The latest on the Trump administration as shutdown enters 23rd day with no end in sight

Two attempts by Senate Democrats to bring forward legislation that would guarantee pay throughout the shutdown to a wider swath of federal workers failed on Thursday.

Just before the vote on GOP Sen. Ron Johnson’s bill to extend paychecks to “essential” federal workers while the government remains shutdown, Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Gary Peters asked for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to advance their own proposals, which were rejected by Republicans.

Van Hollen’s bill would ensure that all federal workers, contractors and service members, including furloughed federal employees, continue to receive paychecks, as well as prohibit firings of federal workers while the government is shutdown.

Peters’ narrower proposal would guarantee pay for all federal workers, military members and contractors during the shutdown.

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri pushed for Congress to address expiring enhanced health care subsidies, telling CNN, “I’m not in the ‘hope for the best and watch health care premiums double’ camp,” and said he is ready to work with Democrats on it, though he attacked them for tying the issue to the government shutdown.

“I’ve seen the analysis, I mean if we don’t do anything their premiums are gonna almost double. They’re too high right now. We’re talking about working people. A lot of small businesses now get their insurance on the exchange, their employees. So it’s just, we’ve got to do something. This is totally unaffordable,” he said.

Hawley pushed for reforms to the program, including an income cap, saying, “My view is we can fix those things, but we have to do something.”

He criticized Democrats for tying the expiring subsidies to government funding, saying he has “no idea,” what the two have to do with each other.

“How does that help anybody? That doesn’t help anybody. So I would just, I would say to my Democrat colleagues, stop making people suffer. I mean, real people are suffering right now. Stop this. I mean I don’t get it. Stop that, and we’ll work on the health care thing.”

Hawley insisted he is ready to meet with Democrats, but argued that he can’t get GOP leadership to do the same. “You know, listen, they don’t take my advice. I would just say, for my own part, I’m happy to talk to anybody. But I would also couple that with really, truly, this is not a game.”

Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-led bill to pay “essential” federal workers during the government shutdown from advancing on Thursday in a 54-45 vote.

The bill, introduced by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, would ensure that federal employees who continue to work through the shutdown keep receiving paychecks, but does not account for furloughed workers. Under federal law, all government employees are guaranteed back pay once the government reopens.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has voted repeatedly in support of a GOP-led bill to reopen the government, as well as Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia all crossed party lines to support the bill to pay essential workers. In a procedural move, Senate Majority Leader John Thune switched his vote to oppose the bill so that it can be brought up again.

Many Democrats have said they want to pass legislation that pays all federal workers, including those on furlough, through the shutdown, though GOP leadership has thrown cold water on that proposal.

Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Thursday that the state will cover the cost of food stamp benefits for hundreds of thousands of its low-income residents starting next month if the federal government’s funds are exhausted amid the shutdown.

Roughly 42 million people are at risk of losing their food stamps in November. It’s not clear whether the Trump administration will step in to find funding to continue supporting SNAP, as it has for other priorities.

Other states, including New York, Texas and Pennsylvania, have said that benefits will be interrupted during the shutdown.

The US Department of Agriculture has asked states to hold off on November payments until further notice. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters last Thursday that the program’s funds would run dry in two weeks.

SNAP has a contingency fund of about $6 billion, but November benefits are expected to total around $8 billion.

Democrats and anti-hunger advocates have pressed the administration to tap the contingency fund and to shift tariff revenue that supports child nutrition programs to cover next month’s food stamp benefits.

Remember: The administration used this revenue to cover WIC benefits for pregnant women, new mothers and young children through October.

An American flag flutters outside the US Capitol on Thursday.

The Senate is voting now to advance a bill put forward by Republicans to pay essential federal workers during the government shutdown.

The legislation will need bipartisan support to clear the 60-vote threshold.

The bill, introduced by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, would ensure that federal employees who continue to work through the shutdown keep receiving paychecks, but does not account for furloughed workers. Under federal law, all government employees are guaranteed back pay once the government reopens.

Many Democrats have said they want to pass legislation that pays all federal workers, including those on furlough, through the shutdown, though GOP leadership has thrown cold water on that proposal.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is reinstating roughly 3,000 furloughed workers at a time when millions of Americans will be signing up for Medicare and Affordable Care Act coverage.

“In order to best serve the American people amid the Medicare and Marketplace open enrollment seasons, CMS is temporarily calling back all furloughed employees on Monday, October 27,” the agency said in a statement.

The agency, which oversees Medicare, Obamacare and Medicaid, will draw on user fees it charges to share data with researchers to restore daily operations, according to the agency. The user fee fund will be replenished once Congress approves a spending package for the current fiscal year.

Staffers will be paid after they are recalled but won’t get back pay for the time they were furloughed while the shutdown continues, according to an email to CMS staff obtained by CNN. Details on back pay will be available after the impasse, which began October 1, concludes, the email said. (The Trump administration has called into question a 2019 law that guarantees retroactive compensation for furloughed workers.)

CMS furloughed 47% of its staff, according to the Department of Health and Human Services contingency plan.

Open enrollment for traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans began on October 15 and runs through December 7. People can sign up for Obamacare coverage for 2026 from November 1 through January 15.

Employees were told in the email that some agency activities would remain limited or paused during the shutdown — including certain external communications, new contract awards and official travel.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a television interview at the US Capitol on Thursday.

Democrats want to reopen the government and “we want do that immediately,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN.

“We want to find a bipartisan path forward toward a spending agreement that actually meets the need of the American people,” Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, as he reiterated his party’s stance of wanting to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits to reopen the government.

He added that Democrats will “continue to stand by hardworking federal employees who have been targeted by this administration from the very beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency,” referencing the mass firings and layoffs of federal employees that happened earlier this year.

Jeffries went on to say that at the same time, “we do need to decisively address the Republican health care crisis that is devastating the American people in so many different ways, all across the country, including in rural America. And one of the things that we need to do with urgency is to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”

Jeffries also slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson for likening Democrats to “terrorists” and accusing them of holding the American people hostage as the shutdown drags on.

“Well, that type of language is reckless. It’s irresponsible, and it’s going to get someone killed. What do these folks not understand as it relates to the language that they continue to use? We should be able to battle it out in the context of ideas, as opposed to trying to use these extreme terms that have been unleashed on the American people from the very beginning of this presidency,” he said.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol on Thursday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said today there is “not an existing post of money” to cover air traffic controllers’ salaries as he argued for Democrats to vote to reopen the federal government.

“But we’re running out of resources, (the White House is) they’re running out of creative ideas” to pay federal workers, the speaker told reporters during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that Tuesday will be the first paycheck that controllers won’t receive for October’s work if the shutdown continues and said many controllers have resorted to working a second job to make ends meet.

Speaking directly to controllers, Duffy said: “Thank you for coming and working. We appreciate that. Come to work even if you don’t get a paycheck. We need you to come to work. But if they do not, we’ll know whose fault it is.”

Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who represents a large proportion of federal workers, and Gary Peters of Michigan said that Democrats will offer two alternatives later today to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson’s bill that would pay “essential” federal workers during the shutdown.

“Ron Johnson’s bill would essentially weaponize the government shutdown to allow President Trump to decide who works and gets paid and who doesn’t work and doesn’t get paid,” argued Van Hollen. “Our belief is that no federal employee, no one, should bear the burden or be punished for a shutdown. They have nothing to do with it.”

Peters described his alternative as “a very clean bill.”

“It just says that folks who are federal employees, members of the military, folks who are federal contractors, that are employees, get paid for this time, back pay, so that there haven’t been harmed by this. It’s very straightforward,” he said.

However, Van Hollen acknowledged that they haven’t worked out a deal with Republican leadership to guarantee floor votes on their alternatives. Instead, Republicans will likely block their request to consider them.

Pressed on the Republican argument that every federal worker, including those on furlough that aren’t paid under the Ron Johnson bill, would be paid if Democrats would vote to reopen the government, Van Hollen insisted that Congress must address the rising healthcare costs at the center of the shutdown fight.

“Of course, we want to open the government. That’s the best way to address this issue. We also need to address these other big issues,” he said.

Peters agreed. “Well, we’re right now fighting for health care benefits for 24 million Americans, so they’re going to lose health insurance. The Republicans can open the government,” he argued. “They can come to the table and agree with us that health care should be affordable for all Americans. Unfortunately, they don’t believe that right now. We’re hoping that they change their opinion.”

People walk through Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on October 8.

Republican senators introduced another bill last night that would continue to pay essential Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration workers during the government shutdown.

The measure, sponsored by Senate transportation committee chair Ted Cruz, is separate from legislation expected to fail to pass today. That measure would provide funding to pay all essential workers.

The bill is titled “Keep America Flying Act of 2026,” one of many being introduced to pay essential employees in individual departments.

It would also include retroactive pay to September 30.

Remember: Controllers and TSA employees are considered essential employees during government shutdowns but are not being paid. Many airports have seen delays during the past weeks as some controllers and TSA workers took unscheduled time off.

Israeli forces block Palestinians' and foreign activists' access to olive trees during the olive harvest, near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Thursday.

President Donald Trump warned Israel would “lose all of its support from the United States” if it annexes the West Bank, saying “it won’t happen.”

“We’ve had great Arab support. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. It will not happen. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened,” he told TIME magazine in an interview published Thursday.

Trump said he had stopped Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing the war in Gaza, in part by warning him of Israel’s deteriorating support around the world.

“He would have just kept going. It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years,” Trump said of Netanyahu, saying he told him, “‘Bibi, you can’t fight the world. You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you. And Israel is a very small place compared to the world.’”

Trump also said he would visit Gaza.

“I will. Yeah, I will,” he said without specifying when.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Israel just hours after US Vice President JD Vance departed the country amid an intensive diplomatic push to ensure the fragile ceasefire in Gaza holds.

Rubio is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu today. He will also visit the Civilian-Military Coordination Center during his time in the country.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

This post has been updated with additional reporting about Rubio’s visit.

A Transportation Security Administration agent assists travelers at a security checkpoint at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Texas, on Monday.

The Senate will vote at 12:15 p.m. today to take up a bill that would pay “essential” government workers, those who are required to work during the shutdown but are not getting paid.

That includes TSA workers, ICE and Border Patrol agents and many others.

The “Shutdown Fairness Act,” authored by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, is not expected to get the 60 votes to advance because Democrats plan to filibuster it.

In turn, Democrats will try to pass two competing measures aimed at paying all federal workers. They will ask for unanimous consent at some point Thursday to pass those measures and Republicans say they will object.

President Donald Trump is slated to tout the results of his administration’s sweeping immigration and crime crackdown during a roundtable event Thursday at the White House.

The event will highlight the efforts of the Homeland Security Task Forces that officials put together earlier this year, as part of a directive to investigate drug cartels and human trafficking networks operating within the US, a White House official confirmed.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel are among the top Trump officials expected to attend the roundtable.

They’re expected to credit the task forces with driving thousands of arrests across the country, along with seizures of drugs and firearms, since they became fully operational in August.

In a post on X, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called the task forces “a first of its kind effort targeting cartels, criminal networks, and more.”

The roundtable comes as Trump has increasingly made immigration and crime the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, including ramping up mass deportation efforts in a range of cities and seeking to deploy the National Guard in places like Portland, Chicago and Memphis despite pushback from local officials and residents.

The administration has also carried out several strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 37 people in a military campaign that has unsettled lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and heightened tensions with Venezuela and Colombia.

Trump on Wednesday defended the strikes as within his legal authority, arguing that they were saving lives by preventing drugs from entering the country.

A raven on the banks of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, on October 14.

More than 450 former employees of the National Park Service, including two former directors of the agency, are urging Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to close America’s national parks until the government shutdown ends.

The letter comes in the wake of reports of damage and dangerous behavior inside some parks since the shutdown began at the start of the month.

The former employees cite a wildfire which started near an unstaffed campground at Joshua Tree National Park in California as well as reports of BASE jumpers and some park-goers flying drones in Yosemite National Park in California despite that being generally illegal inside national parks.

The letter also cites overflowing bathrooms, trash buildup and a lack of maintenance on trails.

In a statement, a Department of Interior spokesperson said, “We are committed to protecting park resources, ensuring public safety, and maintaining visitor access to the greatest extent practicable.”

The spokesperson added that closing the parks has a “swift and devastating” impact on communities, adding that local economies “rely on park tourism.”

Among the signees of the letter are two former directors of the National Park Service, Robert Stanton and Jon Jarvis. More than 90 former superintendents of various NPS facilities signed the letter, as did dozens of former park rangers. The letter was organized by the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks and the Association of National Park Rangers.

At the end of their letter, the former NPS employees said they feared “that if you fail to act—and soon—the incidents at Joshua Tree and Yosemite will not be the last.”

This post has been updated with additional information.

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is “open to continued contacts” with the US State Department on a potential meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

“The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, is open to continued contacts with the US State Department in fulfillment of the understandings reached during the telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the US on October 16,” Zakharova told reporters today.

She added that the foreign ministry expects the Trump administration to continue to share its “considerations and motives” regarding the “steps being taken” toward a peace deal in Ukraine — what she described as a “Ukrainian settlement.”

Yesterday, Trump announced the cancellation of an anticipated meeting between him and Putin in Budapest.

The US president suggested it could be a “waste of time” for now. However, his administration appears to have left the door open for the possibility of a further meeting, despite last night slapping sanctions on two major Russian oil companies.

We are covering the latest developments in the war in Ukraine, follow along here.

For the second time in recent days, a federal judge has broadened her order that temporarily prevents the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown.

US District Judge Susan Illston on Wednesday agreed to modify a temporary restraining order she issued last week barring federal agencies from laying off workers who are represented by a litany of unions representing federal employees. Under the new order, the government cannot for now move ahead with planned layoffs for individuals represented by the National Treasury Employees Union, the second largest federal workers’ union, and two other unions that have joined the case as plaintiffs.

Seven agencies have issued reduction in force, or RIF, notices to more than 4,000 staffers in recent weeks, while at least one other agency has acknowledged plans to lay off employees. A smaller, initial group of unions filed a lawsuit against the administration late last month, arguing that conducting the layoffs during the shutdown is unlawful.

Illston’s original order did not cover all of the employees who received RIF notices because some were not represented by the American Federation of Government Employees and another union that first brought the case. For instance, the Treasury Department said in court filings over the past two weeks that it had issued RIF notices to nearly 1,400 workers, but that none of the notices were affected by the initial temporary restraining order.

With Wednesday’s expansion, the judge’s pause now covers workers in an additional six unions, including NTEU, which represents many Treasury workers. However, it remains unclear whether all the layoffs that agencies have announced have now been halted.

The president pushed back yesterday on claims he hasn’t been fully transparent about his plans for a new ballroom at the White House.

Hear below what he had to say:

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Trump pushes back on transparency questions over new ballroom

CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports on President Donald Trump pushing back on claims that he hasn't been transparent about details for the construction of the new ballroom at the White House.

01:17 • Source: CNN

Trump pushes back on transparency questions over new ballroom

01:17

The dome of the US Capitol is seen from the Capitol Visitors Center on Wednesday.

The Senate will vote today on a bill that would require the government to pay workers deemed essential and required to work during the lapse — including those in the US military, border patrol and Transportation Security Administration — from the Treasury Department’s coffers during a shutdown.

That vote comes a day before millions of federal workers miss their first full paycheck, and it is intended to cause maximum political pain for Democrats on day 23 of the political standoff.

But Democrats say they oppose any bill that does not pay all federal workers and will instead propose a countermeasure on Thursday that would ensure furloughed workers, too, would be paid. It’s not clear that the measure will receive a vote, though even if it does, it would fail because it needs 60 votes to advance. The GOP’s measure, too, is likely to fall short of that 60-vote threshold.

Read more about the GOP’s push to pressure Democrats and the latest on what lawmakers are saying about the shutdown.

President Donald Trump, during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, on Wednesday.

We learned more about a number of topics yesterday from the president, including plans for his new ballroom, his decision to impose sanctions on Russia, his growing antipathy toward Colombia, and more.

Here’s what President Donald Trump talked about alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte:

On Russia: Trump said he’s canceled an anticipated meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, telling reporters that “it just didn’t feel right to me.” Trump also said he “felt it was time” to impose further sanctions on Russia, following an announcement yesterday from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on new penalties for Russia’s two largest oil companies. But Trump did say he’ll talk about how to end the war in Ukraine during his upcoming high-stakes meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping.

On Ukraine: Trump pointed to the complexity and “tremendous learning curve” of Tomahawk missiles as one of the reasons as to why he has not agreed to give the weapons to Ukraine. And according to Trump, the US does not control what Ukraine does with missiles it receives from other countries, including attacking inside Russia.

On international strikes: The US military conducted a strike this week against a boat in the Eastern Pacific, marking the 8th known strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel. Trump said he believes he has the legal authority to launch strikes in international waters to target illegal drug cartels, but indicated he may seek congressional approval for any operations on land.

On Colombia: Making good on a threat from this weekend, the president announced that the US halted all payments and subsidies to Colombia. Trump on Sunday accused Colombian President Gustavo Petro of not doing anything to deter the productions of drugs in his country, “despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA.”

On his new ballroom: Trump pushed back against those who say he was not transparent about the East Wing demolition for his new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. He defended his plans to build the space — which he said will cost “about $300 million” — and showed printed renderings of the new ballroom. Read the list of high-profile donors here.

CNN’s Donald Judd, Kit Maher, Betsy Klein, Elise Hammond, Adam Cancryn and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting.

Federal workers are bearing the brunt of the government shutdown, with more than 1 million of them going unpaid while Democrats and Republicans in Congress argue over funding federal agencies for the current fiscal year.

But federal employees, like members of Congress, continue to receive their salaries, as directed by the Constitution — although some have said they wouldn’t accept their pay or will donate the money. The Trump administration has also taken other measures to pay additional workers as the shutdown drags on to day 23.

Here’s who is still getting paid:

Read more about who’s getting paid and who is not during the government shutdown.