What we're covering
• Shutdown layoffs: A federal judge halted the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off roughly 4,000 federal workers, saying the move is unlawful. This comes as the Office of Management and Budget director said today that layoffs will likely reach “north of 10,000.”
• Congress still deadlocked: The Senate failed again to advance Republicans’ stopgap funding bill in a 51 to 44 vote. Both sides are standing firm in their position as the shutdown stretches into its 15th day.
• CNN town hall: Progressive lawmakers Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will field questions tonight at 9 p.m. ET from those who have been directly impacted by the shutdown.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins previews tonight's town hall with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez
CNN is hosting a town hall with progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tonight at 9 p.m. ET.
Watch Kaitlan Collins as she explains what to expect.
The government is still shut as Senate fails to advance funding bill again. Here’s what you should know
It’s been more than two weeks since Congress failed to pass a spending agreement before the deadline to keep the federal government open. Mass layoffs, congressional infighting and agency funding cuts have ensued – and a resolution seems further away than ever.
Here’s what you should know:
- Deadlocked Congress: The Senate failed again to advance Republicans’ stopgap bill that would fund the government through November 21 in a 51 to 44 vote.
- Political stalemate: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it was “premature” for Democrats to consider scaling back their demands as Republicans show no signs they’ll negotiate on extending Affordable Healthcare Act subsidies until the shutdown ends. And GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who has been engaged in some bipartisan discussions, said that he is done with talking.
- More on federal layoffs: According to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, layoffs will likely reach “north of 10,000.” The news comes after thousands of federal employees across seven agencies have already lost their jobs. Meanwhile, a federal judge in San Francisco halted the administration’s efforts to commence mass layoffs, saying the move is unlawful.
- Funding updates: The administration plans to release a list of federal programs it is considering cutting during the shutdown later this week, President Donald Trump said yesterday. Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture’s food assistance program for women and children received a $300 million lifeline to keep operating for a few more weeks during the shutdown, according to a source familiar with the funding transfer.
- Military and FBI pay: Active-duty military members had been bracing to miss their first paycheck today due to the government shutdown, but Trump directed the Pentagon to use available funding to pay active-duty military and reserves currently performing active service during the shutdown. The administration also is planning to continue paying FBI agents during the shutdown, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
CNN’s Tori B. Powell, Tami Luhby, Donald Judd, Elise Hammond, Jeff Zeleny, Lauren Chadwick, Ted Barrett, Morgan Rimmer, Kristin Chapman, Ellis Kim, Kit Maher, Devan Cole, Adam Cancryn and Annie Grayer contributed reporting.
Trump says Modi told him that India would stop importing Russian oil
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him earlier Wednesday he would halt Russian oil imports.
“He’s a friend of mine, we have a great relationship… we have a great relationship– no, we were not happy with him buying oil from Russia because that let Russia continue on with this ridiculous war where they’ve lost a million and a half people,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
“I was not happy that India was buying oil, and he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That’s a big step. Now we’ve got to get China to do the same thing,” he added.
Trump has called on India to cease purchasing Russian oil for months, using India’s continued purchases of cheap Russian oil as leverage in his trade war. In August, Trump announced a 25% tariff on India as a penalty for importing Russian oil and gas, building on a previously announced 25% tariff rate.
In a follow-up exchange, Trump called Modi “a great man, and he loves Trump.”
“He’s assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia – I don’t know, maybe that’s a breaking story, can I say that?” he continued. “There will be no oil, he’s not buying his oil from Russia, it started – you know, you can’t do it immediately, it’s a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon.”
He went on to suggest that India’s move to cease Russian oil imports would speed up the end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump says he will go to the Supreme Court to hear tariff case
President Donald Trump said he is going to pay a visit to the Supreme Court to witness the landmark case on tariffs that kicks off next month.
“I think I’m going to go to the Supreme Court to watch it. I’ve not done that,” he said of the case, which would determine whether he can continue to levy tariffs and also whether businesses are eligible for massive refunds.
Speaking to reporters today, Trump called the case “one of the most important cases in the history of our country.”
“If we don’t win that case, we will be a weakened, troubled, financial mess for many, many years to come,” Trump said.
CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald contributed reporting.
Trump suggests military efforts against alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers will expand to 'land'
As President Donald Trump defended his administration’s lethal strikes on boats alleged to associated with narcoterrorists off the coast of Venezuela, he indicated that the military campaign could continue “by land.”
“We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we’ll stop it by land,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control. We’ve had a couple of days where there isn’t a boat to be found. And that, I view that as a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump added.
Trump said that Coast Guard efforts over the past 30 years to stop drug traffickers have “been totally ineffective” and “never worked” when it was done in a “politically correct manner.”
“They have faster boats. Some of these boats are seriously, I mean, they’re world class speed boats,” Trump said. “But they’re not faster than missiles. But we’ve been trying to do that for years, and so much of the drugs 25, 30% would come in through the seas. Right now, we have, I would say, none coming in through the seas.”
Trump said targeting people in the strikes has saved thousands of lives that might have been lost due to overdoses.
“If you lose three people and save 25,000 people — these are people that are killing our population, every boat is saving 25,000 lives. And you can see it, the boats get hit, and you see that fentanyl all over the ocean. It’s like floating in bags,” Trump said.
Trump calls for investigation into former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann
President Donald Trump said he hopes former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann is investigated.
“I hope they’re going to look into Weissmann too,” Trump told reporters at the White House today. “Weissmann is a bad guy.”
He accused the former prosecutor of “tremendous criminal activity” without defending his claim.
Some background: Trump’s comment on Weissmann followed the former prosecutor’s interview, released this week, of former special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is under investigation by the administration.
Smith, during the interview with Weissmann in University College London, insisted that the pair of criminal cases he brought against Trump were untainted by politics.
Trump says Zelensky will make case for going "offensive" against Russia during White House visit
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will make the case for going on offense in the war against Russia when he visits the White House later this week.
“They want to go offensive,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “I’ll make a determination on that, but they would like to go offensive.”
The Friday meeting comes as Zelensky has pressed for European nations to be able to buy more sophisticated, longer range Tomahawk missiles from the US, which could then be passed onto Ukraine. Zelensky has also sought additional Patriot air defense systems, as part of a fresh effort to turn the tide of the war.
But Trump has yet to commit to either even as he’s grown increasingly frustrated with Russia, acknowledging over the weekend that supplying Tomahawks would be a “new step of aggression” in the conflict.
“I’m not a fan of the war, I’m not a fan of the way it started,” Trump said on Wednesday. “But if I can save a lot of lives, that’s why I’m in it.”
Trump details decision to authorize CIA to operate in Venezuela
President Donald Trump said today he authorized the CIA to operate inside Venezuela to clamp down on illegal flows of migrants and drugs from the South American nation, but stopped short of saying they would have authority to remove President Nicolas Maduro.
The remarks are Trump’s most expansive comments on his decision to expand the CIA’s authority to conduct lethal targeting and carry out covert action in the region.
Trump updated the CIA’s authorities around the same time he signed a secret directive ordering the military to begin striking Latin American drug cartels earlier this summer, sources have said.
Trump tied the authorization to his efforts to go after drug smuggling.
Without saying his aim was to oust Maduro from power, Trump said he felt Venezuela’s leaders were feeling pressure.
“I think Venezuela is feeling heat. But I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat too. We’re not going to let this country, our country, be ruined because other people want to drop, as you say, their worst,” he said, referring to his false claim that countries emptied their prisons and mental institutions to send people to the United States.
Schumer says it's "premature" for Democrats to compromise to reopen government
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it was “premature” for Democrats to consider scaling back their demands as Republicans show no signs they’ll negotiate on extending Affordable Healthcare Act subsidies until the shutdown ends.
Pressed by CNN on if it’s necessary for Democrats to compromise since Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, have rejected their demands, Schumer responded, “the bottom line is they won’t even negotiate with us so that’s a premature question.”
“Of course, I’m not going to negotiate in public, we need to address the crisis that is afflicting, and that’s the right word, the American people,” he continued.
Trump to pay FBI agents during shutdown, agency director says
The Trump administration is planning to continue paying FBI agents during the government shutdown, FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday.
Patel alluded to the decision during an Oval Office event touting a nationwide crime crackdown spearheaded by the agency.
“You found a way to get these individuals paid during a government shutdown,” he told President Donald Trump.
The pay for FBI agents would be the latest move by the administration to maintain funding for its priorities during the shutdown. Trump has already directed the Pentagon to find money to pay active-duty military and reserves currently performing active service.
The administration also moved to fund a food assistance program known as WIC that was poised to run out of money due to the shutdown.
US officials are working on a $20 billion private-sector rescue of Argentina, Bessent says
The US government purchased Argentine pesos again in the spot market on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters.
Bessent also said US officials are working on a private-sector rescue of Argentina in addition to the $20 billion lifeline provided by US taxpayers.
According to a transcript provided by the Treasury, Bessent told reporters that private banks and “many” sovereign wealth funds are interested in funding a $20 billion facility that would help Argentina with upcoming debt payments.
Bessent did not provide details on which banks and funds would be involved, nor how the private-sector effort would work, in the transcript provided. But if it came to fruition, it would double the amount of aid to Argentina to roughly $40 billion.
The Treasury secretary also told reporters that US officials “could” decide to buy Argentine bonds.
The value of Argentina’s sovereign bonds increased significantly on Wednesday following the news, Bloomberg reported.
The rescue of Argentina — headed by Trump ally President Javier Milei — has been controversial, with Trump saying the bailout is contingent on Milei remaining in power.
Read context on why the US bailed out Argentina here.
White House issues memo directing Pentagon to use available funds to pay military service members
In a new national security memo Wednesday, President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to use available funding to pay active-duty military and reserves currently performing active service during the ongoing government shutdown, writing that allowing the armed forces to go without pay “presents a serious and unacceptable threat to military readiness and the ability of our Armed Forces to protect and defend our Nation.”
According to the memo, the move to redirect funding to pay service members comes as “congressional leaders have indicated that political negotiations have stalemated and that the passage of the necessary bipartisan legislation to end the lapse is unlikely to occur before our active duty military personnel are scheduled to receive their next paychecks on October 15th.”
“Funds used for military pay and allowances during the current lapse should be those that the Secretary of War determines are provided for purposes that have a reasonable, logical relationship to the pay and allowances of military personnel, consistent with applicable law,” Trump wrote.
CNN reported earlier this week that the funds for military paychecks will be pulled from the Pentagon’s research and development money that’s available for two years, according to a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
A growing bipartisan group of lawmakers has been unsuccessfully urging congressional leaders to pass a standalone measure to pay troops during the shutdown.
Following the conclusion of the shutdown, the memo says, “every effort should be made, as authorized by law, to adjust applicable funding accounts within the Department of War to ensure the continuation of Department of War operations and activities consistent with planned expenditures prior to the lapse.”
GOP senator no longer engaging in bipartisan talks as shutdown drags on: "there's no point"
GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who has been engaged in some bipartisan discussions on how the Senate can move forward on health care and other agenda items once the shutdown ends, says that he is done with talking.
“We’ve talked about that enough. Now they’ve got to vote to open it. There’s no point in continuing the conversations until they open the government back up,” he told reporters.
Mullin continued, “At some point you’ve talked every option. Now you’ve got — now they’ve got to open it so you can make a decision, because we can’t make a decision until we get to that point. We – there is nothing else to talk about at this point. They’ve got to vote to open the government back up.”
He added that the talks never reached any consensus. “All it was theory to present to the President and to our both, respective chambers.”
Senate GOP leader defends layoffs as decisions "forced on" Trump administration
Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended the administration’s mass layoffs of thousands of federal workers as a decision “forced on” them by Senate Democrats as the shutdown drags on.
“I’m not comfortable with any of this being done, because, as I’ve said, I don’t like government shutdowns. Nobody wins in a government shutdown. And this is a, you know, this is a decision, these are decisions, decisions I should say that are being forced on the administration by the Democrats voting repeatedly — it’ll be the ninth time today — to keep the government shutdown,” said Thune.
Pressed on the president’s insistence that he’ll cut “Democrats’ programs,” and whether that is appropriate, the GOP Leader added, “Any administration makes decisions in a shutdown, and I’ve been through a lot of them with Democrat presidents as well. They are going to prioritize the things that are important to them when they make decisions about where they’re going to allocate money.”
Some companies are offering assistance to federal workers whose pay is impacted by the government shutdown
Many federal employees missed their first paycheck of the shutdown this week, which is now on its 15th day.
As Congress is still at a stalemate, thousands of federal workers are left in limbo, and without pay, the longer the government remains shut down.
Some companies have announced that they are offering help to federal workers, who are financially strapped, including Chase Bank, Verizon and Navy Federal Credit Union.
Chase Bank has set up a page specifically for federal workers on its website. “We’re here to help if you’re affected by the government shutdown,” the top of the page says. “We know this may be a stressful time for many of our customers impacted by the shutdown of the federal government.”
Navy Federal Credit Union also set up a “Government Shutdown Assistance” page on its site.
“With the federal government currently shut down, eligible Navy Federal employees impacted by paycheck disruptions can now enroll in credit union’s Paycheck Assistance Program.” The credit union is also offering 0% APR loan during the shut down.
Meanwhile, Verizon is offering payment deferral options to “members of the U.S. Military, Coast Guard, first responders and other federal government employees affected by the shutdown,” according to a news release.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has also posted a list of financial assistance resources available to federal employees on his website. He’s set to participate in a CNN town hall tonight with Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York to discuss the government shutdown.
Thousands of federal workers have been laid off. Here's where they worked
Thousands of federal employees across seven agencies have lost their jobs during the government shutdown so far.
The layoffs span employees who handle a wide range of topics, including IRS matters, housing grants, special education programs and defending the country against cyberattacks.
Yesterday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it would continue to “ride out” the shutdown with more reductions in force, suggesting the Trump administration plans to continue laying off federal workers.
But the administration’s moves have been met with a challenge. In response to a lawsuit brought by unions representing federal workers, a judge in San Francisco signaled today that she’s ready to halt the layoffs, saying the move is unlawful.
Republicans' stopgap funding bill again fails to get needed Senate votes to advance
The Senate failed to advance Republicans’ stopgap funding bill once again in a 51 to 44 vote.
Republicans need 60 votes to advance the bill that would fund the government through late November.
Three senators in the Democratic caucus voted with most Republicans. They were:
• Catherine Cortez Masto
• John Fetterman
• Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats
GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted against advancing the measure.
Judge halts Trump’s planned layoffs of federal workers during government shutdown, calling them unlawful
A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday halted the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown, saying the move is unlawful.
Judge Susan Illston made clear at the outset of a hearing over the legality of the layoffs that she’s was prepared to issue an emergency court order halting the administration’s plans while the legal challenge brought by unions representing federal workers plays out. She formally issued the order when the hearing ended after roughly an hour.
Illston, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said she had seen evidence suggesting the administration had “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning, to assume that that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore.”
She went on to say that she believed the planned layoffs were impermissible, in part, because they’re “politically motivated,” and pointed to statements by President Donald Trump that officials were targeting programs and agencies favored by Democrats.
“The politics that infuses what’s going on is being trumpeted out loud in this case,” the judge said.
The Trump administration on Friday started issuing reduction in force, or RIF, notices to roughly 4,000 employees in seven agencies, after signaling for weeks that it would downsize the workforce during the shutdown, which began on October 1.
Vought says shutdown layoffs will likely reach "north of 10,000"
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said that layoffs will likely reach “north of 10,000,” as reductions in force continue throughout the ongoing government shutdown.
“We’re definitely talking thousands of people. Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots, which they’ve articulated is in the 4,000 number of people. But that’s just a snapshot, and I think it’ll get much higher,” Vought said on “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Wednesday.
“It could grow higher,” he later added. “I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000.”
Vought said that the administration would keep reductions in force “rolling throughout the shutdown” to “stay on offense for the American taxpayer” in the pursuit of “less bureaucracy.”
“We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy — not just the funding,” Vought said. “We now have an opportunity to do that, and that’s where we’re going to be looking for our opportunities.”
Pressed on any concern he has about these reductions impacting Americans beyond any benefits of cutting bureaucracy, Vought said “part of the catch-up effect is that the people that are doing essential services are not getting paid.”
While he noted the administration’s efforts to pay the military in the meantime, Vought said there’s an “impact on how long this can go without having severe repercussions.”
“We don’t want air traffic control to start staying home sick. So, we want to get out of the shutdown. We want to do what’s necessary to get the government open,” Vought said, blaming Democrats for not passing the clean funding bill.
GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert demands action after multiple airports refuse to play Noem shutdown message
GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado called it “unacceptable” that the largest airports in her state are not playing a video message from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in which she blames Democrats for the federal government shutdown.
“This is completely unacceptable. I will be contacting the Department of Transportation to demand action on airports refusing to show Secretary Noem’s video at TSA checkpoints,” Boebert said in a post on X.
As CNN has reported, major US airports across the country have refused to play the “public service announcement.”
The video is playing on monitors controlled by the Transportation Security Administration at Detroit Metro Airport in Michigan and Bismarck Airport Airport in North Dakota, the airports confirmed to CNN, but many airports have refused to allow it on screens that they control.
