U.S. shutdown begins as Democrats vote down Republican bills

A vote to end the U.S. government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health-care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide.

Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown after the White House and Congress earlier failed to strike an agreement to keep American programs and services open, throwing the country into a new cycle of uncertainty.

While military duties, immigration and border enforcement, and mail delivery continue, roughly 750,000 federal workers were expected to be furloughed. Many offices will be shuttered, while education, environmental and other services could sputter, with reduced staff working without pay until the shutdown ends. The monthly U.S. jobs report due out on Friday may or may not be delivered, and the economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide.

“I certainly pray they will come to their senses,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said, flanked by Republican leaders at the Capitol.

This is the third time Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse and the first since his return to the White House for a second term.

Senate Democrats voted down a Republican bill to keep funding the government late on Tuesday. The 55-45 vote on a bill to extend federal funding for seven weeks fell short of the 60 ballots needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation, though Democratic Senators John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, and Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada, along with independent Sen. Angus King, of Maine, voted with Republicans at that time to keep the government open.

King warned against “permanent damage” as Trump and his administration have threatened mass layoffs.

“Instead of fighting Trump, we’re actually empowering him, which is what finally drove my decision,” King said.

Health-care subsidies at heart of dispute

Democrats are demanding funding for health-care subsidies that are expiring for millions of people under the Affordable Care Act, causing the insurance premiums to spike nationwide. Republicans have refused to negotiate and have encouraged Trump to steer clear of any talks.

Democrats have also demanded that Republicans reverse the Medicaid cuts that were enacted as a part of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” this summer and for the White House to promise it will not move to rescind spending passed by Congress.

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See what’s inside Donald Trump’s latest bill, which the U.S. House passed into law before a July 4 deadline. With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill will become a defining measure of Trump’s return to the White House, aided by Republican control of Congress.

After convening a White House meeting this week with the Democratic leaders, the president posted a cartoonish fake video mocking the Democratic leadership that was widely viewed as unserious and racist.

“President Trump’s behaviour has become more erratic and unhinged,” Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement, calling for an “intervention” to get the country out of the shutdown. “Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos.”

Across the U.S. government, preparations have begun. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Russ Vought, directed agencies to execute plans not just for furloughs, which are typical during a federal funding lapse, but mass firings of federal workers. It’s part of the Trump administration’s mission, including its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to shrink the government.

The Trump administration said Wednesday it was putting a hold on roughly $18 billion US to fund a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey and the city’s expanded Second Avenue subway project because of the government shutdown.

The suspension of funds is likely meant to target Schumer, who represents New York. In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, Schumer said he and then-President Joe Biden were both “giddy” over the rail tunnel project.

Reacting to the development at a news conference, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, told reporters, “the bad news just keeps coming,” adding that “they’re trying to make culture wars be the reason why.”

“That’s what a partnership with Washington looks like as we’re standing here. We’ve done our part. We’re ready to build. It’s underway,” she said.

Democrats face difficult choice

Democrats are in an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive. But some party activists and lawmakers have argued that they need to do something to stand up to Trump.

“The level of appeasement that Trump demands never ends,” said Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont.

“We’ve seen that with universities, with law firms, with prosecutors. So is there a point where you just have to stand up to him? I think there is.”

Schumer said he voted in March to keep the government open because a shutdown would have made things worse as Trump’s administration was slashing government jobs.

Things have now changed, he said, including the passage this summer of the massive Republican tax cut bill that reduced Medicaid.

Meanwhile, on the home page of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a large pop-up ad that ran for several hours on Tuesday read: “The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people.”

The last shutdown was in Trump’s first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, when he demanded that Congress give him money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.