Shutdown hits US as Trump, Democrats dig in over spending fight

Mail and Medicare continue, but Superfund cleanups, CDC alerts, and education grants stall as a bitter standoff leaves federal workers unpaid and Trump threatens mass firings.

Washington: Services that millions of Americans rely on were upended Wednesday, and many government functions ground to a halt as a bitter impasse between President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress over spending shut down much of the federal government for the first time in nearly seven years.

Critical services will continue to operate. The Postal Service will still deliver mail, and Social Security and Medicare will still send payments. But a sprawling mass of other federal functions has ceased.

Cleanup at some Superfund sites has stalled. Assistance for veterans transitioning to civilian life is on hold. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has halted communications to the public about health-related information. Some data collection and economic analysis, like the jobs report set for release Friday, have been paused. Most civil litigation out of the Justice Department has stopped. No new education grants will go out.

Some federal employees will continue working, but without pay. Others are furloughed.

But unlike in previous shutdowns, Trump is threatening to make long-lasting changes to the government if Democrats do not concede to demands, including firing workers en masse and permanently cutting programs that Democrats support.

It was unclear how long the shutdown might last, but both sides appeared dug in.

Republicans had proposed extending funding at its current levels, but Senate Democrats demanded concessions on health care, including the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the reversal of cuts to Medicaid and other health programs. In last-ditch votes Tuesday night in the Senate, where a supermajority of 60 votes is needed to overcome a filibuster, each party again rejected the other’s plans.

Here’s what else to know:

Next vote

The Senate is set to vote again at 11 a.m. Eastern time on the Democrats’ and Republicans’ spending bills to reopen the government, but neither measure is expected to pass. Senate Republicans have indicated that they intend to keep forcing these votes to put Democrats on the record as opposing the House-passed stopgap bill that would fund the government.

Wide-ranging impact

The longer the government is closed, the broader the effects will be. A longer shutdown may start to affect federally funded child care and federal grocery vouchers for low-income mothers and children. National parks, which largely plan to remain open, may see overflowing toilets, piles of trash and damage to fragile ecosystems. And Transportation Security Administration lines at airports have grown when previous shutdowns have dragged on, as unpaid employees start skipping work.

Federal workers

This year’s shutdown differs from previous years’ because around 300,000 federal employees have left since the beginning of the year, most either fired or pressured to resign by the Trump administration. This has meant that in some cases, employees have already been working the jobs of two or three people to cover the vacancies.

Trump places blame

The Trump administration has said that government workforce needed to shrink. But on Tuesday, Trump said a new round of layoffs during the shutdown would be done to punish his political opponents. Speaking to reporters, Trump said his administration “may do a lot” of firings. “And that’s only because of the Democrats,” he said.

Last shutdown

The last government shutdown began in late 2018 during the first Trump administration. It lasted 35 days, the longest ever, forcing some government workers to get payday loans to cover routine expenses.