1 of 13 | President Donald Trump pointed the finger of blame at Democrats and said a lot of people would be laid off if the Senate does not approve a funding resolution on Tuesday. Photo by Francis Chung/UPI | License Photo
The Senate on Monday voted down competing GOP and Democratic Party resolutions to keep the federal government open while continuing to work on a 2026 budget.
A House-approved GOP continuing resolution that would have funded the government for seven more weeks without changes from the 2025 budget failed in a 55-45 vote, The Hill reported.
A competing measure introduced by Senate Democrats failed on a 47-53 vote and would have kept the government funded through Oct. 31.
That measure would have added $1 trillion for Medicaid funding and would have extended expiring tax credits for the Affordable Care Act.
At least 60 votes are needed to pass a budget resolution to overcome a potential Senate filibuster.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-N.Y., said a shutdown would be “self-inflicted, totally unnecessary [and] avoidable,” CNN reported.
Blumenthal blamed President Donald Trump for the Senate’s inability to pass a budget extension, but said “the path to compromise is there” to approve a temporary funding measure.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., faulted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for the impasse by requiring an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits to a temporary budget extension.
“You want to have a debate on health care, we can have a debate on health care,” Schmitt said.
“You don’t hold the government hostage over that,” he added. “That’s exactly what they’re doing.”
The Senate convened its session at 10 a.m. EDT and had scheduled its first budget vote at 5 p.m., but it remained in session into the evening hours after failing to reach an agreement on short-term funding.
The Fiscal Year 2025 federal budget ends and midnight, and a government shutdown will occur if the Senate cannot pass a temporary funding bill.
A lot of federal government employees might be laid off after the Senate votes on a continuing resolution to keep the government open while working on a new budget.
When asked how many federal government workers might be laid off, the president told reporters: “We may do a lot, and that’s only because of the Democrats.”
“They want to be able to take care of people who come into our country illegally, and no system can handle that,” Trump said, as reported by The Hill.
“They want to give them full health care benefits, [and] they want to open the wall again,” the president added. “They don’t change.”
CNN recently reported that the president’s contention about free healthcare benefits for illegal migrants is untrue.
Given Trump’s claim that mass layoffs would occur if the budget bill impasse continues, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed legal challenges in the U.S. District Court for Northern California on Tuesday, NBC News and The Hill reported.
“These actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious, and the cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful and enjoined by this court,” the lawsuit says, as reported by CBS News.
Congressional leaders met with the president on Monday, and Schumer afterward said the two sides are very far apart on their demands, Roll Call reported.
Schumer said any short-term funding deal must include extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits and that he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., refuse to negotiate an extension separately to keep the government open.
“When they say later, they mean never,” Schumer said of the GOP’s offer to negotiate an extension. “Now is the time we can get it done.”
The House already approved the GOP-proposed continuing resolution that only received 47 votes for versus 45 against in the Senate on Sept. 19.
