Shutdown

The federal government shut down at 12:01 this morning after the Senate rejected a proposal to continue funding. 

Last evening’s vote failed 55 to 55, largely along party lines. 

The shutdown will immediately affect tens of thousands of non-essential government workers who will be furloughed without pay. Members of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration will work without pay during the shutdown.

Workers will receive back pay when funding is restored. 

The dispute between Republicans and Democrats centers on the terms of a continuing resolution (CR) to extend federal funding. 

The GOP has asked for a “clean” CR to continue existing funding levels for several weeks while spending negotiations continue. 

Democrats refused to back any CR that does not include funding changes related to health care. 

Democrats have staked their position on reversing health care-related spending provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and making the COVID-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits permanent. 

Republicans say that would add $1.5 trillion in spending and is an unserious starting point for discussions. 

A Sept. 29 meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance failed to produce a resolution. 

Ahead of the Senate vote, both parties doubled down on their position. 

“Health care creates an urgency,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Epoch Times. “Republicans are saying, ‘Agree to a clean CR and we’ll talk about this stuff later.’ But people get sick regardless of the Republican timetable.” 

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told reporters she would not trust Republicans’ word that they would negotiate over health care during the normal appropriations process. 

“There’s no trust,” DeLauro said. “Remember McCarthy-Biden, they walked away from the deal,” she added, referring to a negotiated spending agreement in 2023 that was not passed into legislation. 

Republicans say the Democrats’ position is confusing.

“They’re kind of all over the map,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told The Epoch Times. “I can’t tell what they want.” 

When asked by The Epoch Times which health care issues they were advancing, Blumenthal spoke about the urgency to address health care. He added, “I think it ends with some serious compromise on health care.”

Trump’s threat to use a shutdown to lay off more federal employees appeared to have no effect on Democrats’ resolve. 

“I think the record shows that he is firing people regardless of the shutdown,” Blumenthal said. “He just seems to be on that path.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the two sides could strike a deal centered on extending the ACA enhanced premium tax credits.

“I just don’t think you’re going to have that much opposition on either side to giving an extension this year to the Obamacare subsidies,” Rounds told The Epoch Times.

Rounds said that could be coupled with a 45-day continuing resolution to allow further appropriations work. 

However, he added: “I don’t know whether Democrat leadership can actually accept not going to a shutdown. They may very well feel they have to do a shutdown just to show their far left base that they’ll do it.”

—Lawrence Wilson 

BOOKMARKS

Donald Trump has cut a deal with Pfizer to offer drugs to Americans at discounted prices. Customers will be able to purchase the medications through a government website. 

Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced sweeping changes to U.S. military policies and culture on Tuesday, including no more beards. Read Ryan Morgan’s latest report to find out more.  

Philadelphia raised the Chinese Communist Party’s flag at its City Hall on Sept. 30, prompting criticism from local groups like the Tibetan Association of Philadelphia. “The red flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not a symbol of culture; it is the emblem of a brutal, totalitarian regime,” the group’s president, Tsering Jurme, said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, to help protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. “The DOJ is deploying agents to protect ICE facilities, arrest violent agitators on the spot, and bring the strongest federal charges possible,” Bondi said on X. 

A five-day Drug Enforcement Administration operation against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel netted 77,000 kilos of drugs and 670 arrests. Read more in Travis Gillmore’s latest report.

—Stacy Robinson