The US Capitol in Washington, DC is pictured on October 8, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday after a four-day weekend, but neither Republicans nor Democrats appeared ready to move toward ending the government shutdown after another failed vote on a short-term funding bill.
President Donald Trump and administration officials also appeared unlikely to compromise any time soon, if at all, and were already anticipating further spending cuts and layoffs this week.
“We’re closing programs that are democratic programs that we wanted to close or never wanted to do, and now we’re closing them and we’re not going to allow them to come back,” Trump said. “We don’t shut down Republican programs because we believe they work.”
Trump said his administration will release on Friday a list of projects for which it has canceled or plans to have funding cut – another move that is unlikely to lead to the kind of bipartisanship and goodwill needed to end the shutdown.
The White House Office of Management and Budget posted on social media that it would try to mitigate some of the effects of the funding shortfall and reduce the size of the government while waiting for at least five more Senate Democrats to break ranks to advance a spending bridge bill.
“OMB is making all preparations to batten down the hatches and ride out Democratic intransigence,” agency officials 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 on Friday It sent notices to employees in several departments, including education, health and human services, housing and urban development, and the Treasury Department, telling them they would soon no longer have jobs.
Unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers filed a lawsuit to stop the layoffs from taking effect. The judge overseeing the case has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to hear arguments before deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction.
Repayment in question
The Trump administration took several steps during the shutdown that are not typically taken during extended funding outages.
Trump and Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, have suggested as much cannot make additional payment to furloughed federal employees after the shutdown ends, which is required by a 2019 law. And they have wanted to cut funding approved by Congress for projects in parts of the country that vote for Democrats.
The Pentagon is also reprogramming money provide wages for energetic military members this week, even though Congress has taken no action on the matter.
The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of government during the shutdown are widely seen as an attempt to pressure Democrats to vote for the stopgap bill, but so far have had no measurable effect.
Another failed vote in the Senate
The Senate reached a deadlock for the eighth time on Tuesday evening Funding bill passed by the House of Representatives that would last until November 21st. The vote was 49 to 45. The bill requires at least 60 senators to advance under the chamber’s rules.
Nevada Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Maine Independent Senator Angus King voted with Republicans to advance their bill. Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who voted to advance the bill, did not vote. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul voted no.
Trump said during his afternoon event that he wanted Democrats to sign something to reopen the government, although it was not clear what he meant as Senate lawmakers voted with a thumbs up or down.
“This was a position that was forced on us by the Democrats, and all they have to do is just sign a piece of paper saying we’re going to keep it the way it is,” Trump said. “You know, it’s nothing. It shouldn’t even be an argument. You’ve signed it many times before.”
No strategy
During a morning news conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not change his approach and would not negotiate with Democrats over a stopgap solution.
“I don’t have a strategy,” the Louisiana Republican said. “The strategy is to do the right thing and the obvious thing and keep the government running for the people.”
Johnson has kept the House out of session since overdue September but is holding daily news conferences with members of his leadership team to criticize Democrats and urge them to advance the short-term funding bill.
Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, chairwoman of the House committee, said an additional 400,000 civilian federal workers would receive partial paychecks starting Tuesday because of the government shutdown. These federal employees work in the departments of Education and Interior as well as the National Science Foundation.
“This will be the last paycheck these federal workers receive until Democrats get a backbone and reopen the federal government,” she said.
Last week, 700,000 civilian federal employees received about 70% of their usual pay due to the shutdown. These employees work for the Executive Office of the President, Health and Human Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense civilians, NASA, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management, among others.
Active military members would miss their first paycheck by the Pentagon on Wednesday $8 billion postponed in research funds to pay the troops on time.
U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee Chairman Gus Papathanasiou released a statement Tuesday saying the thousands of officers protecting members of Congress missed their full paychecks on Friday.
“The longer the shutdown drags on, the more difficult it will be for my officials,” Papathanasiou wrote. “Banks and landlords are not giving my officials a pass because we are at a standstill – 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 bat an eyelid. That’s not how we’re going to end this shutdown, and the sooner they start talking, the faster we can end this thing.”
Democrats rally in Maryland and Virginia
To pressure the Trump administration to negotiate, Democratic lawmakers representing Maryland and Virginia, where many federal workers live, held a morning rally outside the Office of Management and Budget.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner chided Republican leaders, including OMB Director Vought, for using federal employees as “political pawns” and “trading chips in some policy debates.”
He said that if an agreement to reopen the government is negotiated, the Trump administration must abide by it and not illegally withhold or cancel funds approved by Congress, which holds power over the treasury.
“We will get the government reopened, but we need to ensure that an agreement is honored when it comes together,” Warner said. “OMB’s Russ Vought doesn’t get to pick and choose which federal programs to fund after Congress and the President come together.”
Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks sought to encourage Republicans to negotiate with Democrats to extend expanded tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
“Republicans would rather shut down the government than ensure your family has affordable health care,” Alsobrooks said. “It is beyond shameful, it is immoral and it is the kind of immorality that will harm our country for generations.”
Democrats in Congress insisted before the shutdown began and throughout the 14 days that they would not vote to advance the short-term government funding bill without a bipartisan agreement on the expiring subsidies.
Republican Party leaders have said they will negotiate the issue, but only after Democrats push the stopgap bill through the Senate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued during an afternoon news conference that Republicans need Democratic votes in the Senate to advance the emergency funding bill and that they 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 needs to be a bipartisan discussion to find a bipartisan resolution to reopen the government.”
