Government funding lapsed Wednesday morning after the Senate rejected Democratic and Republican stopgap bills, casting agency programs, government workers and Congress itself into an uncertain future.
The government shutdown, which the White House formally initiated before midnight, comes as lawmakers remain far apart and mostly unwilling to budge in their demands for extending funding.
It means that most federal programs — including energy, science and environment programs — will grind to a halt; most national parks will run on barebones staff; some federal research, permitting and studies will be paused; and hundreds of thousands of government employees could permanently lose their jobs if the administration makes good on previous threats.
President Donald Trump blamed Democrats on Tuesday and said that while a shutdown is “the last thing we want to do,” his administration could use it to target Democratic priorities across the federal government.
“We could do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump said during a press conference. “They’re taking a risk by having a shutdown.”
Congress will need to pass a funding bill to bring agencies back online, but as of Tuesday night, Republican and Democratic leaders were blaming each other and insisting that they would not back down from their negotiating positions.
For the second time in 11 days on Tuesday, Senate Democrats rejected the Republicans’ “clean” continuing resolution, which passed out of the House earlier this month with only one Democratic vote. The bill would extend government funding for seven weeks without any partisan policy riders.
The Senate vote was 55-45, with three Democrats voting in favor and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voting against. Sixty affirmative votes were needed for passage.
The Democratic caucus members who voted for the GOP bill were Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Republicans on Tuesday similarly rejected Democrats’ alternative CR, which would extend funding for a month while renewing soon-to-expire health care tax credits and imposing guardrails on the White House’s spending decisions.
The health care provisions and other additions — such as energy and climate language — would cost more than $1 trillion. The failed vote was 47-53 along party lines.
“This is an outrageous shakedown by Senate Democrats, and that’s why we’re going to have a shutdown,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday.
He suggested the Senate could keep voting on that CR on Wednesday, Friday and over the weekend, daring Democrats to continue to vote against their bill to reopen the government. Congress is out Thursday for Yom Kippur.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) canceled House votes for this week after his chamber passed the Republican CR. The full House is expected to return next week.
But House Democrats returned to Washington early and flooded the House chamber during a pro forma session to request a vote on the Democratic CR. The Republican lawmaker in the chair, however, did not allow it.
Democrats held caucus meetings and press conferences on the Hill to castigate Republicans for their absence and highlight their demands on health care.
“We are in this fight until we win this fight for the people,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
“Shame on [House Republicans] for being on vacation all across the country and all across the world on the eve of a government shutdown,” Jeffries said. “We’re on duty; they’re on vacation. … Do your job.”
Environmental programs at risk
Amid the partisan squabbling Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern about the impacts the shutdown will have on myriad environmental programs, from disaster relief to agriculture and national parks.
“The Farm Service Agency is in my state, the Federal Highway Administration employees in my state, … the Park Service employees in our state, these are all people that are going to be affected by this,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).
Under EPA’s contingency plan, posted Tuesday, nearly 90 percent of agency employees will be furloughed, halting issuance of new permits, most enforcement inspections, most scientific publications and cleanup plan approvals.
The Department of the Interior plans to designate employees who focus on drilling and mining issues as essential workers, allowing them to continue to work during the shutdown, according to POLITICO.
The National Flood Insurance Program, which has 4.6 million policies and administers most of the country’s flood coverage, lapsed overnight. Paul, the Kentucky Republican, suggested he would oppose any stand-alone effort to reauthorize the program due to concerns about it helping wealthy people — though the facts on that assertion are not clear-cut.
Republicans “don’t give a damn about the harm they will cause with their shutdown,” Schumer said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund could run out of funding if the shutdown is prolonged. FEMA reported two weeks ago that the fund would have about $5 billion at the end of September, but replenishing the fund would be a challenge during a shutdown.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) said in a statement that a government shutdown “threatens to grind America’s science and technology enterprise to a halt.”
“Our ability to prepare for extreme weather events and improve forecasting could also suffer, leaving Americans more vulnerable — especially as hurricane season continues,” Babin said.
“The House did its work to maintain government operations with a clean continuing resolution,” he added. “Senate Democrats are driving us toward a shutdown that will put America’s leadership in space, science, and innovation at risk — plain and simple.”
