The government shutdown festered into its third week on Wednesday after lawmakers failed to advance legislation that would restore funding, with Republicans and Democrats still at odds over spending priorities and healthcare provisions.
The ninth failed Senate vote came as the parties gathered separately at the Capitol to accuse one another of being inflexible, while military families – and federal workers more broadly – face the prospect of disrupted paychecks by month’s end.
Before the afternoon Senate vote, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, convened Democratic colleagues outside the Capitol building, condemning Republicans for leaving Washington.
“House Republicans shut the government down, then they ran out of town,” Jeffries said, adding that his party stood “ready, willing and able to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement”.
Democrats are pushing for an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, warning that failure to act could result in dramatically increased healthcare premiums for tens of millions of Americans. “It’s time to make sure that every single American can afford to go see a doctor when they need one,” Jeffries said.
The Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, countered by warning that 1.3 million active-duty service members risk missing full compensation at the end of October if the impasse continues, despite the Trump administration’s stopgap measures announced on Wednesday.
“If the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed as they have done now so many times, then we know that US troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck,” Johnson told reporters, describing the administration’s current military pay arrangements as a “temporary fix”.
The shutdown has left federal workers without pay and suspended numerous government services, with no clear resolution in sight as both parties maintain their positions.
Donald Trump has taken steps to soften the shutdown’s blow in areas that matter most to his base, finding ways to keep military paychecks coming and social benefit programs running. But the White House budget office made clear on Tuesday that the administration is digging in for a long fight, saying it was preparing to “batten down the hatches”.
To keep some operations going, the administration is pulling money from Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill passed in July, using those funds to pay coast guard members, but the national guard continues to patrol Democratic-led cities.
Trump has already laid off more than 4,000 government workers, although a federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary injunction blocking the firings. But more cuts are expected. The office of management and budget director, Russ Vought, said on Wednesday that the 4,000 laid-off workers were just a “snapshot” and the numbers could end up “north of 10,000”.
In the Senate, the majority leader, John Thune, acknowledged that discussions about an exit strategy were under way but expressed pessimism about Democratic cooperation. Thune said Democrats remained “dug in”, citing the No Kings protests happening nationwide this weekend as evidence of their determination.
Thune said Republicans want to package several spending bills together with a defense department vote set for Thursday, but they will need Democrats to agree.
“Shutdowns are not good for anybody, and the sooner we end it, the better,” Thune said. He declined to predict when the government might reopen.
