Democrats voted to block legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies on Thursday (January 29, 2026) as they continued to negotiate with Republicans and the White House on new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.

Thursday’s (January 29) 45-55 test vote came as Democrats have threatened a partial government shutdown when money runs out on Friday (January 30). But Mr. Trump said just ahead of the vote that “we don’t want a shutdown” and the two sides were discussing a possible agreement to separate homeland security funding from the rest of the legislation and fund it for a short time.

As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands on Wednesday (January 28), including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled” and that this is “a moment of truth.”

“The American people support law enforcement. They support border security. They do not support ICE terrorising our streets and killing American citizens,” Mr. Schumer said.

Mr. Schumer has pushed Republicans and the White House to strip the Homeland Security funding from the rest of the bill, which includes money for the Defense Department and other agencies. In the deal under discussion, Homeland Security would still be funded but for a short time to allow for negotiations on the Democrats’ demands. Other agencies included in the bill would be funded through the end of September.

Still, with no agreement and an uncertain path ahead, the standoff threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies, a dispute that closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.

That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk and find agreement.

“We’re getting closer,” the GOP leader said on the Senate floor on Thursday (January 29) morning.

Kicking off a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Trump said his administration is speaking with congressional Democrats.

“We’re working on that right now,” Mr. Trump said while declining to go into specifics. He added: “We don’t want a shutdown.”

Democrats lay out their demands

There’s a lot of “unanimity and shared purpose” within the Democratic caucus, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said after a lunch meeting Wednesday.

“Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police department does,” Ms. Smith said. “There has to be accountability.”

Earlier on Thursday (January 29), Tom Homan, the President’s border czar, said during a press conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are working on a plan to begin drawing down the number of agents in Minnesota but that it would depend on cooperation from state authorities.

It’s unclear how far those assurances will go in satisfying Democrats. Amid the Mr. Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Mr. Schumer said Democrats are asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.

Democrats also want an enforceable code of conduct, so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Mr. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.

The Democratic caucus is united in those “common sense reforms” and the burden is on Republicans to accept them, Mr. Schumer said, as he has pushed for the Homeland Security spending to be separated out to avoid a broader shutdown.

Many obstacles to a deal

As the two sides negotiated, it was unclear whether they could agree on anything that would satisfy Democrats who want Mr. Trump’s aggressive crackdown to end.

As the negotiations continued, it was unclear whether all Democrats would agree to a temporary extension of the funding. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, has said that Congress should not send “another penny” to ICE until Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is fired.

And across the Capitol, House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they passed last week. In a letter to Mr. Trump on Tuesday (January 27), the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the Republican president and ICE.

“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.

Just ahead of the Senate vote, Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, called for Democrats to vote to move forward on the bill so they could negotiate the changes ahead of final passage.

“This morning’s vote is about taking the first step, not the final step,” Ms. Collins said.

Still far apart on policy

Several Republican senators have said they would be fine with Democrats’ request to separate the Homeland Security funds for further debate and pass the other bills in the package. But it might be more difficult for Democrats to find broad GOP support for their demands on ICE.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he is opposed to the Democrats’ proposal to require the immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he blamed Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.

“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Mr. Tillis said. “And that’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham posted on X that he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes, he will insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Democrats say they won’t back down. “It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand,” he said.

House lawmakers made a long-awaited return to the nation’s capital on Wednesday (November 12, 2025) after nearly eight weeks away to potentially put an end to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

The House is scheduled to take up a bill to reopen the government that the Senate passed on Monday night (November 10). President Donald Trump called the measure a “very big victory.” The prospect of travel delays due to the shutdown could complicate the vote. Still, Speaker Mike Johnson said the GOP was “very optimistic” about the outcome.

“We think this is going to happen and we’re sorry it took this long,” Mr. Johnson, R-La., told reporters.

The House has not been in legislative session since Sept. 19, when it passed a short-term measure to keep the government open when the new budget year began in October. Mr. Johnson sent lawmakers home after that vote and put the onus on the Senate to act, saying House Republicans did their job.

Democrats seized on the opportunity to cast Republicans as going on vacation while the federal workforce went without paychecks, travellers experienced airport delays and food assistance benefits expired. Mr. Johnson said members were doing important work in their districts helping constituents navigate the shutdown.

The vast majority of Democratic lawmakers are expected to vote against the bill because it does not include an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire at the end of this year and make coverage more affordable. They gathered on the Capitol steps to denounce the measure.

“We cannot support the Republican effort to gut the health care of the American people,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

But Mr. Johnson said of the pending legislation that “our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that.”

The compromise to end the shutdown

The legislation included buy-in from eight senators who broke ranks with the Democrats after reaching the conclusion that Republicans would not bend on using a government funding to bill to extend the health care tax credits. Meanwhile, the shutdown’s toll was growing by the day. Wednesday was Day 43.

The compromise funds three annual spending bills and extends the rest of government funding through Jan. 30. Republicans promised to hold a vote by mid-December to extend the health care subsidies, but there is no guarantee of success.

“We had reached a point where I think a number of us believed that the shutdown had been very effective in raising the concern about health care,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. The promise for a future vote “gives us an opportunity to continue to address that going forward.”

The legislation includes a reversal of the firing of federal workers by the Mr. Trump administration since the shutdown began. It also protects federal workers against further layoffs through January and guarantees they are paid once the shutdown is over. The bill for the Agriculture Department means people who rely on key food assistance programs will see those benefits funded without threat of interruption through the rest of the budget year.

The package includes $203.5 million to boost security for lawmakers and an additional $28 million for the security of Supreme Court justices.

Democrats are also seizing on language that would give senators the opportunity to sue when a federal agency or employee searches their electronic records without notifying them, allowing for up to $500,000 in potential damages for each violation. Democrats called for removal of the provision.

The language seems aimed at helping Republican senators pursue damages if their phone records were analysed by the FBI as part of an investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Democrats were being hypocritical in blaming the GOP for the expiring health insurance tax credit.

“It’s a subsidy on top of a subsidy. Our friends added it during COVID,” he said of Democrats. “COVID is over. They set a date certain that the subsidies would run out. They chose the date. … By the way, they did it without any Republican votes.”

Most Democrats call the passage of the spending bill a mistake. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who received blowback from his party in March when he voted to keep the government open, said the bill “fails to do anything of substance to fix America’s healthcare crisis.”

Health care debate ahead

It’s unclear whether the parties will find any common ground on health care before the December vote in the Senate. Mr. Johnson has said he will not commit to bringing it up in his chamber.

Some Republicans have said they are open to extending the COVID-19 pandemic-era tax credits as premiums will soar for millions of people, but they also want new limits on who can receive the subsidies. Some argue that the tax dollars for the plans should be routed through individuals rather than go directly to insurance companies.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on Monday (November 10) that she was supportive of extending the tax credits with changes, such as new income caps. Some Democrats have signalled they could be open to that idea.

“We do need to act by the end of the year, and that is exactly what the majority leader has promised,” Ms. Collins said.

House Democrats expressed great scepticism that the Senate effort would lead to a breakthrough.

Published – November 13, 2025 05:33 am IST

The government shutdown stretched into its 40th day on Sunday (November 9, 2025), even as senators stayed in Washington for a gruelling weekend session hoping to find an end to the funding fight that has disrupted flights nationwide, threatened food assistance for millions of Americans and left federal workers without pay.

The Senate has so far shown few signs of progress over the weekend that could be crucial for the shutdown fight. Republican leaders are hoping to hold votes on a new package of bills that would reopen the government into January while also approving full-year funding for several parts of the government. But the necessary Democratic support for that effort was far from guaranteed.

“We’re only a handful of votes away” from passing a bill to reopen the government, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on Saturday (November 8).

Still, Democratic leaders are pushing hard for an extension of subsidies for health plans offered under the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Republicans have rejected that offer, but signalled openness to an emerging proposal from a small group of moderate Democrats to end the shutdown in exchange for a later vote on the “Obamacare” subsidies, which make coverage more affordable.

For those enrolled in Affordable Care Act exchanges, premiums on average are expected to more than double next year if Congress allows the enhanced subsidies to lapse.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the pledge to hold a vote on extending the health care subsidies would be a “wasteful gesture” unless “you have the commitment of the speaker of the House that he will support it and that the president of the United States will sign it.”

President Donald Trump has made clear he is unlikely to compromise any time soon. He pressed Republicans again over the weekend to get rid of the Senate’s filibuster rules that prevent the chamber from advancing on most legislation unless there is support from 60 senators.

Moderates continue to negotiate

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and others, negotiating among themselves and with some rank-and-file Republicans, have been discussing bills that would pay for parts of government — food aid, veterans programs and the legislative branch, among other things — and extend funding for everything else until December or January. The agreement would only come with the promise of a future health care vote, rather than a guarantee of extended subsidies.

It was unclear whether enough Democrats would support such a plan. Even with a deal, Mr. Trump appears unlikely to support an extension of the health benefits. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also said this past week that he would not commit to a health vote.

Republican leaders only need five additional votes to fund the government, and the group involved in the talks has ranged from 10 to 12 Democratic senators.

Some Republicans have said they are open to extending the COVID-19-era tax credits as premiums could skyrocket for millions of people, but they want new limits on who can receive the subsidies. They lined up Saturday to take to the Senate floor and argue that subsidies for the plans should be routed through individuals.

“We’re going to replace this broken system with something that is actually better for the consumer,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said.

Republicans eye new package of bills

Mr. Trump wants Republicans to end the shutdown quickly and scrap the filibuster, which requires 60 Senate votes for most legislation, so they can bypass Democrats altogether. Vice President J.D. Vance, a former Ohio senator, endorsed the idea in an online post Saturday, saying Republicans who want to keep the filibuster are “wrong.”

Republicans have rejected Mr. Trump’s call, and Mr. Thune is eyeing a bipartisan package that mirrors the proposal the moderate Democrats have been sketching out. What Thune, who has refused to negotiate, might promise on health care is unknown.

The package would replace the House-passed legislation that the Democrats have rejected 14 times since the shutdown began Oct. 1. The current bill would only extend government funding until Nov. 21.

A choice for Democrats

A test vote on new legislation could come in the next few days if Mr. Thune decides to move forward.

Then Democrats would have a crucial choice: Keep fighting for a meaningful deal on extending the subsidies that expire in January, while prolonging the pain of the shutdown? Or vote to reopen the government and hope for the best as Republicans promise an eventual health care vote, but not a guaranteed outcome.

Mr. Schumer on Saturday (November 8) persisted in arguing that Republicans should accept a one-year extension of the subsidies before negotiating the future of the tax credits.

“Doing nothing is derelict because people will go bankrupt, people will lose insurance, people will get sicker,” Mr. Schumer said in a floor speech. “That’s what will happen if this Congress fails to act.”

Published – November 09, 2025 12:50 pm IST

The Federal Aviation Administration on November 8, 2025, reported air traffic control staffing issues at 25 airports and other centres, delaying flights in at least 12 major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago and New York. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Volunteers load boxes of food into cars during an event held by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey in partnership with Bergen County to deliver emergency food relief to Federal workers and SNAP recipients amid the U.S. government shutdown in Leonia, New Jersey, U.S., November 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent looks on during a press conference with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, D.C., U.S., on October 15, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Efforts to swiftly end the U.S. government shutdown collapsed on Wednesday (October 1, 2025) as Democrats in Congress rejected proposals to resolve an acrimonious funding stand-off with President Donald Trump and the White House threatened public sector jobs.

With the government out of money after Mr. Trump and lawmakers failed to agree on a deal to keep the lights on, federal departments have been closing since midnight, with the White House warning of “imminent” firings of public sector workers.

Senate Democrats — who are demanding extended health care subsidies for low income families — refused to help the majority Republicans approve a House-passed bill that would have reopened the government for several weeks while negotiations continue.

Around 7,50,000 federal employees are expected to be placed on furlough — a kind of enforced leave, with pay withheld until they return to work.

Essential workers such as the military and border agents may be forced to work without pay and some will likely miss pay cheques next week.

The crisis has higher stakes than previous shutdowns, with Mr. Trump racing to enact hard-right policies, including slashing government departments and threatening to turn many of the furloughs into mass firings.

His spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters the White House was “working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made… and we believe that layoffs are imminent”.

Shutdowns are a periodic feature of gridlocked Washington, although this is the first since a record 35-day pause in 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term.

They are unpopular because multiple services used by ordinary voters, from national parks to permit applications, become unavailable.

“I think our government needs to learn how to work together for the people and find a way to make things not happen like this,” said Terese Johnston, a 61-year-old retired tour guide visiting Washington from California as the government shut down. “You compromise. You find ways. So everybody gives a little bit, everybody takes a little bit, and things work.”

Democrats — motivated by grassroots anger over the expiring health care subsidies and Mr. Trump’s dismantling of government agencies — have been withholding Senate votes to fund the government as leverage to try and force negotiations.

As the messaging war over the shutdown intensified, Vice-President J.D. Vance took centre stage at a White House briefing normally headed by Ms. Leavitt to upbraid Democrats over their demands.

“They said to us, ‘we will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens.’ That’s a ridiculous proposition,” Mr. Vance said in a rare appearance in the briefing room.

U.S. law bars undocumented immigrants from receiving the health care benefits Democrats are demanding, and the party has not called for a new act of Congress to change that.

No compromise

Republicans in the House of Representative have already passed a stop-gap funding fix to keep federal functions running through late November while a longer-term plan is thrashed out.

But the 100-member Senate does not have the 60 votes required to send it to Mr. Trump’s desk, and Democrats say they won’t help unless Republicans compromise on their planned spending cuts — especially in health care.

With no compromise on the table, both plans were expected to fail again.

Talks that have taken place so far have been unusually bitter, with Mr. Trump mocking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on social media.

Senate Republican leaders, who have just one rebel in their own ranks, need eight Democrats to join the majority and rubber-stamp the House-passed bill.

They got three moderates to cross the aisle in an initial vote on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) and were hoping to peel off five more as the shutdown chaos starts to bite. But Wednesday’s (October 1, 2025) result went exactly the same way.

Congress is out on Thursday (October 2, 2025) for the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday but the Senate returns to work on Friday (October 3, 2025) and may be in session through the weekend. The House is not due back until next week.

Published – October 02, 2025 01:48 am IST

Washington is bracing for what could be a prolonged Federal shutdown after lawmakers deadlocked and missed the deadline for funding the government.

Republicans supported a short-term measure to fund the government generally at current levels through November 21, but Democrats blocked it, insisting the measure address their concerns on health care.

They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s mega-bill passed this summer and extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable for millions of people who purchase through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans called the Democratic proposal a nonstarter that would cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion.

Neither side shows any signs of budging.

Here’s what to know about the shutdown that began Wednesday:

What happens in the shutdown?

Now that a lapse in funding has occurred, the law requires agencies to furlough their “non-excepted” employees. Excepted employees, which include those who work to protect life and property, stay on the job but don’t get paid until after the shutdown ends.

The White House Office of Management and Budget begins the process with instructions to agencies that a lapse in appropriations has occurred and they should initiate orderly shutdown activities. That memo went out Tuesday (September 30, 2025) evening.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 7,50,000 federal employees could be furloughed each day of the shutdown, with the total daily cost of their compensation at roughly $400 million.

What government work continues during a shutdown?

A great deal, actually.

FBI investigators, CIA officers, air traffic controllers and agents operating airport checkpoints keep working. So do members of the Armed Forces.

Those programmes that rely on mandatory spending generally continue during a shutdown. Social Security payments still go out. Seniors relying on Medicare coverage can still see their doctors and health care providers can be reimbursed.

Veteran health care also continues during a shutdown. Veterans Affairs medical centres and outpatient clinics will be open, and VA benefits will continue to be processed and delivered. Burials will continue at VA national cemeteries.

Will furloughed federal workers get paid?

Yes. In 2019, Congress passed a bill enshrining into law the requirement that furloughed employees get retroactive pay once operations resume.

While they’ll eventually get paid, the furloughed workers and those who remain on the job may have to go without one or more of their regular paychecks, depending upon how long the shutdown lasts, creating financial stress for many families.

Service members would also receive back pay for any missed paychecks once federal funding resumes.

Will Postal Services works?

Yes. The U.S. Postal Service is unaffected by a government shutdown. It’s an independent entity funded through the sale of its products and services, not by tax dollars.

What closes during a shutdown?

All administrations get some leeway to choose which services to freeze and which to maintain in a shutdown.

The first Trump administration worked to blunt the impact of what became the country’s longest partial shutdown in 2018 and 2019. But on Tuesday (September 30), Mr. Trump threatened the possibility of increasing the pain that comes with a shutdown.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them,” Mr. Trump said of Democrats. “Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programmes that they like.” Each federal agency develops its own shutdown plan. The plans outline which workers would stay on the job during a shutdown and which would be furloughed.

In a provocative move, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has threatened the mass firing of federal workers in a shutdown. An OMB memo said those programmes that didn’t get funding through Mr. Trump’s mega-bill this summer would bear the brunt of a shutdown.

Agencies should consider issuing reduction-in-force notices for those programmes whose funding expires, that don’t have alternative funding sources and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” the memo said.

That would be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when furloughed federal workers returned to their jobs once the shutdown was over. A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but eliminate their positions, which would trigger another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that’s already faced major rounds of cuts due to efforts from the Department of Government Efficiency and elsewhere in Mr. Trump’s Republican administration.

What agencies are planning

Health and Human Services will furlough about 41% of its staff out of nearly 80,000 employees, according to a contingency plan posted on its website.

As part of that plan, the Atlanta-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention would continue to monitor disease outbreaks, while activities that will stop include research into health risks and ways to prevent illness.

Meanwhile, research and patient care at the National Institutes of Health would be upended. Patients currently enrolled in studies at the research-only hospital nicknamed the “house of hope” will continue to receive care.

Additional sick patients hoping for access to experimental therapies can’t enroll except in special circumstances, and no new studies will begin.

At the Food and Drug Administration, its “ability to protect and promote public health and safety would be significantly impacted, with many activities delayed or paused.” For example, the agency would not accept new drug applications or medical device submissions that require payment of a user fee.

— National Park Service: As the shutdown neared, the National Park Service had not yet said whether it will close its more than 400 sites across the US to visitors. Park officials said Tuesday afternoon that contingency plans were still being updated and would be posted to the service’s website.

Many national parks including Yellowstone and Yosemite stayed open during a 35-day shutdown during Mr. Trump’s first term. Limited staffing led to vandalism, gates being pried open and other problems including an off-roader mowing down one of the namesake trees at Joshua Tree National Park in California.

— Smithsonian Institution: In the event of a government shutdown, our museums, research centres, and the National Zoo will remain open through at least Monday, October 6.

Impact on the economy

Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said a short shutdown doesn’t have a huge impact on the economy, especially since federal workers, by law, are paid retroactively. But “if a shutdown continues, then that can give rise to uncertainties about what is the role of government in our society, and what’s the financial impact on all the programmes that the government funds.” “The impact is not immediate, but over time, there is a negative impact of a shutdown on the economy,” he added.

Markets haven’t reacted strongly to past shutdowns, according to Goldman Sachs Research. At the close of the three prolonged shutdowns since the early 1990s, equity markets finished flat or up even after dipping initially.

A government-wide shutdown would directly reduce growth by around 0.15 percentage points for each week it lasted, or about 0.2 percentage points per week once private-sector effects were included, and growth would rise by the same cumulative amount in the quarter following reopening, writes Alec Phillips, chief US political economist at Goldman Sachs.

With U.S. government funding due to expire at midnight on Tuesday (September 30, 2025), Republicans and Democrats in Congress are showing no signs they will agree to a temporary spending fix that would avert a shutdown.

President Donald Trump will convene a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Monday (September 29, 2025) in a last-ditch attempt to end the standoff. But Democrats have signalled they are not willing to simply sign off on the short-term funding plan Republicans support without some accommodations.

If Congress does not act, thousands of federal government workers could be furloughed, from NASA to the national parks, and a wide range of services would be disrupted. Federal courts might have to close and grants for small businesses could be delayed.

This is a fight over more than temporary funding, however. It is the continuation of a battle that has been brewing since Mr. Trump took office in January and refused to spend billions of dollars that Congress had already approved. Democrats aim to use the threat of a shutdown to restore some of that funding and shore up healthcare subsidies due to expire at the end of the year.

At stake is $1.7 trillion in “discretionary” spending that funds agency operations, which will lapse at the end of the fiscal year on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) if Congress does not extend it.

That amounts to roughly one-quarter of the government’s total $7 trillion budget, with much of the remainder going to health and retirement programs and interest payments on the $37.5 trillion debt.

The spotlight will be on Mr. Trump, a Republican who has blamed Democrats for the impasse, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who will have to keep his rank-and-file in line in order to attain his party’s goals. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill on September 19 to keep government agencies funded through November 21. The Senate, where 60 votes were required to approve the measure, promptly defeated it.

Chronic shutdowns

There have been 14 partial government shutdowns since 1981, most lasting just a few days. The most recent was also the longest, lasting 35 days in 2018 and 2019 due to a dispute over immigration.

This time healthcare is at issue. Roughly 24 million Americans who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act will see their costs rise if Congress does not extend temporary tax breaks that were passed in 2021.

Mr. Schumer on Sunday (September 28, 2025) said there will be “huge pressure” on Republicans to agree to talks to restore healthcare cuts, which he said threaten to close rural hospitals and dramatically hike insurance premiums.

“We don’t want a shutdown,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We hope that they sit down and have a serious negotiation with us.”

Senate Republican Leader John Thune has left the door open to eventually dealing with the healthcare problem but says Congress must first pass a temporary spending bill to avert a shutdown.

“You can’t do this by Tuesday (September 30, 2025), and you can’t do it while you’re holding the American people hostage with a government shutdown,” he said on “Meet the Press.”

Some Democratic aides in Congress have suggested lawmakers could back a short funding bill if Republicans agreed to hold votes within the next several weeks on the Affordable Care Act tax credit extension.

But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries dismissed that idea on Friday (September 26, 2025), saying Republicans cannot be trusted. “Now, we’re supposed to believe, with a wink and a nod, that Republican leaders are actually interested in dealing with the Affordable Care Act issue?” he said.

Democrats dig in amid risks

Democrats desperately want to energise their voting base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake, and lawmakers from the party’s centre as well as its left have lined up behind the effort to boost healthcare spending.

Moderate Democratic Representative Hillary Scholten said her constituents do not want her to support any spending bill that does not shore up healthcare, pointing in particular to children’s cancer research.

But she also said that a shutdown could hurt her Michigan district. “We’ve got the U.S. Coast Guard, a huge installation,” she said in an interview. “They don’t get paid when the government gets shut down.”

Democratic Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut said he worried about medical research cuts at Yale University and the University of Connecticut. “It’s devastating to patients who are in clinical trials,” he said.

The strategy comes with risks.

Democratic aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed concerns that a shutdown could create a public backlash if Democrats do not effectively argue their case and instead come off sounding as just being opposed to whatever Mr. Trump wants – a stance Republicans like Mr. Thune have derided as “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

“They’re playing with fire, and they know it,” Mr. Thune said on Sunday (September 28, 2025).

Published – September 29, 2025 07:48 pm IST

The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed a $1.2 trillion budget bill on March 23, keeping the government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown. The vote on passage was 74-24.

Key federal agencies including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, which houses the Internal Revenue Service, will remain funded through Sept. 30 after the bill was passed in the Democratic-majority Senate.

But the measure did not include funding for mostly military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan or Israel, which are included in a different Senate-passed bill that the Republican-led House of Representatives has ignored.

Senate leaders spent hours on March 23 negotiating numerous amendments to the budget bill that ultimately were defeated. The delay pushed passage beyond a Friday midnight deadline.

But the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying agencies would not be ordered to shut, expressing confidence that the Senate would promptly pass the bill, which it did.

Partisan divisions on display, again

While Congress got the job done, deep partisan divides were on display again, as well as bitter disagreement within the House’s narrow and fractious Republican majority. Conservative firebrand Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to force a vote to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Republican, for allowing the measure to pass.

The 1,012-page bill provides $886 billion in funding for the Defence Department, including a raise for U.S. troops. Mr. Biden, a Democrat, has indicated he will sign it.

Mr. Johnson, as he has done more than 60 times since succeeding his ousted predecessor Kevin McCarthy in October, relied on a parliamentary manoeuvre to bypass hardliners within his own party on March 22, allowing the measure to pass by a 286-134 vote that had substantially more Democratic support than Republican.

For most of the past six months, the government was funded with four short-term stopgap measures, a sign of the repeated brinkmanship that rating agencies have warned could hurt the creditworthiness of a federal government that has nearly $34.6 trillion in debt.

Also read: Unnecessary brinkmanship: On the U.S.’s fiscal quagmire

“This legislation is truly a national security bill — 70% of the funding in this package is for our national defence, including investments that strengthen our military readiness and industrial base, provide pay and benefit increases for our brave servicemembers and support our closest allies,” said Republican Senator Susan Collins, one of the main negotiators.

Opponents cast the bill as too expensive. “It’s reckless. It leads to inflation. It’s a direct vote to steal your paycheck,” said Senator Rand Paul, part of a band of Republicans who generally oppose most spending bills.

The last partial federal government shutdown occurred during Donald Trump’s presidency, from Dec. 22, 2018 until Jan. 25, 2019. The record-long interruption in government services came as the Republican insisted on money to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and was unable to broker a deal with Democrats.

Trouble for Speaker Johnson?

The new budget bill passed the House with 185 Democratic and 101 Republican votes, which led Ms. Greene, a hardline conservative, to introduce her measure to oust Mr. Johnson.

Also read: Mike Johnson | The man with the gavel

That move had echoes of October when a small band of hardliners engineered a vote that removed Mr. McCarthy for relying on Democrats to pass a stopgap measure to avert another partial government shutdown.

They had been angry at Md. McCarthy since June, when he agreed with Mr. Biden on the outlines of the fiscal 2024 spending that were passed on March 22.

Mr. McCarthy’s ouster brought the House to a halt for three weeks as Republicans struggled to agree on a new leader, an experience many in the party said they did not want to repeat as the November election draws nearer.

Ms. Greene said she would not push for an immediate vote on her move to force Mr. Johnson out. “I filed a motion to vacate today. But it’s more of a warning than a pink slip,” the Georgia Republican told reporters.

Indeed, some Democrats said that they would vote to keep Mr. Johnson, if he were to call a vote on a $95 billion security assistance package already approved by the Senate for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

That measure is unlikely to come up anytime soon, as lawmakers will now leave Washington for a two-week break.

Pockets of Republican opposition to more funding for Ukraine have led to fears that Russia could seriously erode Kyiv’s ability to continue defending itself.

Life is unlikely to become easier for Mr. Johnson anytime soon, with the looming departure of two members of his caucus – Ken Buck and Mike Gallagher – set to reduce his majority to a mere 217-213 in a month’s time. At that point, he could afford to lose only one vote from his party on any measure that Democrats unite to oppose.