Now three weeks in, Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain at a stalemate on finding a government funding solution.
The Senate returned on Monday and failed for the 11th time to try to advance bill that would reopen the government until Nov. 21. The House remains out of session this week.
As a result of the shutdown, federal employees miss their first full paycheck on Friday. Starting on Monday, all all federal courts will no longer have funding to sustain full, paid operations.
The Department of Agriculture will resume some farmer assistance operations this week amid the ongoing government shutdown, Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday on X, following criticism from farmers and Republicans and calls for more support.
Rollins said the Farm Service Agency will resume “core operations” and resume distribution of $3 billion in assistance currently in the agency’s reserves, through the same pipeline used to give farmers more than $20 billion in support in the first Trump administration.
A larger package promised by Rollins and the Trump administration to help soybean farmers and others has been delayed by the shutdown. The administration has discussed funding it with tariff revenues, but has yet to release details.
California is the latest state to warn over 5 million SNAP recipients that they may not receive benefits next month because of the ongoing shutdown, but it will be felt immediately for new enrollees.
“This impact is immediate and first affects persons newly enrolling in CalFresh during the second half of October and then all 5.5 million enrollees after October 23, unless President Trump and Congress reopen the federal government by this date or take action to fund benefits,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, will also fast-track up to $80 million to food banks and deploy the California National Guard on a humanitarian mission to support them. “Trump’s failure isn’t abstract — it’s literally taking food out of people’s mouths. This is serious, this is urgent –and requires immediate action,” Newsom said.
California joins a growing number of states issuing similar notices, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota, New York and Texas.
On Day 22 of the shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson again placed the onus on Democrats to reopen the government but acknowledged that the Republican Party’s messaging is becoming “old” and a change in strategy may be necessary in the coming weeks.
With more than 42% of the House-passed continuing resolution now in the rear-view mirror and the shutdown now being the second-longest in U.S. history, Johnson acknowledged the time may eventually come to call lawmakers back to Washington. The House has now been out of session for four weeks.
“Obviously, the calendar is being eaten up by all this political nonsense by the Democrats,” Johnson said. “They are eating up the clock. So, we’re getting closer to November, it is going to be more and more difficult with each passing hour to get all the appropriations done on time. We acknowledge that, but we have to decide this on a day-by-day basis.”
Wednesday marks day 22 of the government shutdown, now the second-longest in U.S. history.
The longest shutdown lasted 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The Senate will vote for a 12th time on Wednesday on a short-term clean funding bill, but that will fail again as Democrats continue to oppose reopening the government until there are negotiations on health care. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is saying Trump shouldn’t leave for Asia later this week without first negotiating with Democrats on funding, but Trump said he won’t meet with Democratic leadership until the government is reopened.
The House has been out for four consecutive weeks now, but a group of moderate Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to “immediately” address expiring Obamacare tax credit — though they said this should happen after the government is open.
In a brief statement Tuesday evening, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump should not leave for his trip to Asia without first negotiating with Democrats to end the shutdown.
“The country is in a health care crisis unlike we’ve ever seen and Donald Trump, instead of leaving the country, or before he leaves the country, should sit down and negotiate with us so we can address this horrible crisis,” Schumer said.
Schumer said the White House has not “directly” responded to a request made by him and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for a meeting.
“Not directly. We saw something the president said at his meeting, but we haven’t heard a direct response, and we’re going to follow up,” Schumer told ABC News.
Asked to respond to Republicans repeatedly asserting that they won’t meet with Democrats until the government is reopened, Schumer fired back at Trump.
“The president should meet with us. It’s not me, him or anything political. It’s that the people are in crisis. Every day. They’re getting these bills, the notifications of how much they’re going to pay,” Schumer said. “And they’re just — people are struck of the difficult they would be in not having health care, not being able to pay the rent if they pay for health care. They’re just shocked at how bad this is. Trump has an obligation to negotiate with us and solve this problem.”
