Senate rejects dueling funding bills, teeing up government shutdown at midnight

Published September 30, 2025 7:21pm ET



For the second time in two weeks, the Senate rejected dueling proposals to fund the government, all but guaranteeing a shutdown at midnight.

Senators voted 55-45 on Tuesday against a House-passed measure to keep the government open for another seven weeks, short of the 60-vote threshold needed to clear the filibuster. The bill was “clean,” meaning a simple extension without “poison pill” provisions, but Democrats have used the funding fight as leverage to extract concessions on healthcare.

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