U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The government shutdown became the second-longest in U.S. history on Wednesday, although the mounting impact on dozens of federal programs, including food aid for some of the country’s most vulnerable residents, failed to generate momentum in Congress.
For the 12th time, the Senate has failed to advance a stopgap bill that would have reopened the government and kept funding largely on autopilot through Nov. 21.
The 54-46 vote was nearly identical to previous votes, a predictable outcome since neither Republicans nor Democrats are talking to each other. The bill needed at least 60 votes to withstand the Senate’s legislative filibuster.
Nevada Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, both Democrats, as well as Maine Independent Senator Angus King, voted with Republicans to advance the legislation. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul voted no.
The vote came shortly after Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley kept his word For nearly 23 hours, he spoke at length about his concerns and objections to President Donald Trump’s administration.
The government will remain closed for much longer will lead to a funding gap for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), relied upon by 42 million low-income Americans, nearly 40% of whom are children under 17.
Despite this looming deadline, congressional leaders remain in their political silos, just as they did before the shutdown began 22 days ago. They have repeatedly held press conferences and meetings with their own members rather than making the kind of compromises needed to keep the government functioning at the most basic level.
Republican leaders are waiting for Democrats to lend a hand advance the stopgap bill in the Senate and say they won’t negotiate anything until that happens.
Democrats maintain they will not support the continuing resolution passed by the House until there is a bipartisan agreement to extend tax credits that expire at the end of the year for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
Johnson warns of endangered financing process
The stalled short-term spending bill is intended to give lawmakers more time to negotiate an agreement among the dozen full-year government funding bills Congress should pass by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.
But Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., warned during a morning news conference that lawmakers could potentially abandon that process for a second straight year if Democrats don’t advance the continuing resolution soon.
“We’re approaching November. It’s getting more and more difficult every hour to get all the funding in on time,” Johnson said. “We are aware of it, but we have to do this day by day.”
House Democratic leadership rejected the idea of a longer-term ephemeral spending bill or a continued solution, possibly for a full year, during an afternoon news conference.
Democratic Leader Katherine Clark of Massachusetts said her message to Republicans was: “Why are you talking about the length of the (continuing resolution)? Come to the table and negotiate with us. End this health crisis, help the American people.”
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries dodged details when asked about a longer emergency funding bill.
“At this point, we must reopen the government. We must pass a spending bill that actually meets the needs of the American people for their health, their safety and their economic well-being, particularly in terms of reducing the high cost of living, while decisively addressing the Republican health crisis that is only getting worse by the day,” the New York Democrat said.
Since 1996, lawmakers have been unable to approve all annual funding bills on time and have consistently relied on stopgap legislation to allow more time to work out deals between the House and Senate.
The alternative to year-round government funding bills is to operate a series of stopgap spending bills or one that runs year-round and keeps spending primarily on autopilot.
Both options require bipartisanship to win the support of at least 60 senators, as Republicans hold 53 seats. That means the only solution to the shutdown is for Republican and Democratic leaders to compromise.
But that seemed a remote possibility Wednesday.
Democrats criticize layoffs
The House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee held a mock hearing in which it railed against Republicans and Trump for failing to achieve unified control of government.
The ranking member of the House Budget Committee, Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., rebuked Trump administration officials for trying to lay off federal workers by the thousands and cutting off funding for projects in regions of the country that vote for Democrats.
“They chose a corrupt abuse of power,” DeLauro said.
White House budget director Russ Vought and Trump, she said, “have launched a scorched-earth campaign to decimate the federal government and the programs and services on which the American people rely.”
Rob Shriver, executive director of Strong and Good Government Public Service Initiatives at Democracy Forward, who served as deputy director in the Office of Personnel Management during the Biden administration, said the layoffs could negatively impact federal operations for years.
“The government has had historic challenges recruiting young people and technical talent, and what this administration is doing is turning them into a workforce that doesn’t try to recruit the best and brightest, but that tries to recruit the most loyal,” Shriver said.
Lawsuit wins more unions
The Trump administration’s efforts to lay off thousands of workers during the shutdown have been on hold since last week when a federal judge ruled issue an interim injunction The was later expanded.
The lawsuit was originally filed by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Last week it expanded to include the National Federation of Federal Employees, the National Association of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union.
The updated injunction from U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge Susan Illston applies to any federal department or agency that includes employees represented by these unions, even if the Trump administration does not recognize their contracts.
Illston granted a motion Wednesday to include the National Treasury Employees Union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the American Federation of Teachers in the case.
Illston wrote She found that “given the urgency of this case, there is good reason to amend the existing TRO without a written response from defendants.”
These three unions represent hundreds of thousands of other federal employees, including the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Justice and Veterans Affairs.
Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Social Security Administration are also represented by the three novel unions seeking to join the case.
The next phase of the litigation will take place on October 28, when the judge will schedule a hearing to decide whether to issue a ephemeral restraining order in the case.
“Obviously illegal”
AFGE National President Everett Kelley wrote in a statement released Wednesday that “the administration’s move to lay off thousands of patriotic employees while the government is closed is patently illegal, and I am glad we can expand our lawsuit to protect even more federal employees from termination.”
“President Trump has made no secret that this is about punishing his political enemies and has nothing to do with the actual work of these employees,” Kelley added. “The data provided by the administration as part of a court order highlights the extent and illegality of these proposed layoffs and confirms our union’s determination to challenge this unlawful action.”
Ashley Murray contributed to this report.
