US government shuts down after Senate fails to pass spending bill

After last-ditch attempts by lawmakers to pass a spending bill failed, the US government has partially ceased operations.

After Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate rejected competing stopgap proposals, funding to keep the federal government operating expired on Wednesday at 00:01 EDT (04:01 GMT).

The US government has partially stopped operations more than a dozen times since 1980, but President Donald Trump’s threats to use the funding gap to significantly lessen the size of the public sector have raised the possibility of even greater disruption than during previous shutdowns.

Trump warned reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he might use the shutdown to engage in “bad” behavior for Democrats.

Trump said, “We can do things that are irreversible, bad for them, and irreversible by them, like cutting out large numbers of people’s out, cutting things they like, cutting programs they like,” adding that “a lot of good” can come from government shutdowns.

Due to the shutdown, which is the first time this kind of funding has been lapsed since 2018, some government services that are deemed non-essential will stop, including the publication of important economic data and small business loan approvals.

Essential employees will continue working, but they won’t receive pay for the duration of the shutdown, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, and air traffic controllers.

Social Security and food assistance will continue to be distributed.

Trump has threatened to fire “a lot of people” despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of federal employees were placed on temporary leave and received back pay when they returned to work despite previous shutdowns.

Trump said, “And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats.”

The threats were “typical of President Trump’s strong-arm tactics,” according to Richard Painter, the chief ethics lawyer at the White House under former President George W. Bush.

If there is a shutdown, Painter told Al Jazeera, “He is threatening to terminate federal employees.”

He might be able to do some of his threats, but the majority of them are not authorized by Congress, including ejecting federal employees while protecting civilian employees.

Following weeks of debate over how to keep the government open, Democrats and Republicans have come to grips with how to close the government on Wednesday.

Democrats earlier this month objected to a stopgap spending bill that was proposed by Republicans to allow the government to operate for nine more weeks, arguing that the bill should include provisions to expand healthcare coverage, such as changing the Affordable Care Act’s (also known as Obamacare) and repealing the Medicaid cuts that were inserted into Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Republicans have argued that in future bipartisan negotiations, such as those involving healthcare, should be addressed separately.

Senate Republicans voted 55 to 45 in favor of a stopgap bill that would have extended funding until November 21 in an effort to avoid a shutdown on Tuesday, which was unsuccessful.

The bill, which required 60 votes to pass, was supported by two Democrats: John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Angus King, an independent from Maine.

Republicans in turn rebuffed a Democratic bill that would have increased healthcare spending by more than $1 trillion and extended funding until the end of October.

No Republicans were present, so that vote went wrong, 47-53.

According to Gerald Epstein, co-director of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), “I think it is impossible to predict what Trump will do,” he said.

The Dems “won’t cave,” say they? Not for a while, I’m sure of it.

Republicans and Democrats exchanged blame for the impasse following the failed elections.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer remarked, “Republicans are plunging us into a government shutdown rather than fixing our healthcare crisis.”

Republicans allegedly voted to “hurt everyday Americans,” according to Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune hoped that enough Democrats would support his party’s “clean” bill in a follow-up vote on Wednesday.

“All of this was unneeded.” In an interview with Fox News, Thune claimed that all of this was done to please their left-wing political base.

The US government has shut down 15 times since 1980, including the current funding lapse, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Source: Aljazeera