White House says federal layoffs are 'imminent;' Senate set to vote again Friday afternoon

Democrats and Republicans have taken to social media to blame the opposing side for causing the government to shut down.

In a video on X, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized Republicans and said they have refused to negotiate a bipartisan solution, in an “unprecedented manner.”

“If we do what the Republicans want us to do and pass a clean [bill] with no input at all from the opposition ... 15 million Americans will lose their health insurance and tens of thousands will die unnecessarily every single year,” Sanders said. 

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote, "The government is shut down because Trump wants to act like a king and steal from you." 

"Democrats have no obligation to support a budget that funds the destruction of our democracy — and DOUBLES health premiums to fund a tax cut for billionaires," Murphy added.

Sen. Rand Paul addressed the government shutdown in a discussion with NBC News’ Tom Llamas today.

Sen. Rand Paul weighs in on government shutdown, believes it will be 'short-lived'

07:07

Schools for military kids in pre-K through 12th grade operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity will remain in session during the government shutdown. However, sports and extracurricular activities will be paused, DoDEA said, except for prepaid and privately funded events.

DoDEA schools and district offices worldwide will remain open, but headquarters and regional offices will be affected. Military day care centers, child care programs and youth programs will also keep their doors open for mission-essential purposes, but that will vary by location.

DoDEA serves more than 67,000 children of active-duty military and Defense Department civilian families, according to its website.

A nonprofit consumer advocacy group filed a Hatch Act complaint against Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration, for a message on the SBA's homepage that accuses Senate Democrats of causing the government shutdown.

Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, wrote in the complaint that the agency's homepage featured "a highly partisan post targeting both employees and the public asserting that congressional Democrats are solely responsible for the shutdown and causing financial harm to small businesses and the American public."

The SBA's homepage message says, in part, that "Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R. 5371), leading to a government shutdown that is preventing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from serving America’s 36 million small businesses."

The Hatch Act bars federal employees from engaging in political activity on duty.

The Senate has adjourned for the day and will return at noon ET tomorrow.

No votes are expected tomorrow after the Senate comes into session, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he anticipated "there’ll be a lot of conversations going on."

Thune said that the Senate floor will be available for senators to deliver speeches and that the Capitol would largely "be powered down" and "fairly quiet" in observance of Yom Kippur.

The Senate will hold votes at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday, with the second and third votes in that series being revotes on the stopgap funding bills that have failed three times already.

With the government shut down, Republicans are centering their message on a simple argument: “Democrats are grinding America to a halt in order to give illegal immigrants free health care.”

That message, from a new ad from the National Republican Congressional Committee, has been echoed by GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration in recent days.

Vice President JD Vance claimed on Fox News that the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” turned off health funding for “illegal aliens.”

“Democrats want to turn it back on,” he said. “It’s not something that we made up. It’s not a talking point. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government.”

Read the full story here.

Washington, D.C., courts are unable to issue marriage licenses for the duration of the shutdown, according to a notice on the court's website.

During the 34-day government shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, the D.C. Council passed an emergency law — dubbed the LOVE Act — that gave Mayor Muriel Bowser the authority to issue marriage licenses during the shutdown. It is unclear whether the council will seek to do so again in the event of another extended shutdown.

The U.S. Forest Service now has a partisan message up on its website blaming Democrats for the shutdown.

"The Radical Left Democrats shutdown the government," it says on the homepage. "This government website will be updated periodically during the funding lapse for mission critical functions. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people."

The State Department's website says, "Due to the Democrat-led shutdown, website updates will be limited until full operations resume."

A newsletter message sent today by the Department of Veterans Affairs to veterans, their families and others included partisan language that blamed Democrats for their role in the government shutdown.

"President Trump opposes a lapse in appropriations, and on September 19, the House of Representatives passed, with the Trump Administration’s support, a clean continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands," reads the message, which was shared with NBC News.

The email went on to share a list of resources from the department that would remain functional during the shutdown — including veterans' burials and veteran health care — and would not remain functional during the shutdown, such as veteran career counseling and the GI Bill hotline.

In a notice posted online, the federal court system reported that it plans to remain open until Oct. 17 if the shutdown goes on for that long.

The online statement says the courts will do so "by using court fee balances and other funds not dependent on a new appropriation."

The White House assailed Democratic lawmakers in an out-of-office reply sent to an NBC News reporter today.

"Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays. We ask for your patience as our staff work to field your requests in a timely manner," the White House press team said in the automatic reply.

"As you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. The press office also cannot accommodate waves requests or escorts at this time. Thank you for your attention to this matter," the press team added.

Numerous federal departments' inspector general websites are not operating because of the shutdown.

They include:

• Agriculture Department
• Education Department
• Interior Department
• Justice Department
• Department of Veterans Affairs

When users try try to access the websites, they are led to this message: "Due to a lack of apportionment of funds, this website is currently unavailable."

Several Democratic senators told NBC News today that they hope to see bipartisan action to end the shutdown, which was spurred by a conversation between senators of both parties on the Senate floor.

Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., addressed the conversation Republicans and Democrats were seen having on the Senate floor this afternoon.

“There is a lot of bipartisan hope that we can make this shutdown as short and costless as possible,” Blumenthal said. 

Welch said Schumer is “very supportive of members having conversations with colleagues.”

“This is a point where rank-and-file members should be talking,” Welch said. 

In a post on X, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, blamed the government shutdown on the "hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders."

Golden, who was the lone Democrat who voted in favor of the GOP-led stopgap funding measure that passed in the House last month, said that the shutdown "is hurting Americans and our economy" and that "the irony is it has only handed more power to the president."

Golden said Democratic lawmakers have made the fight about health care, and he made it clear that he opposed the GOP's cuts to Medicaid this year and that he supports the Democrats' calls to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.

"But some of my colleagues in the majority party have reasonable concerns about tax credits going to high-income households," he said. "There’s room and time to negotiate."

Golden labeled the negotiations "normal policy disagreements" and said they are "no reason to subject our constituents to the continued harm of this shutdown."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that layoffs of federal workers because of the government shutdown are "imminent."

"Unfortunately, because the Democrats shut down the government, the president has directed his Cabinet and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made. And we believe that layoffs are imminent. They are, unfortunately, a consequence of this government shutdown," Leavitt said.

She didn't give any additional specifics, including how much of the federal workforce will be reduced.

Asked about a proposal on layoffs from the White House that House Republicans are expected to hear this afternoon, Leavitt said the White House budget office is going to walk through the impact of the shutdown on their districts.

In response to questions about Trump’s posting artificial intelligence-generated memes of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., including one falsely depicting Jeffries with a curly mustache and a sombrero, Vice President JD Vance said, "I think it's funny."

“The president is joking, and we’re having a good time," he continued. "You can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats' positions."

Vance then addressed Jeffries directly, saying, "I make the solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop."

He added, "I talked to the president of the United States about that."

Vance says shutdown firings are 'not targeting federal agencies based on politics'

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At the White House briefing, Vance denied that the Trump administration would target federal workers for layoffs based on their politics.

"We're not targeting federal agencies based on politics. We're targeting the people's government so that as much as possible of the essential services can continue to function," Vance said when asked about Trump suggesting yesterday that the administration has asked agencies to target federal workers whom they believe are Democrats.

The vice president said that layoffs will be expected if the shutdown drags on for another few days or weeks.

"We are going to have to lay people off," he said. "We’re gonna have to save money in some places so the essential services don’t get turned off in other places. That is the reality of the government shutdown that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have foisted upon the administration.”

During a press briefing with reporters at the White House, Vice President JD Vance predicted that the shutdown wouldn't last long, saying, "I actually don't think it's going to be that long of a shutdown."

"This is a pure guess from the vice president of the United States, because I think you already saw some evidence of Democrats are cracking a little bit," he added.

Vance said that he believes the members of the Democratic Caucus who supported the GOP spending bill "understand the fundamental illogic of this."

"For literally decades, we've heard them say, 'You don't shut the government down over policy disagreement,'" the vice president added.

Senators from both parties expressed frustration about the shutdown to NBC News this morning.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., one of three Democrats who voted for the House-passed stopgap funding bill last night and earlier today, said she doesn’t understand “engaging in a shutdown that’s going to harm people.”

“The American public is looking at Congress and saying, ‘What are you doing? Solve these problems,’" Masto said. "That’s where we should be. We should be doing our jobs, solving these problems, getting together and addressing what the American public, that I know in my state, what they are feeling.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who also voted with Republicans to keep the government open, said if the shutdown is being used for “entertainment,” then “this is a real s----- show.”

“I am frustrated. Why are we shutting the government down?" Fetterman asked. "You know, we should have a conversation. Why can’t we agree?"

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who did not vote for the House-passed stopgap bill, said federal workers “may be the strongest group” telling Democrats to push back, but added that “the question will become, will they have that same view three weeks from now? I don’t know.”

While much of the the U.S. government is closing for business, D.C.-area bars, restaurants and bookstores are open and targeting some of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers in the area with "shutdown specials."

Franklin Beer Hall in Washington is offering $6 “furloughed shooters” and a free food buffet for federal workers from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Carmine's, downtown, is selling “Here We Go Again” berry cosmos and “Essential Worker” peach bellinis ($8). One legendary Capitol Hill bookstore is offering 10% off books for as long as the shutdown lasts. 

The Washington Spirit, the National Women's Soccer League team, is offering 200 federal employees free tickets to their Sunday game at Audi Field against the San Diego Wave.

“There’s no better way to celebrate the people who have built the DMV than to congregate together,” the team announced.

While the shutdown clock keeps ticking, the time-honored tradition of D.C. institutions hosting topically relevant events marches on. 

The Senate failed to advance the House-passed Republican funding bill this afternoon for a third time in days.

The measure was defeated in a 55-45 vote on a procedural motion that required 60 votes for approval.

Three members of the Democratic Caucus again voted in favor of advancing the measure as they did last night: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Angus King, I-Maine.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Republican to vote against the motion to advance the bill.

When the Senate voted the first time to advance the House-passed bill on Sept. 19, Fetterman was the only Democrat to join Republicans in favor. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Paul against it.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez gives students a tour of the Capitol amid government shutdown

00:38

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., gave a tour of the Capitol this morning to a group of students from the Bronx who had their scheduled tour canceled because of the shutdown. 

In a brief interview with NBC News, Ocasio-Cortez said, “Tour guides are, are are not in for duty today, but to have everyone bus down, I mean, it’d be terrible to have all that there, everyone was already here, so I’m giving them a tour.”

Asked whether any other lawmakers are giving tours for their constituents, the congresswoman said she wasn't sure.

"I’m not sure. I just woke up this morning and got out of bed, and this is what we’re doing today," she said.

The White House is firmly defending its decision to brand the lapse in federal funding as a “Democrat shutdown,” with officials noting that the House-passed GOP spending bill received some bipartisan support in the Senate.

White House officials are pointing to the support the measure received from Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, as a “bad sign” for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., showing there are “already cracks in his coalition.” 

The Trump administration wants to see the government reopen as soon as possible and will continue to message the “unfortunate” impacts as being a direct result of the Democrats’ decision not to support the GOP's short-term spending bill, the officials said.

The White House will continue to showcase a shutdown clock on whitehouse.gov, which says, “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government” and “Americans Don’t Agree with Democrats’ Actions,” and includes links to dozens of statements from organizations criticizing the shutdown. 

When asked whether the shutdown would affect federal law enforcement operations in Memphis, Washington, D.C., Portland or Chicago, a White House official said federal officers "will continue doing their job and keeping Americans safe while Democrats force them to go without pay.”

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the country’s top cyber defense agency, will operate with a reduced staff during the shutdown, an agency spokesperson said, reducing the number of people tasked with helping U.S. critical infrastructure safe from hackers.

The spokesperson blamed Democrats in a statement, in line with a memo sent across the federal government to describe the shutdown in partisan terms. It's not clear how many employees will be furloughed.

“CISA will sustain essential functions and provide timely guidance to minimize disruptions. Yet Democrats’ refusal to act is forcing many of our frontline cybersecurity experts to work without pay even as nation-states intensify efforts to exploit Americans and critical systems — an unacceptable and unnecessary strain on our national defenses,” the spokesperson said.

Since January, the Trump administration has repeatedly slashed cybersecurity funding and staff at CISA, and agency employees have told NBC News that they were aghast at Trump’s attacks on the CISA’s founding director, Chris Krebs.

A procedural motion to advance the short-term government funding bill offered by Democrats just failed in the Senate in a 47-53 vote.

The bill, which failed to move forward previously, required 60 votes to pass. All Democrats voted in favor of the measure and all Republicans voted against it.

The Senate is now voting again on a procedural motion to advance the "clean" House-passed short-term funding bill, which failed to advance previously; it also requires 60 votes to pass.

White House budget director Russell Vought said today that the Trump administration was putting on hold billions of dollars of funding for infrastructure projects in New York City, hours after the federal government shut down.

“Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles,” Vought wrote on X.

“Specifically, the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Ave Subway,” he added in a second post.

The announcement, coming on the first day of the federal government shutdown, would dramatically affect major projects for the home state and city of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Read the full story here.

Statement

Verdict

Undocumented immigrants cannot sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage and are not eligible for Medicaid coverage. That is not legal now, and Democrats are not looking to change that.

Analysis

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996(PRWORA) made undocumented immigrants mostly ineligible for federal public benefits.

What Democrats are trying to do is restore access to federal health care funding for 1.4 million people whom Republicans stripped it from in March. That group of 1.4 million people exists in a gray area called “lawfully present.” These are such people as those granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, refugees and asylum-seekers. They are not considered “undocumented immigrants” — the government knows who they are, and they’re playing by the rules — but they don’t have legal permanent status.

Undocumented immigrants do have access to emergency room visits under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a separate law from the Affordable Care Act. Immigration advocates have said that federal spending for emergency care represents a fraction of a percentage point of Medicaid spending.

Johnson: Democrats are 'grasping at straws' to justify government shutdown

02:26

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called the Democratic push to address Obamacare subsidies in a government funding bill a "red herring" during a news conference on the government shutdown with other Republican leaders in Congress.

"This is an extraneous matter right now, what the Democrats are doing is trying to grab a red herring," Johnson said, flanked by other top GOP lawmakers, outside the Capitol. "They're trying to bring in a December policy decision, which, by the way, is expiring because they themselves, the Democrats, put that in the law."

"That's not a decision that has to be made until the end of the year," he added.

Johnson added that "there isn’t anything we can do to make this bill any better” for Democrats, touting that the legislation Republicans put forward doesn't include any policy riders.

Republicans said they want to keep the government open now and negotiate the Affordable Care Act credits in the next two months.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will continue disaster preparation and response efforts during the shutdown.

The agency "remains fully prepared and capable of responding to natural disasters, even amidst the current government shutdown," a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement, adding, "FEMA will continue to conduct essential activities deemed necessary for the safety of human life or protection of property."

Critical agency functions that will continue include "payments to disaster survivors, debris removal, emergency protective measures, and salaries for our disaster workforce," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also went on to blame "left-wing politicians" for "exploiting this government shutdown for political gain" — a continual refrain from administration officials, GOP leaders in Congress, and even government agencies as negotiations reached an impasse and government funding lapsed.

The Senate will vote again at 11 a.m. on procedural motions related to the two stopgap funding bills that failed yesterday. The votes are aimed at starting consideration of the stopgap funding bills and both are expected to fail again.

To advance the House-passed, clean continuing resolution, Republicans need eight Democrats to vote alongside them if GOP votes remain the same. Last night, three members of the Democratic Caucus joined Republicans in voting to advance the bill, including Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. and Angus King, I-Maine.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against it.

The Senate is set to leave this afternoon and will be gone tomorrow to observe Yom Kippur.

The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, will provide a virtual briefing to House Republicans today about how the administration will proceed with the government shutdown, a GOP source familiar with the plans told NBC News. 

The conference call, scheduled for 1 p.m. today, comes as Vought has threatened to conduct mass permanent layoffs in the federal workforce in the event of a shutdown. 

Punchbowl was first to report the timing of the call. 

Some federal government websites are down or not being updated and maintained, with some explicitly pointing to the shutdown as the reason.

When users try to load the website data.census.gov, for example, they see a message that reads, "Due to the lapse of federal funding, portions of this website will not be updated. Any inquiries submitted will not be answered until appropriations are enacted."

Similarly, the website for the National Archives opens with a pop-up message to inform users that, apart from a few exceptions, "Due to the shutdown of the federal government, National Archives facilities are closed, websites and social media are not being updated or monitored, and activities are canceled."

In an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., rebuffed claims that Senate Democrats are to blame for this shutdown, instead pointing to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for adjourning the House last month without a deal on government funding.

"There are Republicans on the Senate side who are saying, 'Let’s sit down and negotiate.' We should, and it has to, by the way, it’s not just [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune. It has to include Johnson," Schumer said.

"Johnson has been the real bad guy in this," he continued. "If you want to know who wanted a shutdown, there’s one sentence that proves it. Johnson had the Congress, the House, not even be in session when the shutdown occurs. How do you negotiate like that?"

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stood firm this morning on his party's insistence that a government funding bill must address extending Affordable Care Act subsidies before they expire at the end of the year.

Asked if Democrats will go crawling back to Republicans if the government shutdown lasts for several weeks, Schumer said, "No."

Democrats plan to launch a messaging effort to convince Americans that their move to reject a so-called clean funding bill, which would keep spending at current levels and not extend the subsidies, is legitimate.

As a result of the government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will delay the release of its monthly jobs report, which had been scheduled for Friday.

The report would have included the number of new payrolls added in the U.S. economy, as well as the latest unemployment rate. Deterioration for both figures in recent months have suggested a weakening jobs market that has made it increasingly difficult for those out of work to find new employment.

Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on "CBS Mornings" that the Trump administration doesn't want to lay federal workers off during the government shutdown.

"We don’t want to lay anybody off, but what we do want to do is make sure that as much of the essential services of government remain functional as possible," he said.

"We were sort of dealt this hand by that faction of Senate Democrats who shut down the government," Vance said. "We’re going to have to deal with it. We’re going to have to make sure that as much of the people’s government remains government remains open or functional as possible."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 750,000 federal employees will be furloughed during the shutdown. Last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget asked federal agencies to prepare for potential workforce firings, going beyond the typical employee furloughs in the event of a shutdown.

Democrats in the House and Senate have sought to include an extensions of expiring Obamacare subsidies in any government spending bill, while Republicans are pushing for a status quo extension of current funding.

National parks will remain partially open during the government shutdown, according to an Interior Department contingency plan posted last evening.

Open-air sites will remain open to the public but buildings that require staffing, such as visitor centers or sites like the Washington Monument, will be closed. Health and safety will continue to be addressed for sites that remain operational, meaning restrooms will be open and trash will be collected, the Interior Department said.

The contingency plans specify that park roads, lookouts, trails and open-air memorials will stay open but emergency services will be limited. The department added that if public access begins to pose a safety, health or resource protection issue, an area must close.

The contingency plan says that about 64% of the National Park Service workforce is set to be furloughed and that those kept on would perform “excepted” activities, such as law enforcement or emergency response, border and coastal protection and surveillance, and fire suppression and monitoring.

Read the full story here.

The federal government shut down this morning after lawmakers left the Capitol without passing a funding bill.

Agencies and departments have issued guidance in recent days on what to expect when the money runs out.

To lesser or greater degree, the shutdown will have some effect on many facets of government. Here's what to expect.

Read the full story here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Democrats of voting to shut down the government and said the decision was driven by "selfish reasons."

He said on X at midnight: ""Results: Moms and kids now lose WIC nutrition. Veterans lose health care and suicide prevention programs. FEMA has shortfalls during hurricane season. Soldiers and TSA agents go UNPAID."

He added: "The only question now: How long will Chuck Schumer let this pain go on — for his own selfish reasons?"

Senior Democrats have said that health care remains a barrier to backing the government spending package and said Republicans were not a "credible partner."

U.S. futures sank and world shares were mixed after a U.S. government shutdown began.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.6%. Yesterday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow gained 0.2%, to set an all-time high. The Nasdaq composite ticked 0.3% higher to 22,660.01.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX lost 0.2% to 23,916.90 and the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.2% to 7,907.99. Britain’s FTSE rose 0.7% to 9,416.30.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.9% to 44,550.85 after the Bank of Japan reported a slight improvement in business sentiment among major manufacturers.

This is not the first time Virginia voters have braced for a government shutdown in a partisan standoff over Obamacare just a few weeks before they elect their next governor.

In October 2013, the federal government shut down for 16 days after lawmakers failed to reach a deal to fund it. President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders loudly blamed Republicans in Congress, dubbing it the “tea party shutdown” — and polls showed that the public overwhelmingly agreed.

Fast-forward to the present. Republicans control the White House, the federal government barreled into a shutdown at midnight, and a race for governor in Virginia is weeks away. Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger has so far led Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in both polling and fundraising.

Read the full story here.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement early this morning that Trump and Republicans had "shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people."

Senate leaders John Thune and Chuck Schumer debate the government shutdown on the chamber floor yesterday.  AP

They said Democrats were willing to "find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government" and end the shutdown, but reiterated their position that the GOP stance on health care remains a barrier, questioning whether the Republicans are a "credible partner."

"Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos," they said.

The government blames the Democrats for causing the shutdown by not backing down on their opposition to the bill.

Two unions filed suit against the Trump administration over its plans to fire federal workers during the government shutdown, alleging that the “unlawful threats” were contrary to the law and should be declared unlawful by a federal court in San Francisco.

“These actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious, and the cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this Court,” the lawsuit filed hours ahead of the shutdown alleged.

Read the full story here.

The National Nurses United has urged lawmakers to pass a funding bill and end the government shutdown to "save lives by restoring health care funding and assistance."

The NNU, which says it is the country's largest nursing union, said it was also time to end "the Trump administration’s unprecedented power over government spending."

The union said in a statement that Republicans were blame for the shutdown, having "manufactured this impasse by refusing to negotiate with Democrats as a means to further degrade and gut critical public services and to advance an agenda to privatize vital functions."

The NNU has separately written to members of Congress urging them to find an agreement. 

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has accused Democrats of holding the government "hostage" by not agreeing the bill and suggested more would support it as the pain of the shutdown takes hold.

As the U.S. government shutdown officially begins, millions of federal workers and services are being impacted. What are the next steps after the shutdown and the potential effects for Americans?

02:22

Millions of federal workers won’t get paid during a government shutdown. But the people who could prevent or end a shutdown — members of Congress — will still receive a paycheck.

That’s because their pay is protected under Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, which states: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”

Read the full story here.

Federal employees who would be impacted by a government shutdown received a memo yesterday informing them of possible furloughs, along with a partisan accusation that Democrats in Congress were to blame.

The memo — sent to the Department of Health and Human Services, Education Department, the Justice Department and the Labor Department, among others — begins by saying that Trump “opposes a government shutdown” and supports a House-passed Republican bill that would keep the government funded into November.

Read the full story here.