Oct. 1 (UPI) — The U.S. government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday after the Trump administration and Democrats failed to agree on a funding resolution, trigging a blame game and creating uncertainty over the future of federal programs and employees.
Over Tuesday, both sides failed to pass legislation to keep the government open — a stalemate the product of Republicans trying to pass a funding resolution that holds spending flat for the rest of the year, while Democrats are adamant that the resolution protect and expand medical coverage for millions of Americans who could lose their insurance by the end 2025.
After the deadline passed, each side was quick to blame the other.
“It’s midnight. The Republican shutdown has just begun because Republicans wouldn’t protect America’s healthcare,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate minority leader, said in a recorded statement posted to X.
“We are going to keep fighting for the American people.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in turn, blamed the Democrats.
“Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government,” he said on X.
“The only question now: How long will Chuck Schumer let this pain go on — for his own selfish reasons?”
It’s the fourth government shutdown under a President Donald Trump administration, and the first since late 2018, when the government closed for 35 days. The fight was over billions in border-wall funding Trump wanted that the Democrats resisted.
According to a Congressional Budget Office report, some 75,000 federal workers are at risk of furloughed, though the Trump administration has threatened to fire them and slash government programs.
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum threatening mass firings of federal employees if “congressional Democrats” do not agree to the Trump administration’s proposal.
During a press conference in the White House earlier Tuesday as the shutdown loomed, Trump said if the government closes, they could cut programs, the federal budget and benefits.
“The last person who wants it shut down is us. Now, with that being said, 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 out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump said.
“So, they’re taking a big risk by having a shutdown.”
The threat of mass firings was swiftly met Tuesday by a lawsuit from federal worker unions, challenging it as an unlawful abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Democrats.
“Announcing plans to fire potentially tens of thousands of federal employees simply because Congress and the administration are at odds on funding the government past the end of the fiscal year is not only illegal — it’s immoral and unconscionable, American Federation of Government Employees President Lee Saunders told UPI in an emailed statement.
“If these mass firings take place, the people who keep our skies safe for travel, our food supply secure and our communities protected will lose their jobs.”
Republicans have attempted to frame the Democrats’ healthcare demands as support for undocumented migrants, while Democrats lambasted their GOP counterparts for lying.
“This is a lie,” Schumer said on X in response to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller accusing the Democrats of not supporting the GOP’s spending resolution “because it doesn’t give free healthcare to illegals.”
“Not a single federal dollar goes to providing health insurance for undocumented immigrants. NOT. ONE. PENNY,” Schumer responded to the pair on X.
“Republicans would rather lie and shut down the government down than protect your healthcare.”