expansion of health care tax credits in support of the stopgap spending bill.
“We want to reopen the government – we want to find a bipartisan path to a spending deal that actually improves the lives of Americans, lowers costs for the American people, unlike the Trump economy where everything is getting more expensive by the day,” Jeffries said.
“And of course, we must decisively address the Republican health care crisis that is crushing the American people across the country.”
He noted that Republicans’ refusal to extend tax breaks under the Affordable Care Act would result in “tens of millions of Americans experiencing dramatically higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles.”
Some KFF analysis shows that Affordable Care Act enrollees who currently receive the tax credit will likely see their monthly premium payments more than double, by an average of about 114%.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said rising health care premiums will cause some people to opt out of health insurance.
“This is a five-alarm health emergency,” Schumer said.
Justification for Johnson’s January CR
Meanwhile, Johnson told his press conference that “many people here are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the Christmas omnibus spending bills,” speaking out against the December extension of the Temporary Spending Bill.
Republican Party leaders have sought to get rid of the practice of combining the final versions of a dozen annual government funding bills into a so-called omnibus package at the end of the year.
“We don’t want to do that. It’s too close and we don’t want to take that risk,” Johnson said. “We won’t do that.”
However, it is unclear how long the modern law on fleeting expenses will apply. During Tuesday’s press conference, Thune said that the resolution that is to be in force for a year, i.e. CR, is not under discussion.
“There is an ongoing conversation about the next date,” Thune said, adding that no agreement has been reached yet.
