The third day of the government shutdown yielded a fourth round of failed votes to fund federal agencies and get furloughed federal employees back to work. The partisan deadlock will now extend at least into next week, as no votes will take place this weekend — and House Republican leaders canceled legislative business for next week.
Senate votes fail again: In a 46-52 vote, the Senate again blocked the Democratic bill to fund the government through October 31. It then blocked the House-passed Republican bill to extend funding through November 21 in a 54-44 vote that fell short of the 60 votes needed. Three members of the Democratic caucus – Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Angus King, an independent from Maine – again joined Republicans in voting for the bill.
Friday’s votes marked the fourth time the competing plans have been blocked in the Senate, and GOP leaders have vowed to keep forcing votes on their plan — but those votes will wait until next week, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune let senators head home for the weekend.
Johnson cancels House votes next week: As senators departed, Speaker Mike Johnson canceled the House’s legislative business for next week, allowing members to stay in their districts. “The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government,” Johnson said. “That’s plain and simple.”
The speaker’s move is another attempt to pressure the Senate to reopen the government by approving the funding bill passed by House Republicans back on September 19. The House has not voted since then.
“I don’t have anything to negotiate,” Johnson told reporters again on Friday, noting that the Republican funding bill did not include any conservative policy priorities. “Republicans are being responsible. We’re operating in good faith and we’re trying to get the Democrats to do their job and they won’t.”
Johnson again blamed Schumer for the shutdown, arguing that the Democratic leader is looking to appease his liberal base to preserve his own political position. “He’s afraid that the Marxist, far-left corner of his base is going to challenge him in New York,” Johnson charged.
The Grim Reaper: President Trump, who has mostly weighed in on the shutdown through memes and social media posts, has embraced a strategy that seeks to leverage the lapse in appropriations to inflict cuts targeted at Democratic areas and priorities. On Thursday night, Trump posted a video depicting White House budget director Russ Vought as the Grim Reaper, set to the Blue Öyster Cult classic “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
Vought on Friday continued to use the shutdown to slash spending in Democratic areas. He announced Friday that the Trump administration will halt $2.1 billion for Chicago transit projects “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.” The announcement followed similar ones earlier this week in which Vought withdrew $18 million for New York infrastructure projects and $8 billion for energy projects in Democratic states.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson blasted the administration’s move, comparing it to an administration deal to bail out the Argentinian government. “Argentina gets $20 billion and the South Side gets nothing,” the mayor said in a statement. “What happened to America First?”
The House speaker insisted again Friday that Trump and Vought “take no pleasure” in making cuts but have been given an opportunity to do so by Democrats.
“Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes,” Johnson told reporters, referring to the president. “I mean, yes, because that’s what President Trump does and people are having fun with this. But at the end of the day the decisions are tough ones.”
Johnson defended Vought as well: “Russ wants to see a smaller, more efficient, more lean, effective federal government as we do, but he doesn’t want people to lose jobs. He doesn’t want to do that. But he has—that’s his responsibility.”
Previous government shutdowns have seen federal workers furloughed, not fired. Trump on Thursday said in a social media post that he could not believe that Democrats had given him an “unprecedented opportunity” to push his agenda and make cuts to federal agencies.
What’s next: Democrats haven’t shown any signs that the administration’s pressure tactics will lead them to fold. “Republicans thought they could scare us,” Schumer said. “It ain’t working.”
At the same time, with Vought’s plans for mass firings expected soon, some Republicans are reportedly concerned about the White House funding cuts and the potential layoffs of thousands of federal workers.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters that any talks on Democrats’ healthcare demands can only happen after the government reopens. And he suggested that a solution to the shutdown may not originate with dug-in Senate leaders. “I think that the path forward on this is more likely to be achieved with rank-and-file members who actually want to have an appropriations process, want us to get back on track on the calendar legislatively,” Thune said.
Lawmakers in both parties are reportedly holding informal talks to try to come up with a deal that could attract enough Democratic votes to reopen the government.