WASHINGTON — (BrooklandNews.com) — Sept. 31, 2025 — The United States government has shut down following the Senate’s failure to reach an agreement, as democrats continue pressing against a continuing resolution without certain healthcare funding.

The House passed H.R. 5371, a continuing resolution (CR) funding federal agencies through November 21, 2025. This “clean” CR extends key healthcare programs and maintains global health funding at FY 2024 levels. But it’s not what democrats want, and for it to pass the Senate, 9 democrats would need to vote for the CR.

Democrats have continued to vote against the CR passed by the House because they want a health care tax credit cut included in the funding measure to prevent a government shutdown. Specifically, democrats want to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, reverse Medicaid cuts, and have opposed “clean” funding bills, arguing that they lack policy changes.

Democrats blame republicans, and likewise for republicans. Senate Leader John Thune (R-SD): “When the Democrats were in the majority around here, 13 different occasions, we passed short-term continuing resolutions, funding resolutions to keep the government funded. And as you can see, there were a lot of, interestingly enough, Republican votes, Republicans who voted to keep the government open when the Democrats had the majority. Thirteen separate occasions.” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY): “We think when they say ‘later,’ they mean ‘never.’” “We have to do it now.”

So… what happens when the government shuts down?: In the meantime, federal agencies will be required to halt non-essential functions. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office projected that approximately 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed, although they would receive back pay at the end of a shutdown. The total daily cost of their compensation would amount to approximately $400 million. The budget office emphasized that the impact of a shutdown depends on its duration and the administration’s decisions regarding its course of action.

Among the employees deemed essential are active-duty military members, numerous federal law enforcement officers, and employees at federally funded hospitals, as well as air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers. Each agency has the authority to determine which employees are essential. Additionally, tens of thousands of others can remain employed because their pay is funded through alternative means, such as other legislation or fees.

President Donald Trump has pledged that if democrats don’t agree to a budget, federal workers will be laid off in return. “We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people and cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They want to be able to take care of people that come into our country illegally – and no system can handle that.”

The Senate is set to convene at 10 a.m. ET. on Wednesday, but it remains unclear whether they will vote against the continuing resolution. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said that votes would be held later this week as democrats remain firm in their disagreement with the CR.

It was President Trump’s first term that set the record for the longest government shutdown, 35 days, at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019. Before that, it would have been under a Democrat, then-President Bill Clinton, who would have held the record for a 21-day shutdown in 1995.