What we covered here
• Government shuts down: The federal government has officially shut down for the first time in six years after a deadlocked Congress failed to pass a funding measure to keep the lights on — and no one inside the Capitol knows what will happen next.
• Blame game: Once the funding deadline passed, Republicans and Democrats immediately began pointing fingers at one another for the shutdown. Republicans insist Democrats need to simply agree to extend current funding for another seven weeks. Democrats are demanding any funding bill contain an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.
• What’s at stake? Every government shutdown differs, but functions that are critical to protect lives and property are typically deemed essential and stay open. Previous shutdowns canceled immigration hearings and delayed federal lending to homebuyers and small businesses, among other impacts.
Our live coverage of the government shutdown and Donald Trump’s presidency one this page has ended for the day.
You can follow our continuing coverage of the shutdown here and take a look at the posts below to see how it all unfolded.
Democrats condemn GOP for government shutdown
Democratic political figures began weighing in on the government shutdown early Wednesday, largely placing blame on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said in a post on X, “Let me be clear: Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. This is their shutdown.”
In a video from Capitol Hill, Sen. Patty Murray, the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said: “Make no mistake, our government has shut down because Republicans refuse to negotiate with Democrats and do their job.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said in a statement, “I’m calling on my Republican colleagues to come to the negotiating table and prioritize American families over billionaires.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas echoed the sentiment, saying, “This is THEIR shutdown.” She added: Republicans “had every tool to govern and chose chaos instead.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a post on X, “MAGA’s government shutdown was totally avoidable, and I will keep fighting hard to get government back open.”
Republicans point finger at Democrats as government funding lapses
Republicans are trying to hold Democratic lawmakers responsible for not averting a shutdown and refusing to back the GOP bill to temporarily fund the government.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X: “Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government.”
House Republicans echoed the sentiment on X, saying, “Democrats have officially shut down the federal government. They’re putting illegal aliens FIRST and hurting hardworking Americans in the process.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said in a statement, “It’s time for Senate Democrats to stop these political games and join Republicans in doing the right thing for the American people by voting to keep our government and National Parks funded.”
White House website blames Democrats for shutdown with ticking clock
The official White House website now features a ticking clock marking the duration of the government shutdown.
The words next to the clock make it clear who the White House is blaming for the government funding lapse: “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government.”
Once the funding deadline passed, Republicans and Democrats immediately began ramping up the blame game, pointing fingers at one another for the shutdown.
Context: Leaders of both parties are privately and publicly adamant that they will not be blamed for the funding lapse. Republicans insist Democrats need to simply agree to extend current funding for another seven weeks. But Democrats are refusing to do so without major concessions over enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
Democratic leaders blame Trump and GOP as government shutdown deadline lapses
With the government now shut down, Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are placing the blame squarely on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
“After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people,” the Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.
Jeffries and Schumer reiterated in the statement that Democrats “remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward,” adding: “We need a credible partner.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune both said late Tuesday they are not willing to negotiate until the government reopens.
The federal government has officially shut down
The clock has struck midnight, and the federal government is officially shut down after a deadlocked Congress failed to pass a funding measure to keep the lights on — and no one inside the Capitol knows what will happen next.
This is the first government shutdown since 2019.
Leaders of both parties are privately and publicly adamant that they will not be blamed for the funding lapse: Republicans insist Democrats need to simply agree to extend current funding for another seven weeks. Democrats refuse to do so without major concessions for lending their votes to pass any funding measure in the Senate.
What’s next? Senators left the Capitol tonight in a state of deep uncertainty about how long the shutdown could last. The Senate is on track to vote again tomorrow morning on the same GOP funding plan — which Republican leaders have vowed to put on the floor day after day until enough Democrats yield and agree to reopen the government.
Some background: The shuttering of the federal government means that hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed, while others who are considered essential will have to keep reporting for work — though many won’t get paid until the impasse ends. Still others, however, will continue collecting paychecks since their jobs are not funded through annual appropriations from Congress.
Jeffries continues to call for negotiations with shutdown imminent
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stressed that Democrats are still willing to negotiate on a government funding bill as the deadline for the expiration of government funding draws closer.
“We’re saying let’s fund the government. Let’s sit down and have a conversation,” Jeffries told CNN tonight.
While Democrats are in the minority in both chambers, Republicans still need support from some Democrats in the Senate to pass a government funding bill.
When asked if the president is willing to negotiate in good faith, given that he posted a racist, AI-generated video of Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Jeffries called Trump “an unserious individual.”
“We just don’t have serious negotiating partners right now,” Jeffries said.
In pictures: The looming government shutdown
As the clock ticks closer to midnight, a government shutdown looms over Capitol Hill.
Here are some of the best photos from this evening both inside and outside the Capitol.
Speaker Johnson says he disagrees with Rep. Madeleine Dean's perspective on the Trump AI video
House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked tonight about Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean confronting him off the House floor over the two parties’ standoff.
Dean could be heard criticizing Johnson over health care and calling out Johnson for not pushing back on President Donald Trump’s racist AI-generated video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“I’m the speaker of the House, so I represent Republicans and Democrats in that capacity and I always hear complaints and concerns from members and I always stop and hear that, and I did that for Madeleine Dean. I respect her as an individual, we disagree on every policy matter,” Johnson said.
He said he told Dean that he “disagreed with her perspective on it.”
Speaker Johnson says the government shutdown is “inevitable now”
With just hours to go until the midnight deadline, House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that a government shutdown is “inevitable.”
“I think it is inevitable now,” he said, casting blame at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for not getting Democrats behind the GOP funding proposal.
Johnson went on to say that he will not negotiate until the government is back open, saying: “There’s nothing to negotiate.”
When asked about President Donald Trump’s comments that “a lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” Johnson said that the administration now “has to make some very tough choices,” such as which services are essential.
“Chuck Schumer has just given the White House unilateral authority to make those permanent decisions about programs that should survive and those that should be eliminated,” Johnson said.
He said that House Republicans will return to Congress next week. Democrats have repeatedly criticized GOP members for leaving Washington amid the funding impasse.
“Everybody will be back next week,” Johnson said, but added: “There’s not a lot of floor activity that can be had until we open the government again.”
Senate Democrats who voted to avert shutdown in March explain why they blocked funding bill this time
Senate Democrats who declined to block a GOP-plan to avert a shutdown earlier this year said they voted against a stopgap funding plan on Tuesday to force Republicans to the negotiating table over extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“We’ve watched President Trump over the last six months destroy our government, put families at risk, hike costs on health care, to have another increase on people’s access to health care is another increase they can’t afford,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told CNN.
“It’s about healthcare,” Sen. Gary Peters explained after voting against the bill to extend government funding until late November.
The Michigan Democrat, who is retiring after this term, told CNN, “when I first came into office, I fought for the Affordable Care Act so that people could have quality affordable health care, and as I’m leaving, I don’t want to see that eroded away.”
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told reporters she ultimately decided to vote against the bill to force Republicans into talks on ACA subsidies.
“I thought getting this done so that we can now hopefully get back to the negotiating table was the best approach,” she said.
Only three Democrats who voted to keep the government funded in March joined most Senate Republicans in support of the stopgap: Sens. John Fetterman and Catherine Cortez Masto, as well as Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Office of Management and Budget orders federal agencies to launch shutdown plans
Hours ahead of the midnight government shutdown deadline, the Office of Management and Budget is asking federal agencies to launch their shutdown plans, blaming Democrats for the upcoming lapse in funding.
The letter also asks federal employees to “report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities.”
Several agencies have announced their shutdown plans, which includes furloughing thousands of federal workers, while many others will have to continue working without pay.
Vought said earlier today that the government has the authority “to make permanent change to the bureaucracy,” such as cutting jobs and programs rather than just furloughing government workers.
Schumer defends Democratic position, warns of "crescendo" of health insurance concerns
With a funding lapse now imminent, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of “plunging America into a shutdown” as a majority of the Democratic party blocked the GOP funding plan on Tuesday night.
Schumer said he was eager to sit down with GOP leaders to discuss a deal over their biggest demand — $1 trillion in Biden-era health insurance subsidies. He warned that 20 million Americans would soon get their insurance rate hikes in the mail unless Republicans agree to act.
“There are going to be millions of American families sitting down and saying, how are we going to pay these damn bills?” Schumer said. “There’s going to be a crescendo through the beginning of October, the vast majority of Americans get those bills and they’re going to say, what the heck are we going to do?”
“At midnight, the American people will blame them for bringing the government to a halt,” Schumer said of Republicans.
Asked by CNN whether he can guarantee that nine of his Democrats would not cross over and vote with Republicans, the New York Democrat did not answer.
“Our guarantee is to the American people. We’re going to fight as hard as we can for their health care, plain and simple,” Schumer said, when pressed by CNN about the GOP’s plan to put up the same funding plan again and again until enough Democrats yield.
Asked about Democrats’ ability to avoid blame during a shutdown, Schumer said: “What gives us the ability to win this argument for the American people is that we’re standing for what they want with health care.”
Thune vows to force repeated votes on GOP stop-gap bill to force Democrats to cave
Senate Majority Leader John Thune vowed to force repeated votes on the Republican-backed stopgap funding bill in an effort to pressure at least 5 more Senate Democrats to back the package, after the measure failed with only hours to go before the government shuts down.
“If the senator, Leader Schumer wants to sit down, have a conversation, he knows where I am. We’re right here. I see him on the floor, stand six feet away from him. But we are going to give him additional opportunities to vote on this on keeping it open,” Thune told CNN.
Thune also threw cold water on the idea of changing the package itself in order to get more Democratic votes.
“We need to keep the government the government open, we can talk about whatever else they want to talk about after that,” he said.
The Republican leader said that they are speaking with some Democratic senators about voting for the package when it comes up again, after Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman, and independent Sen. Angus King voted for the GOP funding resolution.
“There are others out there, I think, who are, who don’t want to shut down the government, but are being put in a position by their leadership that should make them, ought to make all of them very uncomfortable,” said Thune. “So, we’ll see. I mean, I think that tonight was evidence that there is some movement there.”
Government shutdown appears inevitable after Senate sinks funding proposals with deadline hours away
Congress is veering even closer to a government shutdown at midnight after a deadlocked Senate failed to pass a pair of dueling funding plans, fueling anxiety in Washington about how long a stalemate could last.
In a sign of the deepening division between the parties, Senate Democrats blocked Republican’s House-passed stopgap bill, which would extend current funding levels for seven weeks – but without their demand on enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
And in a vote just before, a Democratic proposal that would fund the government and extend those subsidies, which are set to expire later this year, also failed to garner the needed support.
Senate GOP leaders plan to hold a vote Wednesday on their same plan.
Democratic proposal to avert a government shutdown fails in the Senate
Democrats failed to gather the needed votes for their stopgap funding proposal to avert a government shutdown at midnight. Senators voted along party lines.
The Senate will now vote on Republicans’ House-passed proposal that would fund the government for seven weeks.
Murkowski says she’ll vote in favor of GOP plan to avoid shutdown
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she would vote Tuesday evening in favor of advancing a seven-week GOP stopgap funding bill that passed the House but is expected to be blocked in the Senate.
Murkowski was one of two Republicans who joined with most Senate Democrats to oppose the measure in a vote earlier this month. She said Tuesday the reason she objected to it then was “because I thought we, with 10 days left, we should have enough time to perhaps negotiate something that was actually going to get us to 60 votes.”
“We had 10 days to try to get there, and it doesn’t appear like we’re going to get there,” she said, explaining her switch to a “yes” vote.
She continued, “So it looks at this point in time that unless there’s been a miracle in the past two and a half hours, I think we’re getting into a shutdown and my goal is going to be to keep it as short as we possibly can.”
Sen. Rand Paul was the other Republican who opposed advancing the House-passed plan this month. He still plans to oppose it, which means GOP leaders would need at least 8 Democratic senators to pass the funding patch, which is not expected to happen as the stalemate between the parties persists.
Key Senate votes are underway as government shutdown looms
Lawmakers are considering funding proposals, but they aren’t expected to have enough support to avert a midnight shutdown.
White House uses previous Democratic messaging on shutdowns against them
With just hours remaining before a midnight deadline to fund the federal government, the White House is calling out what they view as hypocrisy from Democrats in previous shutdown situations.
Just after 5:30 p.m., a video of several top Democrats previously warning of the negative consequences of a government shutdown and slamming Republicans for “hostage” tactics began playing on repeat on screens from the White House briefing room.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says in another: “This is democracy and in a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in Congress, can’t win their fights for the presidency, and can’t win their fights in the courts.”
“A government shutdown of any duration would harm hardworking Americans and our economy,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island says in the video.
Schumer continues in an additional clip: “A government shutdown means seniors who rely on Social Security could be thrown into chaos. Our veterans could see regional VA offices shut down and support services put on hold.”
Yesterday at the White House, Schumer said that the difference now is that the current Republican bill “has not one iota of Democratic input.” “That is never how we’ve done this before,” he added.
Democratic congresswoman confronts Johnson over Trump AI video: "It's racist. You should call it out"
Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean confronted Speaker Mike Johnson right off the House floor over the two parties’ standoff ahead of the government shutdown at midnight on Tuesday.
Dean could be heard criticizing Johnson multiple times over health care and calling him out for not pushing back on President Donald Trump’s sharing of a racist, AI-generated video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The Pennsylvania Democrat pressed Johnson about the video, which Trump posted on Truth Social, and the speaker responded, “It wasn’t my style.”
“Not your style? It’s disgraceful. It’s racist. You should call it out,” Dean said.
In his response, Johnson appeared to press Dean on the details of the video, when she interrupted him and reiterated her stance.
“Is it racist? You put a sombrero on a Black man who’s the leader of the House. You don’t see that as racist? We need you desperately to lead,” an animated Dean told the speaker, raising both of her hands in emphasis.
Johnson then walked back to his office, telling Dean: “I’m working on it. And personally, it’s not my style. I love you and I respect you, OK?”
“That’s why I’m talking to you,” Dean said in response.
It’s not the first time Dean has confronted Johnson, who she knows well from their time serving together on the House Judiciary Committee. Dean publicly confronted Johnson in June after California Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a Trump administration news conference, causing an uproar in the Capitol.
