Despite the federal government shut down and amid students continuing to die or be injured in the school bus “Danger Zone,” the Senate agreed on the importance of child safety with a resolution designating October 2025 as School Bus Safety Month.
Introduced by Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Gary Peters of Michigan, Senate Resolution 484 was filed on Nov. 5 and the full chamber agreed via unanimous consent to the language Monday. But it was originally scheduled for a vote on Oct. 1, the first day of the government shutdown.
“We stayed on them every day to get together and vote on it even with the government shutdown, which was very hard to do,” said Ward Leber, founder of the Child Safety Network, which has been the organization championing the resolution since 2013, when current Senate Majority Leader John Thune threw his full support behind it. “When both sides knew internally a deal was going to happen to reopen within a few days, our constant pushing paid off.”
Leber said this year’s resolution is dedicated to the memories of two 11-year-old girls who were killed as they were boarding and exiting their school buses.
“As a sergeant, a supervisor of school resource officers, and most of all as a father, I know the deadly outcome that can occur when drivers illegally pass school buses,” said Sgt. Dan Sperry, who spoke at STN EXPO West in 2016. “My 11-year-old daughter Makayla died in my arms just after stepping off her bus. I am proud to serve alongside the volunteers of CSN’s Senior Advisory Board, and grateful for all of the dedicated school bus professionals working every day to prevent another family from suffering a preventable tragedy.”
Leandra Backner, whose daughter was killed in 2022 after she tripped and was run over by her school bus, said “it warms my hear that the U.S. Senate has upheld School Bus Safety Month since 2013, honoring Annaliese’s memory through its ongoing commitment to safety.”
Sen. Peters said in a statement parents should have “peace of mind that when they drop their kids off at the bus stop, they will get to school and back home safely.”
The resolution results in funding for an NFL-themed PSA that alerts the public when it’s not safe to pass, especially when a stopped school bus is involved. The program is scheduled to launch in early 2026 around the Super Bowl.
It also touts the CSN Safe Ride campaign that offers school bus driver training, school bus technology, and free safety and security resources to school districts. To date, CSN said it has provided security awareness training materials to over 14,000 public and private schools, trained over 125,000 school bus operators and provided more than 175,000 counter-terrorism guides.
Peters also introduced last month the Brake for Kids Act to create a PSA about the dangers of illegally passing school buses.
In his home state, the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation recently filmed a PSA with NASCAR driver Ryan Preece, a member of the RFK Racing Team owned by Jack Roush, the founder and chairman of Roush Enterprises that includes ROUSH CleanTech. The company provides propane autogas and gasoline fuel systems to Blue Bird in partnership with Ford.
Jeff Garland, right, gives a tour of Papa G’s Organic Hemp Farm in Crawford County, Indiana, on June 23, 2022. Jeff and his son started the farm in 2020. At left is Lee Schnell of the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (NRCS photo by Brandon O’Connor)
WASHINGTON — Kentucky’s two U.S. senators sparred this week over the future of the country’s hemp industry — one arguing that a provision attached to the package that will reopen the government will close a problematic loophole and the other contending the language will regulate the industry “to death.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell ultimately prevailed and was able to keep the section in the Agriculture appropriations bill cracking down on hemp that Sen. Rand Paul tried to remove during floor debate. Both are Republicans.
The appropriations bill is riding along with a stopgap spending bill that will end the government shutdown and is expected to be voted on by the House as soon as Wednesday. The hemp measure has raised alarm in farm states benefiting from a robust hemp growing industry.
Hemp plants have 0.3% or less of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, while cannabis or marijuana plants have higher concentrations of that substance, which is what gives users the “high or stoned” feeling.
A summary of the bill put together by Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins’ staff says the new language would prevent “the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a warning page on its website cautioning “that delta-8 THC products have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA for safe use in any context.”
Farm Bill origins
McConnell explained he is targeting hemp because its uses have expanded beyond what was intended.
“I led the effort to legalize industrial hemp through the 2014 pilot program and the 2018 Farm Bill,” McConnell said. “Unfortunately, companies have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances, and then marketing it to children in candy-like packaging and selling it in easily accessible places, like gas stations and convenience stores all across our country.”
McConnell said the new provision, which won’t take effect until a year after the bill becomes law, would “keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children while preserving the hemp industry for farmers.”
Paul and Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley urged their colleagues to remove that McConnell provision from the larger spending package, but were unsuccessful.
“This is the most thoughtless, ignorant proposal to an industry that I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Paul said.
The new language would change the definition of what makes a hemp plant legal, a move Paul said would mean “every plant in the country will have to be destroyed.”
“This bill’s per-serving THC content limit would make illegal any hemp product that contains more than point four milligrams,” Paul said. “That would be nearly 100% of the existing market. That amounts to an effective ban, because the limit is so low that the products intended to manage pain or anxiety will lose their effect.”
State laws said to be nullified
The legislation, Paul added, will negatively impact the nearly two dozen states that have set higher limits on hemp production.
“Currently, Maine limits THC to three milligrams per serving. That will be overruled. My home state limits THC to five milligrams in beverages; that will be overruled. Minnesota, Utah, Louisiana also have five milligrams per serving. Alabama and Georgia have 10 milligrams. Tennessee has 15 milligrams,” Paul said. “The bill before us nullifies all these state laws.”
Merkley said the new provision in the larger spending package would eliminate the hemp industry, which Congress took steps to establish more than a decade ago.
“I support my other colleague from Kentucky who doesn’t want intoxicated products produced from hemp,” Merkley said. “But the definition that is in this bill does far more than that, and it has to be fixed. So for now, it needs to be stripped out.”
The Senate voted 76-24 to table, or set aside, Paul’s amendment after McConnell moved to block it from being taken up directly.
The Agriculture funding bill is one of three full-year government spending bills included in the stopgap spending package that will end the government shutdown once the House approves the measure later this week and President Donald Trump signs the bill.
Trade group warns of hundreds of thousands of jobs affected
Hemp Industry & Farmers of America Executive Director Brian Swensen wrote in a statement released last week that McConnell’s provision would have a devastating impact on the industry and its workers.
“Congress legalized hemp, Americans built an industry, and now Washington wants to pull the rug out from under hardworking farmers and small business owners. The industry wants a solid regulatory package that protects kids, but instead, Congress wants to place industry-killing caps on cannabinoids. Congress is not listening to the industry they created — they’re dismantling an industry with over 325,000 jobs and driving consumers to an unregulated, unsafe, and untaxed black market.”
John and Kara Grady, owners of Slappyhappy Hemp Company, said during an interview with the Missouri Independent the new language could hinder their business, possibly forcing them to close down.
“You’re sick to your stomach all day long,” said Kara Grady, “knowing your hard work is for not.”
Zack Kobrin, a Fort Lauderdale attorney with the firm of Saul Ewing who works in the hemp and cannabis industry, told the Florida Phoenix that many in the industry “are surprised it was such a sudden and sweeping measure.”
“I think for those that are cowboys, they will just maximize on making as much as they can until they can’t,” Kobrin said. “I think for those hemp operators that were trying to work with regulators and trying to follow the rules, this will be a real blow.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters while walking to his office on Nov. 10, 2025 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate approved a stopgap spending bill Monday that will end the longest government shutdown in American history once the measure becomes law later this week.
The 60-40 vote sends the updated funding package back to the House, where lawmakers in that chamber are expected sometime during the next few days to clear the legislation for President Donald Trump’s signature.
Shortly before the vote, Trump said he plans to follow the agreements included in the revised measure, including the reinstatement of thousands of federal workers who received layoff notices during the shutdown.
“I’ll abide by the deal,” Trump said. “The deal is very good.”
Republicans, he added, will soon begin work on legislation to provide direct payments to Americans to help them afford the rising cost of health insurance, one of the core disagreements between the political parties that led to the shutdown.
“We want a health care system where we pay the money to the people instead of the insurance companies,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “And I tell you, we are going to be working on that very hard over the next short period of time.”
House members told to head to D.C.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker Mike Johnson urged representatives to begin traveling back to Capitol Hill as soon as possible to ensure they arrive in time to vote on the bill to reopen the government, after the measure arrives from the Senate.
The Louisiana Republican’s request came as airlines were forced to delay or cancel thousands of flights on the 41st day of the shutdown, a situation that could potentially impact a House vote on the stopgap spending bill if members don’t follow his advice.
“The problem we have with air travel is that our air traffic controllers are overworked and unpaid. And many of them have called in sick,” Johnson said. “That’s a very stressful job and even more stressful, exponentially, when they’re having trouble providing for their families. And so air travel has been grinding to a halt in many places.”
Johnson then told his colleagues in the House, which hasn’t been in session since mid-September, that lawmakers from both political parties “need to begin right now returning to the Hill.”
Trump threatens air traffic controllers
Trump took a markedly different tone over the challenges air traffic controllers have faced during the shutdown in a social media post that he published several hours before he spoke to reporters about the deal to reopen government.
“All Air Traffic Controllers must get back to work, NOW!!! Anyone who doesn’t will be substantially ‘docked,’” Trump wrote, without explaining what that would mean for workers who had to take time off since the shutdown began Oct. 1.
Trump added that he would like to find a way to provide $10,000 bonuses to air traffic controllers who didn’t require any time off during the past six weeks.
“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU. You didn’t step up to help the U.S.A. against the FAKE DEMOCRAT ATTACK that was only meant to hurt our Country,” Trump wrote. “You will have a negative mark, at least in my mind, against your record. If you want to leave service in the near future, please do not hesitate to do so, with NO payment or severance of any kind!”
An end in sight
The Senate-passed package will provide stopgap funding for much of the federal government through January 30, giving lawmakers a couple more months to work out agreement on nine of the dozen full-year spending bills.
The package holds several other provisions, including the full-year appropriations bills for the Agriculture Department, the Legislative Branch, military construction projects and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Seven Democrats and one independent broke ranks Sunday on a procedural vote that advanced the package, drawing condemnation from some House members and outside advocacy groups unhappy that no solution was arrived at to counter skyrocketing health insurance premium increases for people in the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, where bipartisanship is required for major bills to move forward under the 60-vote legislative filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during a floor speech Monday he was “grateful that the end” of the stalemate was in sight.
“We’re on the 41st day of this shutdown — nutrition benefits are in jeopardy; air travel is in an extremely precarious situation; our staffs and many, many other government workers have been working for nearly six weeks without pay,” Thune said. “I could spend an hour talking about all of the problems we’ve seen, which have snowballed the longer the shutdown has gone on. But all of us, Democrat and Republican, who voted for last night’s bill are well aware of the facts.”
Schumer bid for deal on health care costs fails
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was far less celebratory after his bid to get Republicans to negotiate a deal on health care costs by forcing a shutdown failed.
“The past few weeks have exposed with shocking clarity how warped Republican priorities truly are. While people’s health care costs have gone up, Republicans have come across as a party preoccupied with ballrooms, Argentina bailouts and private jets,” Schumer said. “Republicans’ breach of trust with the American people is deep and perhaps irreversible.”
“And now that they have failed to do anything to prevent premiums from going up, the anger that Americans feel against Donald Trump and the Republicans is going to get worse,” Schumer added. “Republicans had their chance to fix this and they blew it. Americans will remember Republican intransigence every time they make a sky-high payment on health insurance.”
Schumer was insistent throughout the shutdown that Democrats would only vote to advance a funding bill after lawmakers brokered a bipartisan deal to extend tax credits that are set to expire at the end of December for people who purchase their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
That all changed on Sunday when Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada voted to move the bill toward a final passage vote.
Maine independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, also voted to advance the legislation.
Jeffries still supports Schumer
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during a press conference Monday afternoon that he still believes Schumer is effective and should keep his role in leadership, despite the outcome.
“Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats over the last seven weeks have waged a valiant fight on behalf of the American people. And I’m not going to explain what a handful of Senate Democrats have decided to do. That’s their explanation to offer to the American people,” Jeffries said.
“What we’re going to continue to do as House Democrats, partnered with our allies throughout America, is to wage the fight, to stay in the coliseum, to win victories in the arena on behalf of the American people notwithstanding whatever disappointments may arise,” he said. “That’s the reality of life, that’s certainly the reality of this place. But we’re in this fight for all the right reasons.”
Speaker Johnson said earlier in the day that the “people’s government cannot be held hostage to further anyone’s political agenda. That was never right. And shutting down the government never produces anything.”
Johnson reiterated that GOP lawmakers are “open to finding solutions to reduce the oppressive costs of health care,” though he didn’t outline any plans to do that in the weeks and months ahead.
Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) will challenge Senate Assistant Minority Leader Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) in 2026 for Senate District 31. James at press conference in April and Smith at a press conference in September. (Photos by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) will challenge Senate Assistant Minority Leader Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) in 2026 for Senate District 31, a key district that will help determine control of the Wisconsin Senate.
All of Wisconsin’s odd-numbered Senate seats — 17 out of 33 — will be in play in 2026, the first election in those districts since they were redrawn as part of new voting maps adopted in 2024. The maps already shook up the Senate in 2024, when Democrats gained five additional even-numbered seats, cutting the Republican majority from 22 seats to 18.
Next year, Republicans will be competing to hold onto their majority as Democrats have launched an effort to flip the entire body. The last time Democrats held a majority in the Legislature was during the 2009 legislative session.
Democrats will need to win at least two additional seats and hold all their current seats to win the majority. Most of the seats, including SD 5, SD 17 and SD 21, are currently held by Republicans.
SD 31, which represents the entirety of Eau Claire County and parts of Dunn, Trempealeau and Chippewa counties, is the one district that Democrats have tagged as a seat to protect.
Smith seeks reelection
Smith, the second top Democrat in the Senate, is the incumbent of SD 31 and he announced his intention to seek reelection earlier this year. He was first elected to the Senate in 2018. He told the Wisconsin Examiner that the prospect of flipping the Senate is one of the reasons he is running again.
“I see the opportunity is right in front of me where I think we’re going to reach a point where we’re in the majority, and I’m going to have to be able to carry that voice into our state Legislature,” Smith told the Examiner.
Smith said he has introduced over 130 bills in his time in office and only one of those has gotten a public hearing.
“The public should have the ability to hear all sides and all ideas,” Smith said, adding that he believes that would happen under Democratic control.
Among the priorities he listed in the next session are boosting state funding for Wisconsin public schools, ensuring that private schools that receive public funding are held accountable and increasing access to health care.
“It shouldn’t matter whether you’re working or not working, everyone should be able to access the same level of care in any hospital, in any clinic, in not only our state, but in our country,” Smith said.
Smith’s Republican challenger, Jesse James, announced his plans to seek reelection earlier this month.
James says he’s ‘ready to come home’
When James was elected to the Senate in 2022, he lived in Altoona, which sits outside Eau Claire and was part of Senate District 23. Under the new maps, however, Altoona was drawn into SD 31, so James said he decided to “uproot” his life to Thorp to finish out the rest of his four-year term.
In his campaign announcement for 2026, James said he is “ready to come home.”
“Being 40 minutes away sucks,” James told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview. The Republican senator said he is still helping take care of things at his family and home in Altoona as well as helping take care of his father who is sick.
James, who comes from a law enforcement background and has continued working as a part-time police officer while in office, said he loves what he does in the Legislature and wants to continue the work. Prior to the Senate, James served in the Assembly for two terms. Mental health services, substance use prevention and public safety are among his top priorities.
At the start of his current term, he proposed the Senate form a committee focused on mental health, substance abuse prevention, children and families, which he now chairs. He said he had 27 bills signed in his first two years and has spent the majority of his time seeking to advance legislation in those three areas, including for expanding postpartum Medicaid access — a bill that is currently held up by members of his own party — as well as an effort to establish psychiatric residential treatment facilities in Wisconsin.
“I’m coming home. I’m in a prime seat where I chair the committee that I do, everything that I fought for up to this point motivates me, and I’m going to continue that work record,” James said. “I’m going to continue the performance level that I’m at and continue working for the people… It’s going to be an uphill battle. I’m OK with that. I’ve been through uphill battles my whole life, and I’m willing to take on challenges.”
With majority at stake, competitive race ahead
There’s about a year before Wisconsin’s 2026 November general elections, leaving plenty of time for a campaign. Both candidates said they are prepared for a tough race, especially with the Senate majority at stake.
“I’m always for competition,” James said about challenging his Democratic colleague.
“This is going to be a huge seat. It’s going to be a battle, and everything we know right now it’s going to be interesting with midterms because… they don’t always bode well,” James added. “Come this midterm election, we’ll know where things are if I win, and we’ll know where things are if Jeff wins.”
According to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, the current 31st Senate district has a slight Democratic lean. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the area by 2.2 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election and Sen. Tammy Baldwin won it by 4.7 percentage points in the 2024 Senate race.
According to data compiled by the State Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and shared with the Examiner, the district’s Democratic lean goes back further than the recent elections. In 2014, the district voted for Mary Burke, who lost statewide to former Gov. Scott Walker, and in 2016, it chose Hilary Clinton by a 51-point margin as President Donald Trump won the state.
James said when he decided to run for reelection some people questioned why he was running in a district that is “kind of a lost cause,” though in his mind, he views the race as a 50-50 prospect.
“It’s going to be ugly, and I cannot wait to see what ads come out,” James said, adding that he doesn’t plan to “go negative” during his campaign. “I want to talk about me. I’m not going to talk about Jeff. Jeff can do his thing. I’m going to do mine.”
While James is a popular legislator who has generally sought to avoid polarizing partisanship, Smith sees his entry into the race as part of a larger partisan plan.
“The bottom line about Republicans somehow convincing Sen. James that he should run for this district is simply because they also understand one thing, and that is, whoever wins this district is going to be in the majority,” Smith said. He added that this “isn’t about Jesse James and it isn’t about Jeff Smith. It’s about the state of Wisconsin, and who actually is going to govern and lead Wisconsin to a better future, and I really believe that we as a Democratic Party are in the best position to be able to do that.”
Smith is accustomed to running in tough races, he added.
Smith won a second term to the Senate in 2022 to represent SD 31, defeating his Republican challenger by 697 votes. In 2018, Smith defeated his Republican opponent with 51% of the vote.
Smith also served in the Assembly for two terms from 2007 to 2011. He was ousted from his seat in 2010 by Republican Warren Petryk.
Smith said he will take the same approach to this race that he has always taken, knocking doors and talking to people where they are. In the past he has been known for setting up shop in his truck, putting up a sign encouraging people to stop and talk to him.
“I know how to do this. I’ve done it before, over and over, and it is nothing new to me to have to run a difficult race,” Smith said. “I’m a great believer… go to the people, don’t make them come to you.”
Hospital access key issue
In a statement after James’ campaign announcement, Smith said the Republican senator would need to explain himself to voters.
“After years of toeing the line for Republican leadership, botching the hospital closure funding, dropping the ball on PFAS funding and failing to deliver results — voters in the 31st District know all too well how these failures have affected their lives,” Smith said.
Two hospitals, HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital, closed abruptly last year due to financial difficulties, leaving a big swath of the Chippewa Valley with diminished access to health care. Wisconsin policymakers sought to help provide funding to help the area, but lawmakers refused to release the funds after Gov. Tony Evers exercised a partial veto on a related bill.
Asked about Smith’s statement on his candidacy, James pushed back.
“I’m not going to talk about the hospital funding. It’s dead. It’s over. The $15 million went back into the GPR [General Purpose Revenue],” James said. He added that he’s helped secure other investments in the area since.
One bill, coauthored by James, to set up the legislative framework for Rogers Behavioral Health to establish a behavioral health hospital in Chippewa Falls passed the Assembly in September and the Senate in October. James also helped secure $1 million for Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, so it can re-open the former L.E. Phillips Libertas Treatment Center in Chippewa Falls.
James said securing the funds are his biggest wins for the Chippewa Valley, especially given the recent closures.
“It’s a start, and I still think that there’s more — I already have ideas for next session, that if I come back, or when I come back, I’ll be able to work on so that we’re already starting to look at the future and improving what we can for our rural areas, primarily, especially up north, with mental health and substance abuse prevention,” James said.
For his part, Smith said that he believes there needs to be more accountability for hospitals, noting that the ones in Chippewa Falls were being managed by an Illinois-based health care system and they closed “because they just weren’t bringing in enough money…That shouldn’t be the reason that people lose access to health care because someone can’t make enough money off them.”
“It’s been a real struggle up there, and has become at the forefront of what my office is dealing with these days,” Smith said.
When it comes to funding for cleaning up PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, in the water supply, James said he hasn’t been involved in drafting or negotiating on the bill to make use of $125 million set aside to combat them. “I will call Jeff out on this,” James said. “He’s the assistant minority leader, and he’s part of leadership to where he could be part of these discussions, so why not use that leadership position as far as having the discussions about PFAs and stuff?”
James also noted that he recently helped author a bipartisan bill that would require the state Department of Natural Resources to warn county and tribal health departments when an exceedance of state groundwater standards is discovered.
“We want clean, safe drinking water. That’s why I worked with Jill Billings [the Democratic Assembly representative from La Crosse]… The PFAS funding and stuff that’s all political. I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t like to be political,” James said. “My work record shows I like to get things done. I’ve gotten things done to better people’s lives. I will continue to work on things bipartisan.”
Currently, Republicans have 53 seats. As of Oct. 23, they hadnot persuaded enough Democrats to support ending debate and vote on a House-passed bill that would end the shutdown with temporary funding.
The shutdown began when funding ended with the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1. One potential effect: The Trump administration announced that funding might not be available in November for the 42 million people receiving SNAP food stamps. Wisconsin said it would run out of SNAP funding after Oct. 31.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
A sign with a notice of closure is seen pinned on the fence to the National Zoo on Oct. 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. . The closure affects all the Smithsonian's 21 museums, its research centers and the National Zoo. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate left for its customary long weekend Thursday afternoon, following a brief three days in session despite the ongoing government shutdown.
The House remained on an extended break from Capitol Hill, where neither Democrats nor Republicans seemed motivated to talk to each other despite mounting repercussions from the funding lapse.
Federal courts, for example, reported just as the shutdown began Oct. 1, they could use “fee balances and other funds not dependent on a new appropriation” to keep up and running through Friday, Oct. 17.
“If the shutdown continues after Judiciary funds are exhausted, the courts will then operate under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which allows work to continue during a lapse in appropriations if it is necessary to support the exercise of Article III judicial powers,” the announcement stated. “Under this scenario, each court and federal defender’s office would determine the staffing resources necessary to support such work.”
A spokesperson for the courts wrote in an email to States Newsroom there were no updates to offer on funding or operations as of Thursday but signaled there could potentially be an announcement Friday.
Trump spending cuts, layoffs
The shutdown has had widespread ramifications across all three branches of government, including the Trump administration’s decision to cut spending approved by Congress and lay off thousands of federal employees, though that was temporarily halted by a federal judge this week.
Federal workers who are categorized as essential will not receive their paychecks until after the shutdown ends. Furloughed employees may never receive the back pay authorized in a 2019 law if the Trump administration reinterprets it, as officials have said they might.
None of the consequences produced any real sense of urgency this week on Capitol Hill, where West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice organized a birthday party for his dog, or at the White House, where President Donald Trump held a ball for donors to his ballroom and focused on foreign policy.
Just as they have for the last several weeks, members of Congress and administration officials continued holding separate press conferences and TV news appearances, lambasting their political opponents, none of which will help move the two sides closer together to reopen government.
Failed vote No. 10
Senators failed for the 10th time to advance the stopgap government spending bill on a 51-45 vote, short of the 60 needed to move forward under the chamber’s legislative filibuster. Republicans control the chamber with 53 seats.
The Senate was also unable to move past a procedural hurdle on the full-year Defense Department funding bill after a 50-44 vote. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill this summer on a broadly bipartisan 26-3 vote.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters ahead of the vote that Democrats want some of the other annual appropriations bills added on to create a larger bill, though he didn’t say which of the dozen he prefers.
“It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the Defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety,” Schumer said.
He added later that leaders from both political parties “have always negotiated these appropriations agreements in a bipartisan way. Once again, they’re just going at it alone.”
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, appeared to offer a package of bills negotiated between the parties before the vote on the defense bill.
“We want this to be an open process with an opportunity to add additional bipartisan bills that address vital domestic priorities, including biomedical and scientific research and infrastructure,” Collins said. “And we want members to have a voice in the funding decisions that affect all of our states and constituents back home.”
Stopgap bills in 2025
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said during a floor speech earlier in the day the short-term government funding bill is needed to give lawmakers more time to negotiate final versions of the full-year spending bills.
“We’re simply asking them to extend current funding bills for a few weeks while we work on full-year appropriations,” Thune said.
Congress is supposed to work out a bipartisan agreement between the House and Senate on those bills by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, but hasn’t finished on time since the 1990s.
So every September, once back from their August recess, the House and Senate write a stopgap spending bill that typically keeps the lights on until mid-December.
Those short-term measures, sometimes called continuing resolutions or CRs, were traditionally negotiated among Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers until earlier this year.
House Republicans, bolstered by a sweep in last year’s elections, decided in March to write a six-month stopgap spending bill on their own, after two bipartisan short-term bills were approved earlier in the fiscal year.
Senate Democrats voiced frustration with the process but ultimately helped Republicans get past a procedural vote that required the support of at least 60 lawmakers, allowing the March stopgap to advance toward a simple majority passage vote.
House Republicans repeated their previously successful maneuver last month, writing a stopgap spending bill on their own that would fund the government through Nov. 21.
Senate Democrats, however, changed tactics and have voted repeatedly to block the House-passed stopgap bill from advancing.
Health care standoff
Democrats maintain that Republican leaders must negotiate to extend the enhanced tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
Republican leaders have said publicly over and over that they will, but cannot guarantee Democrats a final agreement will be able to pass both chambers. They also say talks will only begin after the stopgap bill becomes law and the government reopens.
“Despite the fact we’re only in this position because of Democrats’ poor policy choices, Republicans are ready for that discussion,” Thune said. “But only once we’ve reopened the government.”
Thune also raised concerns over what message it would send for GOP leaders to negotiate during the shutdown, which he said would endorse the use of funding lapses to achieve policy or political goals.
Shutdowns in history
Republicans forced the last two government shutdowns; the first in 2013 over efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the second in 2019 over Trump’s insistence lawmakers approve more funding for the border wall. Both were unsuccessful.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a floor speech Thursday that Republicans drafting the stopgap spending bill on their own is a stark contrast to how things have worked for years and that they can’t expect Democrats to vote for something in which they had no say.
“For the last month, the Republican leader’s favorite number has been 13. He keeps citing 13 CRs that we passed when I was majority leader. Of course we did,” Schumer said.
“What he fails to mention — I’m not sure if he forgets, or he’s deliberately trying to ignore it — is that those 13 CRs were the product of bipartisan negotiation, of serious conversation. We had to make changes in those bills when our Republican colleagues suggested it,” he added. “They were in the minority, but they had the right to be heard, a right that has been completely shut out for Democrats under this new Republican majority.”
Schumer warned Republicans about open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act Marketplace beginning on Nov. 1, saying tens of millions of Americans will soon realize what congressional inaction means for their family budgets.
He said Republicans’ unwillingness to negotiate before the shutdown began or since shows they “either don’t understand it or they’re brutally callous.”
‘I want to be happy Mike’
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Thursday morning press conference that Republicans “have no idea” how the government shutdown will end, and blamed Democrats in the Senate for not voting to advance the stopgap bill.
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew R. Garbarino of New York said the government shutdown is undermining the day-to-day operations of the Department of Homeland Security.
“This shutdown is making our country less safe,” he said.
Garbarino said roughly 90% of federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security are required to continue working because they have essential roles such as vetting customs at ports of entry and monitoring air space at airports.
He said those working without pay include 63,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees; more than 61,000 Transportation Security Administration agents; and 8,000 Secret Service agents.
Garbarino added that he was grateful Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was using funds from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to pay the roughly 49,000 Coast Guard personnel.
In a statement to States Newsroom, DHS said it would be able to continue hiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and “deploy law enforcement across the country to make America safe again” due to funding from the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Amid the government shutdown, the Trump administration has continued its aggressive immigration crackdown.
Johnson expressed his frustration that some Homeland Security employees were working without pay.
“We should not have Border Patrol agents not (being) paid right now because Chuck Schumer wants to play political games to cover his tail,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I don’t like being mad Mike, I want to be happy Mike … but I am so upset about this.”
“All they do is critique process and complain about things,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said of his Democratic colleagues. “But we're getting bills done.” (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Wisconsin State Senate met for a floor session for the first time in over 90 days, advancing bills that would ban cellphones in schools, require coverage of breast cancer screenings for women at high risk and allow candidates to remove themselves from ballots.
Ahead of the session, Senate Democrats criticized their Republican colleagues for the sparse number of floor days and for the issues they chose to take up.
“We are feeling the effects of the big, ugly bill on our families, our farmers and our neighbors who need food assistance or who are covered by Medicaid,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said at a press conference. She was referencing the federal law approved over the summer that made cuts to the SNAP and Medicaid programs to help pay for tax cuts. “So what is the Republican agenda today? Nothing that addresses any of those concerns. The fact that some Republicans are here at all in this building is pretty unusual.”
The Democrats displayed a poster that showed the number of times the Senate has met per legislative session from 2003 to 2025. Tuesday was the first time the Senate has been on the floor since July, when lawmakers passed the current state budget.
Democrats displayed a poster that showed the number of times the Senate has met per legislative session from 2003 to 2025. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
During the current two-year session, the Senate has held seven floor sessions. In 2019, the Senate met 13 times on the floor.
“We are on the path to become one of the least active state Senates in Wisconsin’s history. It’s irresponsible and reckless, but this is the Republican majority,” Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) said, adding that Tuesday also marks the 14th day of the federal government shutdown.
According to WISN 12, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has said there is enough funding for WIC and FoodShare benefits through October, but those programs will face shortfalls if the shutdown continues into November. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has said he would consider taking executive action if the shutdown continues.
“Congressional Republicans are refusing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that would prevent Wisconsinites from seeing their monthly insurance premiums doubled next year,” Drake said. “There is not one item on our calendar today aimed at making health care more affordable for Wisconsinites or to lower costs for Wisconsin families.”
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said that compared to the Assembly, the Senate typically takes up a larger schedule of bills when it comes in. The Assembly has met three times this fall.
“All they do is critique process and complain about things,” LeMahieu said of his Democratic colleagues. “But we’re getting bills done.”
LeMahieu added that the Senate is going to meet in November, January, February and March before the end of the legislative session. Legislators will “keep looking at different things” to address gaps caused by the federal government shutdown, he added.
Cellphone ban bill
The Senate voted 29-4 to concur in a bill that will require school districts across the state to adopt a cellphone ban policy. The four opposing votes came from Democrats.
Under AB 2, school districts’ policies would need to ban cellphones during instructional times. School boards would be required to implement the new policy by July 2026 and would need to include exceptions for emergencies, for educational purposes and cases involving student health care, individualized education plans (IEPs) or 504 plans (learning environment accommodations).
“These are devices that are taking away from our kids’ learning, and folks are asking us to do something about it,” Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) said at a press conference ahead of the session.
A recent Marquette Law School poll found that 89% of voters support banning cellphones during class periods. The poll also found that 72% of voters support banning cellphones throughout the school day, including lunch and between classes.
“Wisconsin wants this. Wisconsin is asking for this,” Cabral-Guevara said on the floor.
According to NPR, at least 31 states and Washington D.C. had adopted a cellphone ban as of September.
According to a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report, cellphone policies vary widely across the state, though most school districts already restrict student cellphone usage to common areas.
Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) listed a number of concerns about the bill, including whether the bill would impede parents’ ability to communicate with their children when there are safety concerns and would hinder local control.
“Why are we, the state, worried about taking away kids’ cellphones before we enact legislation that prevents kids from having access to guns and prevents mass shootings?” Ratcliff asked. “While I understand the intent behind this bill, which is to reduce distraction in the classroom, we cannot ignore the profound and tragic reality of our current times. This measure, though well-meaning, would be a dangerous step backward in ensuring the immediate safety of our children, especially in the wake of recent horrific shootings.”
Cabral Guevara noted that the bill includes an exception for emergencies.
The bill passed the Assembly in February, so it will now go to Evers’ desk.
Lawmakers also concurred in AB 5, which would implement new requirements for allowing residents to inspect textbooks, curriculum or instructional materials.
Wisconsinites currently have the ability to submit open records requests to school districts to receive school materials. Under the bill, school districts would need to comply with requests within 14 days and textbooks would need to be listed online.
This is the third session where lawmakers have pursued this policy. The 2023-25 version of the bill passed the Assembly, but never received a vote in the Senate. The 2021-23 version was vetoed by Evers.
The current iteration of the bill passed the Assembly earlier this year.
Breast cancer screening coverage
Lawmaker advanced a bill that would require health insurance policies to provide coverage for diagnostic breast examinations and for supplemental breast screening examinations for an individual who has dense breast tissue. It would require that coverage include no patient cost-sharing.
The bill, SB 264, passed 32-1. Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) was the lone opposing vote.
According to KFF, breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death. According to the American Cancer Society, women with dense breast tissue have a higher risk of breast cancer. Dense breast tissue can also make it harder for radiologists to see cancer on mammograms.
Cabral-Guevara said she started work on the bill when a constituent of hers, Gail Zeamer, came to her about the issue. Previous versions have failed two times before.
Zeamer was diagnosed with cancer at a late stage. She had dense breast tissue and didn’t receive additional screening. She battled cancer for eight years and passed away in June 2024 at the age of 56.
During the press conference, Cabral-Guevara said that “40% of the women in Wisconsin have dense breasts… if you’re one of those 40%, you do need a secondary screening to be truly covered to determine if you do not have breast cancer.”
“In memory of Gail, who has passed, as well as all the other women that have been affected by breast cancer living as well as deceased,” she added, “this bill is a true testament that we can work together here in this Capitol building and get things done.”
Wisconsin already requires that insurance policies provide coverage for two mammograms for women between the ages of 45 and 49 and annual screenings for women over the age of 50. Insurance companies are not required to cover additional screenings for women with dense breast tissue or at higher risk.
Speaking in favor of the bill, LeMahieu shared that his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and she has dense breast tissue. He said they have been on a journey to deal with the diagnosis.
“There are people who don’t know their risk that they have dense breast tissue. They don’t know that a simple mammogram might not catch it. Fortunately, she did her research,” LeMahieu said. “My wife is the exact type of person this bill is intended to help.”
The bill is now in the Assembly where the Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care Committee is scheduled to have a public hearing on it Wednesday.
Allowing candidates to remove their name from ballots
The Senate also concurred in AB 35 in a 19-14 vote. The bill would make it easier for candidates to remove their names from ballots in Wisconsin. Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) joined Republicans in favor.
Lawmakers introduced the bill after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not allowed to remove himself from the Wisconsin presidential ballot in 2024 after he dropped out and endorsed President Donald Trump. Currently, candidates can only have their names removed if they are dead.
Sens. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) proposed adding additional language so that the law would only apply if someone hadn’t been bribed to get out of a race.
“There are instances in our recent past where candidates have been taken aside and promised positions if they agree to drop their candidacy, so if we want to make sure we have the integrity of free and fair elections without the interference of corrupting influence. This is one small step in that,” Larson said.
His amendment was voted down by Republicans.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said he has similar concerns about someone being pressured out of a race and also concerns about how the withdrawal mechanism would practically work.
“Once [a] primary is done and somebody has won and their name is going to be printed on the general election ballot, if you take their name off, then you have now denied voters potentially a choice between one of the two parties, and there’s no mechanism in this bill to actually replace that party’s nominee on the ballot,” Spreitzer said. “If there were such a mechanism — and other states have that — I’d be open to something like this, but here, there could be a situation where a safe Democratic seat or a safe Republican seat ends up without a name.”
Candidates withdrawing from national or statewide races would have to pay the Wisconsin Elections Commission a $1,000 fee. Non-statewide candidates would need to pay $250. Under the bill, a person would face a Class G felony with a maximum penalty of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years if they intentionally filed a false statement withdrawing a person’s candidacy.
Other bills advanced by the Senate:
SB 214, which would allow health care providers with a credential from another state to provide telehealth care services in Wisconsin. It passed 18-15 along party lines and will now go to the Assembly.
AB 39, which would require state employees to return to in-person work for at least 80% of their time, passed 17-16 with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) joining Democrats against it. It passed the Assembly in September and will now go to Evers.
AB 162, which would require state agencies to collect a series of metrics on training and workforce development programs, including the unemployment rates and median earnings of participants six months after they graduate from a program. The Senate concurred along party lines. It now goes to Evers.
AB 168, which would allow felony fraud claims related to unemployment to be prosecuted up to eight years after a crime was committed, passed along party lines. The current statute of limitations is six years.
AB 169, which would allow an employer to report to the Department of Workforce Development an unemployment recipient who declines or fails to show up to a job interview or declines a job offer. A report could be used to determine benefits. It will now go to Evers.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Oct. 8, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday following a four-day weekend, but neither Republicans nor Democrats appeared ready to work toward ending the government shutdown following another failed vote to advance a short-term funding bill.
President Donald Trump and administration officials also didn’t seem inclined toward compromise anytime soon, if ever, previewing more spending cuts and layoffs as soon as this week.
“We are closing up programs that are Democratic programs that we wanted to close up or that we never wanted to happen and now we’re closing them up and we’re not going to let them come back,” Trump said. “We’re not closing up Republican programs because we think they work.”
Trump said his administration will release a list of projects it’s cancelled or plans to eliminate funding for on Friday — another step that’s unlikely to bring about the type of bipartisanship and goodwill needed to end the shutdown.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget posted on social media it will try to alleviate some of the repercussions of the funding lapse and reduce the size of government while waiting for at least five more Senate Democrats to break ranks to advance a stopgap spending bill.
“OMB is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence,” agency staff wrote. “Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait.”
RIFs refers to Reductions in Force, the technical term for layoffs. The administration announced Friday it sent notices to employees at several departments, including Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Treasury telling them they would soon not have jobs.
Labor unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers filed a lawsuit to block the layoffs from taking effect. The judge overseeing that case scheduled a Wednesday hearing to listen to arguments before deciding whether to grant a temporary restraining order.
Back pay in question
The Trump administration has made several moves during the shutdown that are not typically taken during prolonged funding lapses.
Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought have indicated they may not provide back pay to furloughed federal workers after the shutdown ends, which is required by a 2019 law. And they have sought to cancel funding approved by Congress for projects in sections of the country that vote for Democrats.
The Pentagon is also reprogramming money to provide pay for active duty military members this week, despite Congress not taking action on that issue.
The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of government during the shutdown are widely seen as an effort to pressure Democrats to vote for the stopgap spending bill, but they haven’t had any measurable effect so far.
Another failed Senate vote
The Senate deadlocked for an eighth time Tuesday evening on the House-passed funding bill that would last through Nov. 21. The vote was 49-45. The bill needs at least 60 senators to advance under the chamber’s rules.
Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Maine independent Sen. Angus King voted with Republicans to advance their bill. Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has been voting to advance the bill, didn’t vote. Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted no.
Trump said during his afternoon event he wanted Democrats to sign something to reopen government, though it wasn’t clear what he meant since lawmakers in the Senate vote by giving a thumbs up or down.
“This was a position that’s being forced upon us by Democrats and all they have to do is just sign a piece of paper saying we’re going to keep it going the way it is,” Trump said. “You know, it’s nothing. It shouldn’t even be an argument. They’ve signed it many times before.”
No strategy
During a morning press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not change his approach or negotiate with Democrats on a stopgap measure.
“I don’t have any strategy,” the Louisiana Republican said. “The strategy is to do the right and obvious thing and keep the government moving for the people.”
Johnson has kept the House out of session since late September but has been holding daily press conferences with members of his leadership team to criticize Democrats and press them to advance the short-term funding bill.
GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, said starting Tuesday an additional 400,000 civilian federal workers would receive partial paychecks due to the government shutdown. Those federal employees work at the departments of Education and Interior, as well as the National Science Foundation.
“This will be the last paycheck that these federal workers receive until Democrats grow a spine and reopen the federal government,” she said.
Last week, 700,000 civilian federal workers received about 70% of their usual paycheck, due to the shutdown. Those employees work for the Executive Office of the President, Health and Human Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, civilians at the Defense Department, NASA, General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management, among others.
Active duty military members were set to miss their first paycheck Wednesday until the Pentagon shifted $8 billion in research funds to pay the troops on time.
U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee Chairman Gus Papathanasiou released a statement Tuesday that the thousands of officers who protect members of Congress missed a full paycheck Friday.
“The longer the shutdown drags on, the harder it becomes for my officers,” Papathanasiou wrote. “Banks and landlords do not give my officers a pass because we are in a shutdown — they still expect to be paid.
“Unfortunately, Congress and the Administration are not in active negotiations, and everyone is waiting for the other side to blink. That is not how we are going to end this shutdown, and the sooner they start talking, the quicker we can end this thing.”
Maryland, Virginia Dems rally
Seeking to pressure the Trump administration to negotiate, Democratic lawmakers who represent Maryland and Virginia, where many federal workers live, held a rally outside the Office of Management and Budget in the morning.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner rebuked GOP leaders, including OMB Director Vought, for using federal workers as “political pawns” and “trading chips in some political debate.”
He said that when an agreement is brokered to reopen government, the Trump administration must adhere to it and not illegally withhold or cancel funds approved by Congress, which holds the power of the purse.
“We’ll get the government reopened, but we have to make sure that when a deal is struck, it is kept,” Warner said. “Russ Vought at the OMB cannot pick and choose which federal programs to fund after Congress and the president have come together.”
Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks sought to encourage Republicans to negotiate with Democrats to extend the enhanced tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year for people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
“The Republicans would prefer to shut down the government than to ensure your family has affordable health care,” Alsobrooks said. “It is more than shameful, it is immoral and it is the kind of immorality that will hurt our country for generations to come.”
Democrats in Congress insisted before the shutdown began and for the 14 days it’s been ongoing that they will not vote to advance the short-term government funding bill without a bipartisan agreement on the expiring subsidies.
GOP leaders have said they will negotiate on that issue, but only after Democrats advance the stopgap spending bill through the Senate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued during an afternoon press conference that Republicans need Democratic votes in the Senate to advance the stopgap funding bill and should try to negotiate a deal.
“We need them to abandon their failed ‘my way or the highway’ approach,” the New York Democrat said. “If Democratic votes are needed to reopen the government, which is the case, then this has to be a bipartisan discussion to find a bipartisan resolution to reopen the government.”
This report has been clarified to say President Donald Trump referred to “Democrat programs.”
The U.S. Capitol on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, just hours before a federal government shutdown. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans remained at a stalemate Wednesday as government offices closed and hundreds of thousands of federal workers faced furloughs on the first day of a government shutdown that showed no sign of ending.
Proposals from each side of the aisle to fund and reopen the government failed again during morning Senate votes, mirroring the same vote breakdowns as Tuesday evening, when lawmakers could not reach a deal hours before the government ran out of money.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected up to 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed, leading to a $400 million per day impact on the economy.
Locked in their positions, Republicans failed to pick up enough Democrats to reach the 60 votes needed to advance their plan to fund the government until Nov. 21.
Senators will break Thursday to observe Yom Kippur but will return Friday to again vote on the funding proposals.
Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, along with independent Angus King of Maine, again joined Republicans in the 55-45 vote for the House-passed stopgap spending bill. GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted no.
Democrats also failed to find support to move forward their bill to fund the government through Oct. 31, roll back GOP cuts on Medicaid and permanently extend subsidies that tie the cost of Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums to an enrollee’s income level.
The Democrats failed to advance their plan in a party-line 47-53 vote. King, who caucuses with Democrats, voted in favor.
Shutdown tied to health care tax credits
Senate and House Democrats say they will not support a GOP path to reopen the government unless Republicans agree to negotiate on rising health care costs.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a press conference that Democrats are “ready to sit down with anyone at any time and at any place in order now to reopen the government, to enact a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people and to address the devastating Republican health care crisis that has caused extraordinary harm on people all across the country.”
The New York Democrat pointed to harms in “rural America, working class America, urban America, small-town America, the heartland of America and Black and brown communities throughout America.”
Democratic leaders blitzed Capitol Hill with their message on health care, holding press conferences and attending an evening rally Tuesday on the lawn outside the U.S. House.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a press conference inside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. Also pictured from left are Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
They pointed to new data published this week showing annual insurance premiums could double on average in 2026 if the subsidies expire at year’s end, according to an analysis from the nonprofit health policy research organization KFF.
Open enrollment for next year’s ACA health insurance plans opens Nov. 1 in most states, and Oct. 15 in Idaho.
Uptake of ACA health insurance plans has more than doubled to over 24 million, up from 11 million, since the introduction of the subsidies in 2021, according to KFF.
During their own budget reconciliation deal in 2022, Democrats extended the insurance premium tax credits until the end of 2025. The majority of ACA enrollees currently rely on the credits.
Democrats also want assurances that the White House and Senate Republicans will not cancel any more funds that have already been approved by Congress, as was the case this year when the administration and GOP lawmakers stripped funding for medical research, foreign aid and public broadcasting, among other areas.
‘This can all end today’
GOP leaders in the House and Senate continued to blame Senate Democrats for the government shutdown at the expense of furloughed federal workers and Americans who rely on their services.
At a Wednesday morning press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson said “troops and border patrol agents will have to go to work, but they’ll be working without pay.”
Johnson also claimed at the press conference that veterans benefits would stop. The claim is false, as Veterans Administration medical care will continue uninterrupted and vets will also continue to receive benefits, including compensation, pension, education and housing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana speaks at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C., alongside fellow GOP leadership in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
“As we speak here this morning, there are hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are getting their furlough notices. Nearly half of our civilian workforce is being sent home — these are hard-working Americans who work for our federal government,” the Louisiana Republican said, flanked by fellow GOP leaders on the Upper West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol overlooking the National Mall.
Johnson decided in late September the House will be out until Oct. 6, canceling this week’s votes.
The speaker said he will bring House members back next week, even if the government is still shut down.
“They would be here this week, except that we did our work — we passed the bill almost two weeks ago out of the House, sent it to the Senate,” Johnson said. “The ball is literally in (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer’s court, so he determines that.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said “this can all end today” and “needs to end today.”
The South Dakota Republican said the funding lapse can cease when Senate Democrats vote for the GOP’s “clean” short-term funding bill.
“We will continue to work together with our House counterparts, with the president of the United States, to get this government open again on behalf of the American people,” Thune said.
Bipartisan deal and Trump
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said later in the day that a bipartisan group huddled on the floor during votes to talk about a possible path forward on “health care fixes” and ensuring that if a bipartisan deal is brokered, the Trump administration will stick to it.
Republican senators, he said, could give Democrats assurances they won’t vote for any more rescissions requests from the White House, which ask Congress to cancel already approved government spending. But other issues, like laying off federal workers by the hundreds or thousands, have to be a promise from the president.
“If I find a deal, should Congress have to follow it? Yes. Should the president have to follow it? Yes. Well, what if the president won’t follow it? Oh, yeah, you got a problem,” Kaine said. “So you know, rescission, impoundment, those are Senate words. But a deal is a deal — people get that.”
Kaine also emphasized that it’s not a “clean” stopgap funding bill if the Trump administration unilaterally cancels some of the spending.
“In the past, we voted for clean (continuing resolutions), but the president has shown that he’ll take the money back,” Kaine said, referring to the technical name for a short-term funding bill. “I mean, just in Virginia, canceling $400 million to our public health, $40 million economic projects just pulled off the table, firing more Virginians than any president.
“So we just want you to agree, if we do a deal, then you’ll honor the deal,” Kaine said. “It’s not that much to ask.”
‘People are suffering’
North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t expect the shutdown will have long-term ramifications for senators’ ability to negotiate bipartisan deals — a necessity in the upper chamber, which has a 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.
“It’s all transactional,” Tillis said. “I think there’s going to be opportunities for some bipartisan work, but none of that happens, you can’t even really consider it when you’re in a shutdown posture.”
Cortez Masto, who voted to advance Republicans’ seven-week stopgap bill, said the GOP “created this crisis” on health care and “need to address it.”
“They have no moral standing — no moral standing —- to say that this is all on the Democrats. They are in control. They’ve created this crisis,” Cortez Masto said. “People are suffering and they need to come to the table.”
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who was sworn in for the first time during the last shutdown, said he worries about longer-term effects.
“My concern is it’s going to poison the well on negotiations going forward on a lot of things,” Hawley said. “I can’t speak for anybody but myself, but I would just say that these tactics are very destructive. And it’s destructive, not just for relationships, but for real people.”
Democratic Senators called attention to cuts to two veterans programs taking effect in October due to funding being left out of the state budget by Republican lawmakers. The Wisconsin Senate passing the 2025-27 budget bill in July. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
State lawmakers have failed to find a solution to stop cuts taking effect in October to two Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs programs that help veterans struggling with homelessness and mental health issues.
The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) is closing two of its locations, one in Chippewa Falls and the other in Green Bay, and the Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program (VORP), which serves veterans dealing with mental health and substance use issues and aims to reduce the suicide rate among veterans, is set to lose seven positions.
The VHRP has been the center of back and forth between Democrats and Republicans for months since the announcement of the closures in July.
A Republican bill to fund the program received a hearing in September, but it was too late to stop the closures.
VORP launched in 2015 with the help of a federal mental health grant. It is now state funded and Evers used American Rescue Plan Act funds in 2023 to expand the reach of the program, but those funds have run out.
Gov. Tony Evers had requested seven positions and more than $1.1 million to help support the program, but Republican lawmakers stripped that proposal from the state budget. Those seven positions were set to expire in October without the additional funds, though the cuts have already taken effect with the state Department of Veterans Affairs reducing the number of regions under the program from 16 back to 11.
The additional employees had helped the agency reach more veterans, provide support in a more timely manner and give veterans more individual attention, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. In 2023-24, the program provided services to 2,222 people — a nearly 70% increase compared to the prior year.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) called attention to the cuts during a press call on Tuesday, blaming Republicans for the failure to provide the needed funding.
“I’m frustrated, and I’m devastated at the same time,” Hesselbein said. “As of today, these facilities are closed and the veterans they once housed have been relocated.”
Hoey said at the hearing on the bill from Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken) that the earliest the Chippewa Falls facility would be able to reopen is sometime after Oct. 1, 2026. The Green Bay location, he said, could be reopened relatively quickly if there was funding and depending on whether the federal government would approve a request for a change to its scope.
Hesselbein noted that Evers and Democratic lawmakers have provided several opportunities for Republicans to keep the VHRP sites open and provide funding to VORP.
Democratic lawmakers, led by Hesselbein and Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa), introduced a bill to provide funding for the VORP positions, but it hasn’t received a hearing in the Republican-led Legislature. No Republican lawmakers have signed on to it, nor have they introduced their own version that would provide the funding.
A separate bill, authored by Wall, Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) and Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Clare), would provide the necessary funding for the VHRP sites. It previously would have provided $1.9 million, but an amendment to the legislation increases that to $2.6 million, which, Wall said, would be necessary to restart the programs.
“My disappointment is with the leadership of legislative Republicans that has not made this program, has not made that bill, has not made homeless veterans a priority over the last few months,” Wall said. “They’ve run out the clock until here we are on Sept. 30, with the funding going away now. It’s possible to revive these programs… but it’s going to take a little bit more money and a lot more time. In the best case, we’re looking at next fall before we can stand up these programs again.”
Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) blamed Evers for the closures, again, in a statement on Tuesday, claiming that there is money available to fund the programs.
“The Legislature appropriated enough funding to support the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program,” Wimberger said. “Evers simply refused to spend it. The closing of veterans’ homeless shelters is his decision alone, and he quite literally is refusing to use available funding in the exact same manner as he did last year to run those facilities.”
Evers has previously rejected Wimberger’s claim, noting that a paper from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau to the Joint Finance Committee warned lawmakers that additional funds were needed for the program.
A letter from Republican lawmakers also noted that there has been a balance that the Department of Veterans Affairs returns to the state treasury at the end of the year, though Hoey has noted that the agency is “only allowed to spend the money [the Legislature] tell[s] us to spend.”
Wall made a similar point during the press conference, saying that “we don’t just write a blank check to the Department of Veterans Affairs or any other part of the state budget. What we do is say that there’s so much money in this budget line for this program and so much money in that budget line for this other program, and so the fact that the Department of Veterans Affairs had surplus money and other budget lines doesn’t mean that they could just willy-nilly take that and spend that any way they wanted to for the benefit of this program.”
Hesselbein said this is a continuation of Republicans’ “strange finger pointing.”
Hesselbein used the deadline for the closures and cuts as an opportunity to talk about what Democrats would do if they were in the majority. Democrats are seeking to flip the Senate in 2026 and need to win two additional seats to do it.
“Republicans chose to do nothing,” Hesselbein said. “Rest assured in a couple of years, when I’m the majority leader, these kinds of antics won’t be tolerated in a Democratic majority, but unfortunately, while that day is on the horizon, it’s not here yet.”
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to the media at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Thune was joined by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
This report has been updated.
WASHINGTON — The federal government started shutting down early Wednesday after Congress failed to approve a funding bill before the beginning of the new fiscal year — resulting in widespread ramifications for hundreds of programs and giving the Trump administration an avenue to fire federal workers en masse.
The U.S. Senate was unable to advance two short-term government funding bills Tuesday when Democrats and Republicans deadlocked for the second time this month, with just hours to go before the midnight Tuesday shutdown deadline.
Senators voted 55-45 on Republicans’ bill that would fund the government for seven weeks and 47-53 on a Democratic stopgap proposal that would keep the lights on for a month and included several health care provisions that they said were needed for their support. Neither had the 60 votes needed to advance.
Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and Maine independent Sen. Angus King voted with GOP senators on their stopgap bill. Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted against it.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in a memo to departments and agencies Tuesday night after the Senate vote that “affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.” Vought said federal employees should report for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake shutdown activities.
The consequences of a shutdown will be sweeping in the nation’s capital and across the country, where states are bracing for the impact. About 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed, leading to a $400 million impact a day, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported. All federal employees would go unpaid until the shutdown is over.
Additionally, the Trump administration plans to lay off thousands of federal employees, which would reshape the federal workforce. President Donald Trump again vowed Tuesday to undertake layoffs and a major government employee union filed suit in federal court in advance of such a move.
More votes on GOP bill planned
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said hours before the votes there wouldn’t be any talks with Democrats during a shutdown.
“The negotiation happens when the government is open. So let’s keep the government open and then we will have the negotiations,” Thune said.
“We’re happy to sit down and talk about these issues that they’re interested in,” he said. “But it should not have anything to do with whether or not for a seven-week period we keep the government open, so that this government can continue to do its work and that we can do our work through the regular appropriations process to fund the government.”
After the votes failed, Thune expressed his frustration with Democrats during a press conference.
“This is so unnecessary and uncalled for,” he said.
Thune said he plans to bring up a vote on the continuing resolution again. He said as soon as Wednesday the federal government can be funded if five Democrats voted with Republicans.
“Democrats may have chosen to shut down the government, but we can reopen it tomorrow,” Thune said.
Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming said the “cracks in the Democrats are already showing,” noting that three Democrats voted with Republicans Tuesday night.
“There is bipartisan support for keeping the government open,” Barrasso said. “We’re happy to see that the Democrats are already starting to break from (Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer) and we’re going to continue to offer a clean (continuing resolution) on the floor of the Senate to open the government for the next seven weeks.”
Health care tax credits at center of standoff
The disagreement isn’t entirely about GOP lawmakers writing their short-term funding bill behind closed doors and then expecting Democrats to help advance it in the Senate, where bipartisanship is required for major legislation.
Democratic leaders have raised concerns for weeks about the end-of-year sunset of enhanced tax credits for people who buy their health insurance on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, arguing a solution is needed now ahead of the open enrollment period starting on Nov. 1.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat, speaks at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30, 2025. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
Democrats have also grown increasingly frustrated with the White House budget office’s unilateral actions on spending, arguing Vought is significantly eroding Congress’ constitutional power of the purse. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday the Government Accountability Office should sue the Trump administration over its efforts to freeze or unilaterally cancel spending approved by Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats need an agreement with Republicans to extend the enhanced tax credits.
Schumer said people will begin getting notices in October telling them how much the cost of their ACA plans will increase during the next year, which he expects will ratchet up pressure on Republican leaders to broker a bipartisan agreement.
“We’re going to be right there explaining to them it’s because the Republicans wouldn’t negotiate with us,” Schumer said, referring to consumers. “We’re ready to do it anytime. And there will be huge heat on (Republicans) on this issue.”
People who buy health insurance on the ACA marketplace and receive subsidies through enhanced ACA tax credits could expect to pay on average more than double for annual premiums in 2026 if the credits expire as scheduled at the end of this year, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the nonprofit health policy research organization KFF.
The analysis found premiums could increase from an average of $888 this year to $1,904 in 2026.
Claims about immigrants
Schumer also rebuffed GOP leaders saying that Democrats want to include people without legal immigration status in federal health care programs.
“They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits. That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies they tell, so they don’t have to discuss the issues,” Schumer said. “The federal government by law that we passed does not fund health insurance for undocumented immigrants in Medicaid, nor the ACA nor Medicare. Undocumented immigrants do not get federal health insurance premiums.”
Immigrants in the country without legal authorization are not eligible for Medicaid, and neither are most immigrants with legal status, such as those with student visas or enrollment in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
Only immigrants with a “qualified status,” such as legal permanent residents, asylees and refugees, are able to get Medicaid benefits, and they usually have to wait five years before their coverage can even begin.
Democrats explain why they voted with GOP
Cortez Masto of Nevada wrote in a statement explaining her vote to advance the GOP stopgap bill that she could not support “a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration.”
“We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another,” she added. “I remain focused on protecting health care for working families, and I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together to tackle this problem.”
Pennsylvania’s Fetterman wrote in a statement of his own that his vote on the Republican bill “was for our country over my party.
“Together, we must find a better way forward.”
Collins said during a brief interview before the vote she is worried about the broad authority the White House holds during a shutdown and how the Office of Management and Budget has indicated it will use that power.
“I’m much more concerned about OMB sending signals that there should be mass firings of federal employees who have the misfortune to be designated as non-essential, when in fact they’re performing very essential work, they’re just not being paid,” Collins said.
North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven, chairman of the Agriculture spending subcommittee, said lawmakers will have to sort through how various departments implement their contingency plans as well as the possibility of mass layoffs during a shutdown.
“We’ll have to work through those things and figure out how we do keep things going as best we can during this Democrat shutdown,” Hoeven said.
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said Republicans are “unified in the belief that this is an easy choice” to fund the government with a stopgap bill that doesn’t include any contentious or political provisions.
Capito — who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor — said there are several programs that will be “missed” during a shutdown.
“And that’s concerning. So I think the option is to keep the government open so we can avoid this pain,” Capito said.
‘I’m not optimistic that we’re going to get a path forward’
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said he is worried about the possible impacts of a shutdown on his home state and that keeping the government open is the only way to avoid that.
“I’m sure the administration will do everything they can,” Hawley said. “But the solution is to not shut the government down. I mean, why would you punish working people because you’re not getting what you want on any issue, whatever it is.”
South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said he doesn’t expect a shutdown will end until after Democrats have sent a message to their voters.
“I’m not optimistic that we’re going to get a path forward until they’ve had a shutdown,” he said.
Rounds, who negotiated a handshake agreement with the White House budget director this summer to preserve some funding for rural tribal radio stations after Congress eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said that deal could be affected by a shutdown.
“They’re putting the administration in a position where they can pick and choose what they’re going to do, and a shutdown is not going to be beneficial to these Native American radio stations,” Rounds said.
Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said she wants Democrats and Republicans to negotiate on health care provisions.
“I’ve been making the case constantly, that (it) is literally my obligation to try and fight for health care, and I’m willing to talk to anyone,” she said. “I’m willing to accept that I certainly will not get everything I want.”
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said that while Democrats agreed to help advance what’s known as a continuing resolution in March, they can’t now because of “what President Trump is doing to this country, particularly when it comes to health care costs for families.”
The shutdown will significantly affect the operations of the federal government as lawmakers have not passed any of the dozen full-year appropriations bills that finance agency operations. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the new fiscal year for the federal government.
Shutdown plan for national parks
Departments began releasing updated contingency plans this weekend, detailing how many of their employees would work during a government shutdown and how many would be furloughed.
The Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, posted its updated plans late Tuesday.
The National Park Service plans to furlough 9,300 of its 14,500 workers.
The Trump administration will allow several activities necessary for the protection of life or property to continue, including fire suppression for active fires, permitting and monitoring First Amendment activities, border and coastal protection and surveillance, and law enforcement and emergency response.
The contingency plan says that roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors,” but it adds that if “access becomes a safety, health or resource protection issue … the area must be closed.”
Union files suit
In anticipation of layoffs by the Trump administration, labor unions representing more than 1 million federal workers filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California on Tuesday to block the Trump administration from carrying out mass firings. The suit argues that there is no statutory authority to fire federal employees during a government shutdown.
“These actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious, and the cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this Court,” according to the suit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Ashley Murray and Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report.
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