US govt to shut down within hours, Senate deadlocked on funding votes

The US government is on the brink of its first federal shutdown in at least six years after Senate Democrats struck down a Republican bill to keep the lights on. The funding will expire in approximately 4 hours, leading to a shutdown of the federal government.

The 55-45 vote on Tuesday on the bill to extend federal funding for seven weeks fell short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation. The failure to reach a consensus came as Democrats pushed for their healthcare demand and threatened to close the government if President Donald Trump did not respond.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says that the failed vote to fund the government shows that Republicans must enter a negotiation to gain their support.

“They’ve got to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to come to a bill that both parties can support,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.

‘Mass layoffs’

Trump addressed a press conference on Tuesday, acknowledging the inevitability of a shutdown, saying, “We’ll probably have a shutdown.”

Blaming Democrats for the impasse, Trump also threatened to use a potential shutdown to target progressive priorities and implement sweeping public sector job cuts.

“So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump added at a later White House event.

He said a “lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” and suggested he would use the pause to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s budget office posted a letter with instructions from Director Russ Vought immediately after the failed Senate vote.

“Affected agencies should now execute their plans,” Vought wrote.

He told employees to come to work on Wednesday to “undertake orderly shutdown activities.”

Republicans block Dem funding plan

Meanwhile, Democrats were unable to secure enough votes for their stopgap funding proposal aimed at preventing a government shutdown at midnight. The Senate vote fell along party lines.

On the other hand, Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid the blame at the feet of Democrats and said he would continue to press them to vote for a temporary funding bill.

“The Democratic Caucus here in the Senate has chosen to shut down the government over a clean, nonpartisan funding bill,” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said.

Republican leaders say they were encouraged that three members of the Democratic Caucus voted for their bill.

With inputs from agencies