What we're covering
• Standoff continues: Congress remains deadlocked on a funding plan, and the Senate isn’t scheduled to hold any votes until Tuesday as the reality of the shutdown continues to hit federal workers. Top House leaders signaled over the weekend that there’s virtually no appetite for their parties to cross the aisle and engage with the other side’s demands.
• Paychecks for troops: President Donald Trump said Saturday that “we have identified funds” to pay troops this week. It had seemed almost certain that military members wouldn’t get their next paychecks, which were scheduled to go out Wednesday.
• Middle East trip: Meanwhile, Trump was in the Middle East today after his announcement that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire agreement. Trump spoke before Israel’s parliament and leaders from more than 20 countries joined him in Egypt for a summit on Gaza’s future.
CNN will host a live town hall Wednesday with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the shutdown. Send us your questions here.
It's day 13 of the government shutdown. CNN wants to hear from you
Some US airports refuse to play video of Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for shutdown
Some US airports are refusing to play a video of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
In an email to CNN, a spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which operates Portland International Airport, Hillsboro Airport and Troutdale Airport, confirmed a request came from the Transportation Security Administration to display the video message.
“We did not consent to playing the video in its current form, as we believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging,” said Molly Prescott, spokesperson for the Port of Portland.
The Hatch Act is a 1939 law that prohibits political activities of federal employees to ensure government programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.
A Port of Seattle spokesperson also told CNN Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will not play the video “due to the political nature of the content.”
In Westchester County, just north of New York City, the airport will not display the video either.
“The PSA politicizes the impacts of a federal government shutdown on TSA Operations, and the County finds the tone to be unnecessarily alarmist,” County Executive Ken Jenkins said in a statement. “It is inappropriate, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials.”
It is not clear if any airport has agreed to display the video message.
Layoffs at Education Dept. hit special education staff
The Department of Education has cut nearly all of its staff that handles special education as part of the mass layoffs, multiple sources within the agency tell CNN.
The department’s layoffs largely hit the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, with the exception of a small contingent of mainly top officials, the sources told CNN.
The office supports programs that serve millions of children, youth and adults with disabilities nationwide.
“Despite extensive efforts to minimize impact on employees and programs during the ongoing government shutdown, the continued lapse in funding has made it necessary to implement the RIF (reduction in force),” a letter sent to laid off workers and seen by CNN said.
According to a court filing by the American Federation of Government Employees, 466 people at the agency had been laid off as of Friday. It is not clear how many people were laid off in the OSERS office.
A Department of Education spokesperson told CNN that “some” of their employees will be impacted but would not answer specifics about how many would be affected overall.
The department has already gone through a significant reduction in force since the start of the second Trump term, cutting nearly 50% of its workforce, over 1300 people, last March.
South Dakota governor and state lawmakers paying to keep Mount Rushmore lit amid shutdown
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden and state lawmakers are personally contributing funds to continue lighting Mount Rushmore amid the government shutdown.
The federal funding lapse has resulted in the suspension of many National Parks services, threatening the illumination of the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
The Republican governor said he and other state lawmakers were pledging funds to keep it lit for at least the next few weeks, including South Dakota state Sens. Helene Duhamel and Randy Deibert, as well as South Dakota House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach and other state representatives.
Rhoden said he has received additional commitments to fund the lighting for even longer if the shutdown continues. The Mount Rushmore Society, a non-profit partner of the National Park Service, is facilitating the donations, the governor said.
Speaker Johnson: "We're barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history"
House Speaker Mike Johnson is warning this government shutdown could soon rank among the longest in American history if Democrats don’t cave and pass Republicans’ short-term funding bill.
Johnson quoted then-President Barack Obama saying in 2013 that he wouldn’t pay political “ransom in exchange for reopening the government.”
“What Barack Obama demanded then is exactly what Republicans are saying now, we will not allow the American people to be taken hostage over partisan demands,” Johnson said.
The 2013 shutdown, which was largely driven by GOP demands about defunding the Affordable Care Act, lasted 16 days. Monday marks the shutdown’s 13th day.
With no apparent solution to Democrats’ demand to extend enhanced ACA subsidies ahead of the Senate’s return Tuesday, the stalemate will likely stretch on for several more days.
Johnson defended his decision to keep members at home since September 19, arguing House Republicans are “doing some of their best work in the district.”
With GOP leaders refusing to engage on Democrats’ health care demands until the government reopens, Johnson said months of work will be necessary to reform the ACA.
“We have to fix health care in America, and we have ideas to do it, but we have to have government open and operating to do that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump to meet with Zelensky at the White House on Friday
President Donald Trump will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House on Friday, according to a source familiar.
The meeting comes after Trump said Sunday he is considering telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that if the war in Ukraine doesn’t end, he will allow shipments of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv. The missiles would allow Ukraine to penetrate deep into Russian territory.
Trump and Zelensky discussed the Tomahawks in two phone calls this weekend.
“They’d like to have Tomahawks. That’s a step up,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Middle East.
Trump said he might tell Russia, “‘Look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks.’ The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
Trump and Zelensky last met in August at the White House, where they were joined by seven other European leaders.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this post.
Transportation secretary says air control staff is down and he will “make the necessary cuts” to department, NASA
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he will “make necessary cuts” at the department and at NASA as the government shutdown continues.
Duffy, who is also serving as acting NASA administrator, said that 2,000 to 3,000 more air traffic controllers are needed across the understaffed system and that even a few calling out sick sends a “ricochet through the air space” that leads to delays.
Duffy blamed Democrats in Congress for delays in controllers’ pay but said they’ll receive it, it just “depends when.”
“We will slow you down,” he said. “We will cancel flights. We want to make sure that when you travel, you travel safely.”
The secretary said if the administration can get rid of employees across the Department of Transportation and NASA and still do the same job, they will to save government money.
Analysis: Why a resolution to the government shutdown seems further away than ever
The pain is deepening. But Republicans and Democrats are only becoming angrier and more estranged over a government shutdown with no end in sight.
The impasse is heading toward a third week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo closed, and the nation’s air traffic control system becoming strained. An already acrimonious political duel took a nasty turn Friday night when the administration fired hundreds of bureaucrats to punish Democrats, although some dismissals at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were hurriedly canceled.
Repercussions of the shutdown are getting more serious as a slow-boil crisis worsens. But so far, there’s no sign of a breakthrough, nor any serious talks between rival lawmakers on Capitol Hill to open the government.
Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a short-term bill to fund the government until Republicans extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year and agree to roll back President Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts.
Smithsonian museums and National Zoo close as government shutdown continues
Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo shut their doors Sunday as the government shutdown enters its third week, the Smithsonian Institution posted on its website.
The Smithsonian Institute’s 19 museums and the zoo had remained open since the government shut down on October 1 by using budget funds from previous years.
The institution previewed its closing Friday, saying in a post on X: “Due to the government shutdown, Smithsonian museums are temporarily closed beginning on Sunday, Oct. 12, along with our research centers and the National Zoo.”
The zoo reassured the public on its website that the animals “will continue to be fed and cared for.” However, the zoo’s live animal cams will not be operating, according to the website.
The museums and the zoo will remain closed until Democrats and Republicans pass an agreement to reopen the government, but Congress is showing no signs of reaching a deal.
Roughly 1.4 million federal employees have been furloughed or are working without pay, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center review of the major agencies’ shutdown contingency plans. On Friday, more than 4,000 federal workers received layoff notices.
During the 2018-2019 funding lapse, the museums and the zoo were also open for 11 days at the start of the five-week shutdown.
House GOP and Democratic leaders reject each other's positions in shutdown standoff
Top House leaders signaled on Sunday there’s virtually no appetite for their parties to cross the aisle and engage with the other side’s demands to pass a bill to reopen the government for a few more weeks, as the shutdown continues.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats view a stopgap bill to fund the government through November 21 as a “partisan Republican spending bill.”
Though the bill would extend current Biden-era spending levels, Jeffries said the legislation was “unacceptable” to Democrats because it also includes “massive cuts” codified by President Donald Trump’s domestic policy package.
Democrats are demanding a rollback in Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, as well as an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, an issue that Republicans have said they’re only willing to engage once the government reopens.
“They’re trying their best to distract the American people from the simple fact that they’ve chosen a partisan fight so that they can prove to their Marxist rising base in the Democrat Party that they’re willing to fight Trump and Republicans,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a subsequent interview on Fox News.
While Jeffries argued that his caucus wants to have a “broader” bipartisan conversation about fixing America’s “broken healthcare system,” Johnson fired back that Democrats are “eating up the clock in the month of October” to conduct such talks as the shutdown drags on.
Johnson also said he spoke on the phone recently with GOP Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been vocal about her concerns that Republicans could shoulder the blame for their constituents’ skyrocketing health insurance premiums.
He said he told the Georgia congresswoman that Republicans have been working “around the clock” on addressing the issue and offered to include her in those conversations with the relevant committees.
