{"id":288357,"date":"2025-10-09T04:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/288357\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:43:10","slug":"us-shutdown-deadlock-deepens-as-senators-reject-competing-bills-us-federal-government-shutdown-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/288357\/","title":{"rendered":"US shutdown deadlock deepens as senators reject competing bills | US federal government shutdown 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The deadlock over ending the US government shutdown deepened on Wednesday, with senators once again rejecting competing bills to restart funding as Democrats and Republicans<\/a> remain dug in on their demands for reopening federal agencies.<\/p>\n

The funding lapse has forced offices, national parks and other federal government operations to close or curtail operations, while employees have been furloughed. Signs of strain have mounted in recent days in the parts of the federal government that remained operational, with staffing shortages reported<\/a> at airports across the US as well as air traffic control centers. Further disruptions may come next week, when US military personnel and other federal workers who remain on the job will not receive paychecks, unless the government reopens.<\/p>\n

When the Senate met on Wednesday afternoon, it became clear that sentiment had not shifted in the eight days since the shutdown began. For the sixth time, Democratic and Republican proposals to restart funding both failed to receive enough support to advance, and no senators changed their votes from recent days.<\/p>\n

Democrats are demanding that any bill to fund the government be paired with an array of healthcare-centered provisions, including an extension of premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans. Those expire at the end of the year, and costs are set to rise for the plans\u2019 roughly 20 million enrollees if they are not renewed.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has sought to pressure the Democrats to accept the GOP\u2019s proposal, which would only extend funding through 21 November. On Tuesday, the White House office of management and budget released a memo<\/a> arguing that federal workers were not entitled to back pay, despite a 2019 law saying they should be.<\/p>\n

The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, poured cold water on that prospect at a press conference the following day, saying: \u201cI think it is statutory law that federal employees be paid. And that\u2019s my position. I think they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both parties otherwise remained unmoved in their demands. The House of Representatives<\/a> passed the GOP\u2019s bill on a near party-line vote last month, and Johnson has kept the chamber out of session ever since in a bid to force Senate Democrats to approve it.<\/p>\n

At his press conference, the speaker alleged that top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer was opposing the Republican bill out of fear from a primary challenge by the \u201ccommunists\u201d in his party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are worried about the Marxist flank in their Democrat party,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s terrified that he\u2019s going to get a challenge from his far left. I\u2019ve noted that Chuck Schumer is a very far-left politician, but he is not far enough left for the communists, and they\u2019re coming for him, and so he has to put up his dukes and show a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer once again faulted Republicans for refusing to negotiate on the Democrats\u2019 healthcare demands. The Senate\u2019s majority leader John Thune has said he will discuss the ACA tax credit issue, but only when government funding is restored.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do both: fix healthcare and reopen the government. This is not an either-or thing, which Republicans are making it. The American people don\u2019t like it,\u201d Schumer said.<\/p>\n

While both parties\u2019s rank-and-file lawmakers have appeared united around their leaders\u2019 strategies, the GOP suffered a high-profile defection on Monday when far-right lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene backed negotiations<\/a> over the tax credits. However in the days since, no other Republicans have publicly joined her.<\/p>\n

Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican congresswoman representing a swing district, has received bipartisan support for legislation that would extend the credits for a year, and is viewed a potential compromise in the funding standoff.<\/p>\n

At a press conference on Tuesday, top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries called the idea a \u201cnonstarter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was introduced by the same people who just permanently extended massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors,\u201d Jeffries said, referring to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act<\/a> Republicans passed this year without Democratic votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The deadlock over ending the US government shutdown deepened on Wednesday, with senators once again rejecting competing bills…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-288357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115342383819366874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}