Democrats are holding out for a deal on Obamacare subsidies set to expire in December, meanwhile Republicans have refused to negotiate on the issue until the funding measure is passed.
Three Democrats voted in favor of the GOP-backed resolution, including Sens. John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Mastro, and Angus King.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office at the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
The White House memorandum stated that the congressional stalemate meant troops would not receive their scheduled paychecks on October 15th. The memo continued, “This potential outcome presents a serious and unacceptable threat to military readiness and the ability of our Armed Forces to protect and defend our Nation.
Active-duty military personnel and any reserve personnel who performed active service during the pay period would receive their paychecks. These troops’ pay would be sourced from any remaining congressionally appropriated funding authorized for servicemembers’ pay.
15 hours ago
Johnson downplays prospect of debate with Jeffries on C-SPAN
A collage of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) poured cold water on the possibility of him debating House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) live on C-SPAN.
Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday that he would debate Jeffries after the government is reopened. He accused Jeffries of “engaging in political theater and stating absurd things.”
Smith: You have agreed to a debate with Jeffries on CSPAN?
Speaker Johnson: I will debate Hakeem Jeffries anytime as soon as we get the government open. pic.twitter.com/XFDrryZk4S
The House Minority Leader had said that he was looking forward to a debate with the Speaker of the House on C-SPAN’s new program, Ceasefire. Jeffries promised, “We’re going to try to get it scheduled, absolutely.”
16 hours ago
Judge halts Trump’s federal worker layoffs during government shutdown
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A federal judge issued an emergency order to temporarily halt the Trump administration’s permanent layoffs of federal workers.
The Trump administration has used threats of mass layoffs of government workers as one of its key pieces of leverage against Democrats in an effort to force an end to the government shutdown on favorable terms. On Wednesday, Susan Illston, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, sided with two unions suing the administration to prevent the firings.
“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” she said. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
The Senate failed to pass the Republican-backed continuing resolution for the ninth time on Wednesday, fifteen days since the start of the federal government shutdown.
The vote failed to gain any additional Democratic support, with Republicans still needing five more supporters for the bill to pass. Republicans have not peeled off any Democratic support since the shutdown began.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he will set a vote on Thursday on a one-year funding bill for the Pentagon. Democrats have not announced how they will plan to vote.
17 hours ago
Bessent says federal government held ‘hostage’ by Schumer’s poll numbers
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), right. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, and AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest to target Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for the 2025 government shutdown, saying on Wednesday that Schumer is afraid of his poll numbers.
The federal government is about two weeks into its shutdown, which the Trump administration is pinning on Democratic lawmakers for failing to make a deal to reopen the government. Bessent said there’s “a thought” that Democratic lawmakers are waiting to end this shutdown until the “crazy” No Kings nationwide protest is over on Saturday.
He added that the Pentagon turned to “surplus funds” to pay the U.S. military on Wednesday amid the shutdown. He encouraged “moderate” Democratic lawmakers to break from their party and vote to reopen the government, saying they would be “heroes.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), left, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speak at a news conference as the government shutdown begins its 10th day, in Washington, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has presented Democrats with a fresh unity test two weeks into the government shutdown, daring them to oppose a bill to fund the Pentagon and other full-year spending measures that enjoy bipartisan support.
On Thursday, Republicans will hold a procedural vote on War Department funding, forcing Democrats to decide between the optics of blocking pay for more than a million troops and sticking to their guns on their demand for healthcare concessions.
Separately, Thune has teed up a measure that would allow the Senate to negotiate with House leadership a three-bill “minibus” passed earlier this year.
Dee Cahill of Margate, Fla., holds a "No Kings" sign as she participates in a pro-democracy, anti-Trump protest outside Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the "Good Trouble Lives On" national day of action, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“No Kings” protests are set to return this weekend, as demonstrators plan to rally against the Trump administration in thousands of cities across the United States on Saturday.
The demonstrations come as the federal government shutdown enters its third week. Republican leaders have criticized the protests as “hate America” rallies. “No Kings” has planned 2,500 protests in 2,200 cities, the group told the Washington Examiner, including several international gatherings in cities such as Madrid, Paris, and London.
“As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the No Kings nonviolent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power belongs to the people,” the group wrote in a press release.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks to reporters during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Oct. 15, 2025. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Tuesday that he is on board with a proposal to have a conversation with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on C-Span.
“I look forward to that,” Jeffries told reporters in Washington.
“We’re going to try to get it scheduled, absolutely,” he promised, referencing a possible joint appearance on C-Span’s new program Ceasefire.
EXCLUSIVE — The government shutdown and its impacts on payments for United States troops are the focus of House Republicans‘ campaign arm’s new ad, targeting vulnerable Democrats as mudslinging between the parties amps up with no funding solution in sight.
The National Republican Congressional Committee launched a modest paid advertisement targeting the 26 vulnerable House Democratic seats the campaign arm wants to flip in the 2026 midterm elections, in which the GOP is defending a razor-thin majority.
The government shutdown will be a temperature test to see whether the GOP trifecta is losing favor with voters, a trend that presidents and congressional leaders historically face as an administration’s policies and agenda fall into place. It will also determine how long Democrats will appease their base and stand up to President Donald Trump, or if a handful will ultimately fold, as they did in March.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes wrote a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, stating that failure to swear in Adelita Grijalva may prompt legal action.
Arizona state officials certified Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva’s special election win on Tuesday, with the state’s attorney general warning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that failure to swear in Grijalva or provide a “reasonable explanation” as to when the ceremony will occur will “prompt legal action.”
Attorney General Kris Mayes demanded Johnson swear in Grijalva “without further delay” in a letter sent on Tuesday and obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“Ms. Grijalva was elected with nearly 70% of the vote, and unofficial results were provided to you by the Arizona Secretary of State,” Mayes wrote. “Ms. Grijalva and the State expected that you would follow your usual practice and swear her into office at the earliest opportunity, just as you had done with five previous members elected in special elections.”
A airplane climbs out from Logan Airport over downtown at dawn, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The nation’s air traffic controllers are warning that the government shutdown is putting aviation safety at risk as thousands of essential workers report for duty without pay.
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said at a Tuesday briefing that controllers are moving more than 45,000 flights and 3 million passengers every day, even as they see the first disruptions to their paychecks. The strain, he said, is eroding focus in one of the most demanding jobs in public service.
“Today marks the first day that air traffic controllers have a completely different focus,” Daniels said. “They don’t know when they’ll get paid again. This introduces a new risk to aviation.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House leadership hold a press conference on the 14th day of the shutdown. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called on Democrats to “bring it” as he continues to intensify his tone during the government shutdown that is rumbling forward with no end in sight.
President Donald Trumpdecided last weekend to divert money to pay the 1.3 million active-duty service members who were at risk of missing a paycheck on Wednesday as the government shutdown entered its second week. This move has been backed by congressional Republicans after many began to get uncomfortable with the looming halt in pay for the military.
“My understanding of this is they have every right to move the funds around, dually appropriated dollars from Congress to the Department of Defense,” Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) leaves a meeting with reporters on the eighth day of the government shutdown on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
The campaign arm of Senate Democratsappeared to move forward with a scheduled fundraising retreat on Monday and Tuesday in California wine country despite the government shutdown.
The timing of the Napa Valley event made for poor optics and an easy target for Republicans, who have blamed the shutdown on congressional Democrats for opposing a “clean” short-term funding bill during a broader dispute over expiring Obamacare subsidies.
Monday marked the 13th day of the shutdown with still no end in sight.
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Vance appeared on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures to assure that President Donald Trump is “doing some pretty nonconventional things, as President Trump often does, to ensure that our troops are able to get paid.”
“A lot of this will come from incoming revenues to the Internal Revenue Service, tariff revenue, but also income tax revenue, that is going to make it possible for us to pay our troops,” Vance said. “And this is another reason why President Trump’s decisive action on tariffs is one of the reasons why we have the money in the Treasury to actually be able to pay our troops.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Trump administration began implementing plans to downsize the federal workforce on Friday amid the government shutdown, following through on the president’s vow to use the closure to target agencies and employees he has long sought to cut.
