Furloughs, closures and mass firings threats: What's next in the shutdown fight

The effects of a government shutdown are rippling across the country. Yesterday, federal workers stayed home from work, national parks prepared to close down and people seeking services from the federal government met a patchwork of availability and access.

In Washington, White House officials and Congressional leaders spent the day pointing blame in public while a small group of lawmakers in the Senate began talks about a potential offramp.

Congressional Republicans were quick to dub the funding lapse "The Schumer Shutdown" — in a dig at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., — and maintain that the government should be reopened before any bipartisan negotiations begin. Senate Democrats remained largely united in opposition to the short-term spending bill passed by the House earlier this month, as they continue to push for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

At the White House, Vice President JD Vance warned that federal workforce layoffs would be coming if the shutdown continues, in a break with past precedent of temporary furloughs. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, also announced that the government would cancel or delay infrastructure and green energy projects that the administration says do not align with their policy goals – all in states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris.

While party leaders refused to deviate from their demands, a handful of Republican and Democratic senators started informal talks about potential paths forward, although it's not clear any compromise they strike could advance in the Republican-controlled House.

What the White House is saying

The White House is not backing down from the message that Democrats are to blame. Administration officials at all levels say the push to undo Medicaid cuts Republicans passed this summer amounts to providing health care to undocumented immigrants.

That description does not fully or accurately describe the demands Democrats are making. They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts that were in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans passed the summer. That bill also included a provision that would punish states that provide health coverage to undocumented immigrants. But to be clear, people who are in the country without legal status are not qualified for Medicaid or able to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

The White House is also calling the proposed layoffs one of the "unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown," as press secretary Karoline Leavitt put it on Wednesday. Leavitt and Vance told reporters that a prolonged shutdown would require permanent cuts, even while lapses in spending generally only lead to temporary furloughs.

At the center of those cuts is White House budget director Russ Vought, who was also a key architect of the controversial Project 2025 blueprint, where he advocated for a more activist approach to cutting spending and overhauling the federal workforce.

Now as part of the administration, Vought has expressly stated that the "appropriations process has to be less bipartisan."

Federal employees' unions are suing over the Office of Management and Budget memo preparing agencies for layoffs during a shutdown. The complaint argues that the Trump administration is "deviating from historic practice and violating applicable laws."

Top congressional leaders aren't talking, but informal bipartisan talks have started

A pair of partisan stopgap bills failed once again in the Senate on Wednesday. One bill was the House-passed stopgap bill written by Republicans to fund the government until Nov. 21. The other was an alternative written by Democrats that includes several health care policy changes. Throughout the day top party leaders pointed fingers about who was to blame for the shutdown.

Still, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., aren't engaged in negotiations. Thune has said he's willing to talk about health care once the government reopened.

But a small group of lawmakers from both parties has been huddling in more informal talks.

Groups of lawmakers have been huddling on the Senate floor and in hallways around the chamber working to craft a compromise to reopen government and extend the expiring health care tax credits and subsidies.

Republicans are floating ways to put income caps on the subsidies or limit the number of people who are eligible to receive them. They also maintain a new plan must eliminate waste from the program. Democrats want to preserve the credits for as many working and middle class people as they can in a bipartisan bill.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who has been part of those efforts working on a deal on the health care subsidies, told reporters, "I am encouraged there are so many people on both sides who think we can work this out."

Schumer told reporters Wednesday that he has been pushing for talks for some time, even if he is not directly involved.

"It's a good thing that Republicans and Democrats are now talking," he said.

Thune said he is receiving briefings on the talks and has told people involved to come and talk to him when they have "critical mass," meaning enough votes from Democrats to end a shutdown.

No votes are planned for Thursday to allow lawmakers to observe the Jewish holiday. Senate GOP leaders are expected to call for another vote on Friday on the House-passed stopgap bill that funds federal agencies through November 21. Leaders are still discussing plans for possible weekend votes. But the three times they've attempted to pass the measure did not result in the 60 votes needed to advance. Two Democrats — Catherine Cortez Masto of New Mexico and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — and one Independent, Angus King of Maine, did vote with most Republicans on that bill on Wednesday, but Thune needs another 5 Democrats to clear it through the chamber.

The House is out of session until October 7.

NPR's Elena Moore and Tamara Keith contributed to this report.

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