The Senate returns Monday with no signs of progress toward ending the partial government shutdown that began on Oct. 1, with President Donald Trump blaming potential layoffs on Democrats.
Federal executive branch employees — including those on furlough status and working without pay — could generally receive paychecks on Friday through electronic funds transfer that should be close to normal, even for departments and agencies that lacked funds to pay them past Sept. 30, as the pay covers the pay cycle that ended on Saturday.
But if there are no other funds available, that’ll be it until Congress acts to clear a continuing resolution since the next EFT pay date, Oct. 24, covers the pay period that began this weekend. So the urgency to get an agreement will likely increase. There’s also the ongoing possibility that the Trump administration could push more permanent reductions in the federal workforce as a result of the lapse in appropriations.
Trump told reporters Sunday of layoffs, “That’s taking place right now, and it’s all because of the Democrats. The Democrats are causing the loss of a lot of jobs.”
Laying off federal workers has not been a strategy in previous shutdowns, but the White House has been talking about the prospects of making further staffing cuts beyond those implemented earlier this year.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when the shutdown may end, and he insisted that the ball remains in the court of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. House Republican leaders have extended the House’s “district work period” into next week, meaning the most immediate option for reopening the government would be for Democratic senators to allow the existing House-passed seven-week stopgap funding bill to advance.
Democratic senators have blocked multiple efforts to take up that legislation, while Republican senators have blocked taking up a Democratic alternative that would also address health care policy.
“The reason that House Republicans are home working in their districts, and I suspect House Democrats should be as well, is because we did that. We passed a bipartisan, very clean, continuing resolution a couple of weeks back now and sent it to the Senate,” Johnson said.
Schumer, also appearing on CBS Sunday, said that there needed to be bipartisan, bicameral negotiations including the president, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
“You actually need Johnson if you’re going to negotiate any agreement. You need Johnson, Thune, Trump, Schumer and Jeffries,” Schumer said. “And the reason he sent them home is because he’s more interested in protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people from the health care crisis. We’ve been trying for months and months to sit down with them and have a serious conversation addressing America’s health care needs. And they’ve refused and refused and refused.”
Schumer was referring to the House not being in legislative session as a bipartisan discharge petition for a bill that would call for the government to release files related to the late convicted child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein was just one signature short of the total needed to tee up consideration. The final signature is expected to come from Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who has not yet been sworn in while Johnson keeps the House out of session.
Johnson himself has been a regular presence on Capitol Hill throughout the shutdown standoff even as many House members are in their home states with no floor activity scheduled beyond pro forma sessions.
Other pending business
With senators in town, however, the Republican majority has other business planned even with the shutdown underway. Thune has laid the groundwork to confirm a bloc of more than 100 of the president’s nominations this week. The list includes Herschel Walker, the former football player and Senate candidate who is nominated to be ambassador to the Bahamas; as well as the reappointment of current Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins to a seat on the commission into 2031.
There’s other legislative business percolating, as well. The Senate this week could consider a joint resolution that would terminate Trump’s national emergency declaration with respect to energy. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., joined with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to introduce that measure before August recess.
“The real energy emergency isn’t a made-up crisis — it’s the skyrocketing energy costs American families are facing because of Republicans’ relentless attacks on clean energy,” Heinrich said in a statement when the resolution was introduced. “While Donald Trump hands out giveaways to his billionaire friends and sabotages Made-in-America jobs, everyday Americans are stuck paying more on their utility bills.”
The shutdown, which includes a lapse in funding for the legislative branch, also is not stopping committee activity. Several panels have hearings and markups, with the headline witness for the week being Attorney General Pamela Bondi. She is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning.
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