Shutdown stalemate hits 28-day mark as Trump continues Asia diplomacy tour

A group of frustrated GOP senators repeatedly pressed Vice President JD Vance in a closed-door meeting today over the administration’s suggestion that the US buy beef from Argentina – a plan that has rattled American ranchers.

Sen. Ted Cruz called it “the single most discussed topic” of the lunch, telling reporters the vice president listened to and heard the “strenuous views” of multiple senators.

Inside the room, GOP senators from agricultural states sought more information from Vance on the White House’s surprise announcement of a plan to increase imports of Argentinian beef to help lower beef prices in the US.

“I think it’s safe to say there was a lot of discussion about cattle ranchers,” Sen. Josh Hawley told reporters with a chuckle.

West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice said GOP senators brought personal stories about how their constituents are being impacted by the Trump administration’s decision.

“He’s concerned about that,” Justice said of Vance. “He wants absolutely for sure that the messaging is that the Trump administration loves the ranchers and loves the cattle producers. You know, we don’t want to get in a situation where all of a sudden we’ve got a bunch of people that are really upset.”

Israel and China also came up during the lunch, according to senators.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Vance told Senate Republicans he expects “Israel to be able to defend itself.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Vance was “very optimistic” about a China trade deal.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended the administration’s refusal to dip into $5 billion of emergency funds in order to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beyond this week.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and other senators have said it is possible for the administration to use that money for expiring SNAP benefits, as past administrations have done during a shutdown.

“I think the White House, obviously, is faced with a tough decision,” Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, told CNN. “They’re doing everything they can legally and with the capacity that they have available to them to try and make this, I think, as painless as possible. But there is a point at which they don’t have that capacity anymore and I think we’ve reached that point.”

Thune added, “Why wouldn’t you just open it up and have everybody get their benefits?”

Thune also shot down the idea of holding one-off votes on paying specific federal workers, like air traffic controllers, or keeping SNAP funded. He argued that is the “wrong way to do this,” despite some GOP senators introducing options.

A commuter near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in Washington, DC, on October 2.

A federal judge in San Francisco indefinitely barred the Trump administration from firing federal employees during the government shutdown today.

US District Judge Susan Illston granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire tomorrow.

Illston, who was nominated by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, has said she believes the evidence will ultimately show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.

The Republican administration has slashed jobs in education, health and other areas it says are favored by Democrats.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other labor unions have sued to stop the “reductions in force” layoffs, saying the firings were an abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.

Lawyers for the government say the district court does not have the authority to hear personnel challenges.

During a hearing on October 15, Illston said the layoff notices that started going out on or around October 10 appeared to be politically motivated and not well thought out. About 4,100 layoff notices have gone out, some sent to work email addresses that furloughed employees are not allowed to check. Some personnel were called back to work, without pay, to issue layoff notices.

A view of the Senate floor on Tuesday.

Republicans’ funding bill to end the government shutdown failed for a 13th time today as Democrats hold their ground and continue to push for the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.

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. GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted against advancing the measure.

Meanwhile, impacts from the shutdown are being felt by Americans across the country.

If you’re just joining us, here’s where things stand:

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer, Dianne Gallagher, Marshall Cohen, Sarah Ferris, Michael Williams, Tami Luhby, Alison Main, Manu Raju, Casey Riddle, Alexandra Skores and Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.

Vice President JD Vance dodged when asked whether Israel ordering strikes in Gaza could spell the end for the ceasefire.

“The president achieved a historic peace in the Middle East, the ceasefire is holding,” he insisted. “That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there.”

Vance also said that he encouraged his Republican colleagues to vote against the resolutions expected this week aimed at blocking the tariffs on Brazil, Canada and other nations.

“The point that I made to my Republican colleagues, recognizing there’s a diversity of opinions about it, is that the tariffs give us the ability to put American workers first. They force American industry to reinvest in the United States of America instead of a foreign country. They’re also incredible leverage for the President of the United States in negotiating these trade deals overseas,” he told reporters.

“To vote against that is to strip that incredible leverage from the President of the United States. I think it’s a huge mistake, and I know most of the people in there agree with me.”

Vice President JD Vance seemed cool to bipartisan calls for the White House to free up $5 billion in emergency funds to help millions of Americans who could see their federal food aid dry up by this weekend.

Leaving a Senate GOP lunch, Vance was asked by CNN about calls by Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins and other senators to use the money for expiring SNAP benefits as past administrations have done during a shutdown.

But Vance seemed to throw cold water on the request.

“We’re trying to keep as much open as possible, and we’re exploring all options. There are limitations on all these funds, there are limitations on how you can use them,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a limited pot of money, so even if you use them for one thing, that means you can’t use them for another. We are trying as much as possible to ensure that critical food benefits get paid, that our military gets paid.”

Vance added that the military will receive their paychecks on Friday.

“We believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday. Unfortunately, we’re not gonna be able to pay everybody, because we’ve been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats,” he said.

“This is one of the reasons why you’ve seen some layoffs in the federal workforce. We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now. We’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help.”

Senate Democrats will force the first of three votes aimed at rescinding various Trump administration tariffs tonight.

This first vote is aimed at tariffs on Brazil. President Donald Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil after it prosecuted his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, over an alleged coup attempt.

One Republican – Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul – is joining Democrats in sponsoring the measure.

“I am alarmed by the Brazilian government’s persecution of a former president and authoritarian repression of freedom of speech, but that has no bearing on the constitutional limits of our own executive,” Paul said in a statement. “The President of the United States does not have the authority under IEEPA to unilaterally impose tariffs. Trade policy belongs to Congress, not the White House.”

Sen. John Fettermanwalks to vote at the U.S. Capitol on October 08, in Washington, DC.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman on Tuesday lamented his party’s continued resistance to Republicans’ government funding legislation after his party blocked the GOP plan for the 13th time.

The Pennsylvania Democrat called it an “absurdity” that a nonprofit group, the World Central Kitchen, has begun distributing meals to federal workers. “Pay these people. Open things up. I don’t know why we’re in this, doing in this situation,” he said.

Asked if he blamed Democrats for Americans potentially losing federal food assistance benefits in the near future, Fetterman responded, “If you’re doing this entirely for extending (Affordable Care Act) tax credits, of course there’s accountability in that. And I believe two things are true: I want to have those tax credits extending but that means the government should be open and have that conversation.”

He noted to reporters that the GOP funding bill maintains Biden-era spending levels.

“This is the Biden CR. I just voted yes on that. That is a Biden CR. We voted that multiple times. It shouldn’t be controversial for us,” he said.

Sen. John Kennedy talks with members of the media on Tuesday.

Republican senators weighed in on whether GOP leaders should consider holding votes on standalone bills to approve funding for certain government operations.

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he would support Sen. Josh Hawley’s bill to fund the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program through the shutdown, but also warned the strategy of taking up rifle-shot legislation could prolong the stalemate on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t think we ought to let anyone go hungry…,” Kennedy said. “Taking the longer view, if you start taking the pressure off senators, then that means the shutdown lasts that much longer. And once you start picking and choosing this group versus that, I’m willing to consider each on the merits, but you enter a slippery slope.”

Sen. Jon Husted talks with CNN on Tuesday.

Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio said, “The rifle-shot approach is appealing at some level because we don’t want to see people suffer but the way to prevent everyone from suffering is to reopen the government.”

“I’m for paying the military, I’m for funding SNAP, but the way to do it rather than a dozen rifle-shots is to just pass a clean CR and get this done,” he continued.

Shoppers inside a grocery store in the Bronx borough of New York on October 24.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday insisted that Republicans want to fund food stamp benefits, which are at risk amid the government shutdown, but that the Trump administration is hamstrung.

President Donald Trump has repurposed federal funds to pay the US military and tapped into tariff funds to keep afloat a federal food assistance program for pregnant women, new moms and young children known as WIC.

Asked whether the White House should find funding for food stamp benefits or SNAP, Johnson told reporters that the White House “certainly tried.”

“But they did the legal research, they could not find the 1930s-era statute to bootstrap that one. The contingency fund was approved by Congress. And when the Democrats voted against the [clean resolution], they voted against the ability of us to use that money,” Johnson said during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Johnson, however, argued that funding for the SNAP benefits is out of the hands of the Trump administration and of Congress.

“But when you’re out of resources, they go all the way up, and it’s out of their hands. It’s out of our hands, and that’s why we’re so frustrated,” he said.

A framed picture of an "autopen," intended to to represent former President Joe Biden on the wall of the colonnade near the Rose Garden of the White House, on September 25.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged there is “no legal precedent” for whether a president’s executive actions signed with an autopen could be voided.

“Nothing this incredible and insane has happened before. This was not something that the forefathers anticipated. It’s unprecedented,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference on Capitol Hill.

“There is no legal precedent because no, no previous president had an autopen or had the audacity to have people signing things on their behalf when they didn’t even know what was in it. And so, we’re in uncharted waters as a nation.”

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee, following a months-long investigation, said former President Joe Biden’s executive actions signed by autopen are “void” and is urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to consider whether Biden’s pardons and commutations might be invalid.

Johnson said the courts may ultimately decide whether the presidential action signed by Biden with autopen could be annulled.

“I would love to take this case and go into the court and make that law to set the precedent,” Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer, said.

“You can’t allow a president to check out and have unelected, unaccountable, faceless people making massive decisions for the country.”

Richland County Sheriff and South Carolina State Guard Commander Leon Lott, left, and Gov. Henry McMaster, right, talk about the state's plans to deal with the suspension of SNAP benefits at a news conference on Tuesday, in West Columbia, South Carolina.

South Carolina is activating a statewide charity fund typically used after hurricanes as federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is set to stop on November 1 due to the government shutdown.

Gov. Henry McMaster announced that the Central Carolina Community Foundation has activated the One SC Fund and said he had directed the State Guard to assist food banks statewide.

The One SC Fund is a “statewide initiative supported by philanthropic donors and funders from across the state and country.” It has been activated a handful of times over the past decade after hurricanes — most recently after Hurricane Helene last year — and during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

Last month, more than 556,000 people in South Carolina received approximately $104 million in federal SNAP benefits, according to the state Department of Social Services.

Officials with Social Services and several food banks at a news conference cautioned that there is no “ready substitute that exists” for SNAP and noted that the effort is fully dependent on donations, during a time that food banks are already dealing with critically low resources.

“We are limited by the amount of the donations we receive,” according to Erinn Rowe, the CEO of Harvest Hope Food Bank. “It is going to take a statewide effort that is bigger than a philanthropy effort to fill in this gap that SNAP is leaving right now because of the volume.”

A coalition of 25 Democratic-run states sued the Trump administration Tuesday to prevent billions of dollars of cuts to federal food assistance that are set to kick in this weekend.

Democratic attorneys general and governors from 25 states, plus Washington, DC, claimed in the lawsuit that the Trump administration was threatening “illegal” cuts to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program for 42 million Americans, “cannot simply suspend all benefits indefinitely, while refusing to spend funds from available appropriations for SNAP benefits for eligible households,” the lawsuit claims.

The White House has argued that it does not have the power to use that pot of existing money — known as its contingency fund — to cover the SNAP program beyond Saturday, because of the ongoing federal government shutdown.

“The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists,” officials in the Department of Agriculture wrote in a memo last week.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his state is building its own food assistance system for residents who relied on federal food benefits that are being suspended during the government shutdown.

The Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance program, which Youngkin described as a “parallel” to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), will fund weekly benefits for food stamp recipients. The program will be activated if the government shutdown does not end before November 1, and residents will receive weekly benefits starting November 3.

The program will be funded through the state’s surplus, Youngkin said, and is estimated to cost about $37.5 million weekly. The governor said he is “currently prepared” to fund the program through November.

Aid will be given to the same group of SNAP recipients who received benefits in October and delivered directly to their existing SNAP cards. Many recipients may receive the state aid a day or two later than they would have received the food stamp benefits. Youngkin said he was directing $1 million be injected into Virginia’s food bank network by the weekend to address that shortfall.

Some context: Tens of millions of people across the country are expected to go without federal food assistance next month. While several states are providing millions of dollars in emergency food assistance to their residents, that aid is typically a small fraction of what residents would have received under SNAP.

CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.

US Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino enters the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago on Tuesday.

Gregory Bovino, the top Border Patrol official overseeing the immigration crackdown in Chicago, testified before US District Judge Sara Ellis today after plaintiffs challenging the use of intense crowd control tactics and munitions accused him of violating Ellis’ restraining order imposing strict limits on the use of tear gas during immigration protests.

Ellis ordered Bovino to brief her in person every weekday for the next week on the operation and whether his agents are complying with her temporary restraining order.

Ellis also ordered that all use-of-force reports for Operation Midway Blitz from September 2 through last Saturday, along with any body camera footage, be turned over to the court under seal by the end of this week.

Here’s what happened

Democrats are showing no sign of wavering on their votes to block the stopgap bill, even as the nation’s largest public sector union urges them to reopen the government immediately.

“Normally, I’m on their side,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told CNN, referring to the American Federation of Government Employees. “I’ve worked and advocated for federal employees, and they should be paid, no question, and I support legislation that will pay them, but they also have an interest in health care.”

Sen. Peter Welch agreed that it didn’t change his position but acknowledged AFGE’s plea is “real indication of how this is really tough on people. That’s why it’s really important for the president to get involved, because he’s the key person here.”

The Vermont Democrat said it will be “brutal” when his state faces the highest premium increases in the country, adding he doesn’t trust Republicans who say they’re willing to negotiate Affordable Care Act subsidies when the government reopens.

DHS releases video moments before Bovino released tear gas into a crowd in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago

01:18 • Source: CNN

DHS releases video moments before Bovino released tear gas into a crowd in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago

01:18

Minutes before Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino began his testimony today before US District Judge Sara Ellis at Chicago’s federal courthouse to answer her concerns about federal agents’ aggressive tactics in the city, the Department of Homeland Security released a video of the Thursday incident in which plaintiffs accused Bovino of unjustifiably throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd of protesters.

In today’s post, DHS says that protesters had begun to throw rocks and other objects at agents, including one that it says struck Bovino in the head before the tear gas was deployed during the protest in the Little Village neighborhood. That argument counters a court filing from last week, which alleged Bovino “apparently threw tear gas into a crowd without justification.”

CNN has reviewed the video, which shows at least one object thrown near Bovino. It also shows at least a couple people throwing objects. The video does not appear to show Bovino being struck in the head by an object.

In today’s post, the agency said Border Patrol agents repeated multiple warnings to back up — and that chemical agents would be deployed if warnings were ignored — before riot control measures were deployed, including by Bovino.

“A warning has to be, ‘I’m going to deploy tear gas,’” US District Judge Sara Ellis said during today’s hearing. “A warning does not consist of saying, ‘Get back’ or ‘Get out of here.’”

Bovino told the judge he believes “each situation is dependent on the situation.”

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri raised alarms about federal food aid running out for many Americans, including his own constituents, as the shutdown standoff barrels toward a second month.

Hawley is leading a bipartisan bill to ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits continue. He told CNN that while President Donald Trump has helped put a “Band-Aid” on some impacts of the shutdown, like military paychecks, he respects the administration’s assessment that it doesn’t have the legal authority to move contingency funds to bolster the food aid.

If Congress doesn’t find a solution on SNAP soon, Hawley warned, “650,000 people in Missouri are going to miss food assistance. I mean, people are going to go hungry. Forty-two million people nationwide. That’s way too many.”

Though Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t committed that he would bring up a standalone SNAP benefits bill, Hawley asserted that the legislation would need to come to a full floor vote to pass.

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn said for now it’s on Democrats to end the shutdown to alleviate SNAP concerns, but if the government remains shuttered, “then we’ll look for ways to try to deal with it the best we can.”

A paystub provided to CNN by an air traffic controller shows the $0 paid to the employee today.

This is the first time controllers are not getting fully paid since the start of the shutdown. Two weeks ago, controllers got paid for hours worked before the shutdown, which amounted to about 90% of a normal paycheck.

A paystub provided to CNN by an air traffic controller shows the zero dollars paid Tuesday. This is the first time controllers are not getting paid since the start of the shutdown. Two weeks ago, controllers got paid for hours worked before the shutdown, which amounted to about 90% of a normal paycheck.

Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters that her staff believes the USDA can use $5 billion in contingency funds for SNAP, and that she thinks Office of Management and Budget made the call not to use those funds. However, she noted that $5 billion still wouldn’t be enough to keep the program solvent through November.

“In my judgment, based on analysis that the attorneys on my staff have done. It is a novel interpretation for the department to claim that it cannot use that $5 billion in contingency money to help with SNAP benefits,” she said. “So I don’t think this was a USDA opinion. I really think it was imposed by OMB, and we’ve been having discussions with OMB attorneys. But even if the 5 billion is used, it’s not enough to cover the full month.”

Collins also spoke about air traffic controllers going unpaid, noting that she’s been on two flights into DCA in the last two weeks that aborted their landings, one after they were already on the ground and had to take off again.

“I’ve never had that happen, much less to DCA, much less two weeks in a row on a Sunday night. And I can’t help but think that reflects the strain on air traffic controllers as they’re working excessive hours and trying to cope with the reduced workforce, because some are not coming to work,” she said.

Asked if she was afraid for her own safety when that happened, she replied, “A lot of people on the plane were, I was not personally.”