A closure sign is attached to a fence at the National Zoo on October 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. The closure affects all 21 Smithsonian museums, its research facilities and the National Zoo. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate went on its customary long weekend on Thursday afternoon, following a low three-day session despite the ongoing government shutdown.
The House took an extended break from Capitol Hill, where neither Democrats nor Republicans seemed motivated to talk to each other despite the mounting consequences of the funding loss.
Federal courts e.g. reported shortly after the outage began On October 1, they could apply “fee balances and other funds independent of new funds” to maintain operations through Friday, October 17.
“If a work stoppage continues after judicial funds have been exhausted, the courts will then operate under the terms of the antideficiency law, which permits work to continue after the lapse of funds as necessary to support the exercise of judicial Article III powers,” the announcement reads. (*16*)
A spokesman for the courts wrote in an email to States Newsroom that there was no update on funding or operations as of Thursday, but signaled that an announcement could potentially come Friday.
Trump’s spending cuts and layoffs
The shutdown had wide-ranging consequences across all three branches of government, including the Trump administration’s congressionally approved decision to cut spending and lay off thousands of federal workers, although it was temporarily stopped by a federal judge this week.
Federal workers who are classified as imperative will not receive payments until the shutdown ends. Furloughed workers may never receive back wages allowed under the 2019 law if the Trump administration reinterprets it, as officials say.
None of the consequences created a sense of urgency on Capitol Hill this week, where West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice organized birthday party for your dogor at the White House, where President Donald Trump stayed he was holding the ball for donors to his ballroom and focused on foreign policy.
As they have over the past several weeks, members of Congress and administration officials have continued to hold separate press conferences and television news appearances, sharply criticizing their political opponents, and neither of these actions will lend a hand bring the two sides together to reopen the government.
Failed vote no. 10
For the tenth time, senators failed to pass an interim government spending bill for a 51-45 voteswhich is less than the 60 needed to make progress under the House’s legislative filibuster. Republicans control the chamber with 53 seats.
The Senate was also unable to overcome a procedural hurdle related to the year-long Department of Defense funding bill after: 50-44 votes. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill this summer on a 26-3 vote.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters before the vote that Democrats wanted to add some other annual appropriations bills to create a larger bill, though he did not say which of the dozen he preferred.
“It has always been unacceptable for Democrats to work on a defense bill without other bills that would include so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, housing and security,” Schumer said.
He later added that leaders of both political parties “have always negotiated these appropriations agreements in a bipartisan way. Once again, they are on their own.”
Senate Appropriations Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, appears to have proposed a package of bipartisan-negotiated bills before the vote on the defense bill.
“We want this to be an open process with the opportunity to add additional bipartisan bills that address important national priorities, including biomedical and scientific research and infrastructure,” Collins said. “We also want members to have a voice in funding decisions that impact all of our states and voters across the country.”
Interim bills in 2025
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said during a speech earlier in the day that a short-term government funding bill was needed to give lawmakers more time to negotiate final versions of the year-round spending bills.
“We are simply asking them to extend the current funding for a few weeks until we can work on funding for the full year,” Thune said.
Congress should reach bipartisan agreement between the House and Senate on these bills before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, but that has not been done on time since the 1990s.
So every September, after returning from the August recess, the House and Senate write a stopgap spending bill that usually keeps the lights on until mid-December.
These short-term measures, sometimes called continuing resolutions or executive recommendations, were traditionally negotiated between Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers until earlier this year.
House Republicans, bolstered by their majorities in last year’s elections, decided in March to write a six-month stopgap spending bill on their own after two bipartisan short-term bills were approved at the beginning of the fiscal year.
Senate Democrats expressed frustration with the process, but ultimately helped the Republicans pass a procedural vote that required the support of at least 60 lawmakers, allowing a March break to progress toward a plain majority casting a vote.
House Republicans repeated their previously successful maneuver last month by writing a momentary spending bill on their own that would fund the government through November 21.
However, Senate Democrats changed tack and voted to block it multiple times the interim bill adopted by the House from promotion.
Impasse in health care
Democrats maintain that Republican leaders must negotiate an extension of increased tax credits that expire at the end of the year for people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
Republican leaders have repeatedly said publicly that this will happen, but they cannot guarantee Democrats that a final agreement will be able to pass both chambers. They also say that talks will only start after the momentary law comes into force and the government reopens.
“Even though we are in this position only because of poor policy choices made by Democrats, Republicans are willing to have this discussion,” Thune said. “But only when we reopen the government.”
Thune also expressed concerns about what signal a shutdown negotiation would send to GOP leaders, which he believed would support exploiting funding shortfalls to achieve political or policy goals.
Downtime ever
Republicans forced the last two governments to shut down; the first in 2013 over efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the second in 2019 over Trump’s insistence that lawmakers approve more border wall funding. Both ended in failure.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a floor speech Thursday that Republicans crafting a stopgap spending bill on their own is a stark contrast to how things have worked for years and that they can’t expect Democrats to vote for something they have no say in.
“For the last month, the Republican leader’s favorite number has been 13. He keeps bringing up CR 13, which we passed when I was majority leader. Of course he does,” Schumer said.
“What he doesn’t mention – I’m not sure if he forgot or if he’s deliberately trying to ignore it – is that these 13 CRs were the result of bipartisan negotiations and serious conversations. We had to make changes to these bills when our Republican colleagues suggested it,” he added. “They were in the minority, but they had the right to be heard, a right that was completely denied to Democrats under the new Republican majority.”
Schumer warned Republicans about open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace starting Nov. 1, saying tens of millions of Americans will soon realize what Congress’s inaction means for their family budgets.
He said Republicans’ reluctance to negotiate before the shutdown began or afterward shows they “either don’t understand it or are brutally callous.”
“I Want to Be Happy, Mike”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Thursday morning news conference that Republicans have “no idea” how the government shutdown will end and blamed Senate Democrats for failing to vote in favor of the stopgap bill.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino, D-N.Y., said the government shutdown is hampering the day-to-day operations of the Department of Homeland Security.
“This lockdown is making our country less safe,” he said.
Garbarino said about 90% of federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security must continue to work because they perform critical roles such as customs verification at ports of entry and monitoring airspace at airports.
He said these 63,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees working without pay; more than 61,000 Transportation Security Administration agents; and 8,000 Secret Service agents.
Garbarino added that he is grateful to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem for using funds from “One Big Beautiful Bill” to pay approximately 49,000 Coast Guard employees.
In a statement to States Newsroom, DHS said it will be able to continue employing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and “deploy law enforcement across the country to keep America safe again” thanks to funding from the “One Big Beautiful Act.” In the face of the government shutdown, the Trump administration continued its aggressive crackdown on immigration.
Johnson expressed frustration that some Department of Homeland Security employees were working without pay.
“We shouldn’t have Border Patrol agents not getting paid right now because Chuck Schumer wants to play political games to cover his tail,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I don’t like to get angry, Mike. I want to be happy, Mike… but it makes me really angry.”
