WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump met with his Cabinet on Thursday as the federal government shutdown dragged on and the Senate again rejected two funding deals that could have reopened the government’s doors.
The Cabinet meeting offered an opportunity for department chiefs to describe how the shutdown is hurting Americans who rely on government services. And Trump pressured Democratic lawmakers who have refused to vote to reopen the government without concessions on health care programs.
“We’re going to be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly, because that’s the way this works,” Trump said. “They wanted to do this, so we’ll give them a little taste of their own medicine.”
Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday rejected Democratic and Republican-backed spending bills – for the seventh time. Most Senate Democrats pushed for the same health care reforms in their package, while the GOP-backed legislation would have temporarily kept government funding going until Nov. 21.
Trump has doubled down on threats to block some furloughed federal workers from receiving back pay once this shutdown is over, claiming some “won’t qualify.” The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday announced furloughs for 34,000 employees, nearly half of its staff, adding to the some 750,000 furloughed workers across the government.
Yet Trump insisted members of the military don’t need to worry about missing their next paychecks as he signaled support for stand-alone legislation to ensure they are paid during the shutdown.
When paychecks stop coming, furloughed employees can still lean on their federal credit unions for help during the government shutdown, the National Credit Union Administration said.
Since NCUA is funded by credit unions, not congressional appropriations, all of the institutions remain open during a government shutdown. Branches located inside government buildings, however, may be affected, NCUA warned.
Not only can members continue banking during the congressional impasse, but they may find special targeted programs for federal employees. Many are offering short-term loans, fee and penalty waivers, payment deferrals and more to help workers bridge the gap.
“We have been through government shutdowns before and truly understand the financial challenges our members face,” said Brett Noll, president and chief executive at the 90-year-old FedChoice credit union. “That’s why we, and many other credit unions, immediately activated support measures from day one of the shutdown.”
– Medora Lee
Though operations of “non-essential” government agencies, including the National Park Service, have been put on an indefinite hold, visitor access to the country’s 63 national parks, including the top 10 most visited, have not yet been impacted by the shutdown.
But some services – such as the South Rim Visitor Center at Grand Canyon – may be limited or unavailable to the public until a funding package is passed.
– Amaris Encinas
Two funding measures that could potentially reopen the government failed once more in the Senate on Thursday.
It’s the seventh time the bills have been shot down. The votes largely remained unchanged, with a few Democrats defecting to support a seven-week funding extension backed by the GOP. All Republicans once again blocked the Democrats’ proposal, which would permanently extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts.
Money to oversee nation’s nuclear stockpile about to run out, Energy secretary says
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the agency overseeing the nation’s nuclear stockpile is quickly running out of money because of the government shutdown.
Wright said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the safety and security of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, is on track to run out of funding in about a week.
“In six or seven days, we’re going to run out of funding, and the retooling of our nuclear stockpile – the ultimate guarantor of our sovereignty – is going to be underfunded and we’re going to have to slow down and creep to crawl these efforts,” Wright told Trump at a Thursday Cabinet meeting.
In March, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency fired dozens of employees at the NNSA – and then quickly worked to bring them back – as part of efforts to cut spending across the government.
Trump continued to blame Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer for keeping the government shut after Senate Democrats for the sixth time on Wednesday blocked a Republican-backed bill to fund the government through Nov. 21.
Trump again threatens ‘permanent’ cuts in Democratic programs
Trump threatened again during his Cabinet meeting to make permanent cuts during the shutdown to programs favored by Democrats and opposed by Republicans.
“We’re going to be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly, because that’s the way this works,” Trump said. “They wanted to do this, so we’ll give them a little taste of their own medicine.”
Trump promotes lower prescription prices in healthcare debate
Trump complained about Democrats focusing on healthcare in the shutdown because he argued Republicans have become the party of improving healthcare.
Trump cited a recent agreement with Pfizer to sell drugs in the U.S. for the same prices as industrialized countries overseas, rather than offering discounts abroad.
“Basically, we subsidized the world,” Trump said. “This is going to have a huge positive impact on Medicare, Medicaid, even Social Security – anything where there’s pharmaceuticals, drugs involved.”
Trump said Democrats keep using healthcare costs “as a cudgel.”
Federal deficit holds about steady: CBO
The federal budget deficit was $1.8 trillion for the year that ended Sept. 30, about the same as the previous year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Revenues increased $308 billion, benefitting from a rise in customs duties and individuals paying more income taxes but partially offset by reduced corporate taxes, according to CBO. Spending rose about $301 billion, mostly from the largest benefit programs and from rising interest on the national debt.
The deficit was $8 billion less than the shortfall recorded in the previous fiscal year, according to CBO.
Senate to vote on funding bills… again
It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day in the United States Senate.
Senators will vote again on Thursday morning for the seventh time on dueling funding measures to reopen the government. With both sides still dug in on their respective positions, neither bill is expected to pass.
TSA wait times normal so far
In a social media post on Oct. 9, the Transportation Security Administration said that wait times at its airport checkpoints across the nation have been normal during the shutdown.
“Yesterday, TSA screened about 2.4M individuals (+ 14.9% YoY). The average wait time in standard was 6.28 minutes, while the average TSA PreCheck wait time was 2.65 minutes,” the post said.
TSA officers are considered essential workers and continue to show up even as they risk missing paychecks as the shutdown drags on.
The agency previously warned that a prolonged shutdown could lead to increased wait times at some airports as security officers feel the pinch from the funding freeze.
“An extended shutdown could mean longer wait times at airports. We kindly ask for our passengers’ patience during this time,” a previous social media post from the agency said.
Federal employees should expect a smaller paycheck on Friday, Oct. 10, the first payday since the partial government shutdown began on Oct. 1.
Although federal workers do not get paid during a government shutdown, the Oct. 10 check covers work performed between Sept. 21 and Oct. 4, which includes the first three days of the shutdown. Meaning, employees will get paid for hours worked from Sept. 21 to Oct. 1.
Under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, federal workers should receive retroactive pay after the shutdown ends for any hours logged during the lapse. However, President Donald Trump said on Oct. 7 that some furloughed federal workers “don’t deserve” to receive back pay once the shutdown ends.
– Melina Khan
Military wife confronts Johnson on C-SPAN
Speaker Johnson dealt with a rotation of unhappy callers in a C-SPAN interview Thursday morning.
In one particularly dramatic exchange, a military wife from Virginia pleaded with him to reopen the government or pass funding so her family doesn’t miss a paycheck on Oct. 15.
Unless Congress acts to make sure troops get paid, she said her two kids with severe medical conditions “could die.”
“As a Republican, I’m very disappointed in my party, and I’m very disappointed in you, because you have the power to call the House back,” she said. “You refuse to do that, just for a show.”
Johnson said situations like hers keep him up at night. He said the House already tried to vote to pay the troops when it passed a short-term government funding extension that has since failed in the Senate many times.
“The Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check,” he said.
Bill to pay military during shutdown gathers steam
Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, who proposed legislation to pay members of the military despite the shutdown, urged fellow House GOP leadership Oct. 8 to swiftly pass her bill, even though the House is not in session while the Senate debates how to reopen the government.
“Our servicemembers should never have to worry about missing a paycheck because Washington can’t do its job,” Kiggans, R-Virginia, said in a statement when introducing her bill Sept. 16.
She has 148 mostly Republican co-sponsors and got an important ally when the Republican who oversees military spending on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Ken Calvert of California, signed on Oct. 8.The next payday 1.3 million members of the military will miss is Oct. 15.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has said the chamber doesn’t have to vote again because it already approved an extension of all government funding through Nov. 21.
President Donald Trump supported paying the troops but said the shutdown could be resolved before the military misses its payday.
“You know what one week is for me? An eternity,” Trump told reporters Oct. 8. “One week for me is a long time. We’ll take care of it.”
Voters heap shutdown blame on all sides in new survey
There’s plenty of blame to go around in the government shutdown.
More than 60% of U.S. adults say congressional Republicans, Democrats and Trump all deserve at least a fair amount of blame for the government shutdown, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Oct. 8.
The survey found that 67% of adults believe congressional Republicans deserve a fair amount of blame, compared to 63% who say the same thing about Trump and congressional Democrats.
Trump’s threat to fire federal workers is popular with Republicans, according to the poll, with 62% in favor. But GOP support for mass firings has declined 14 percentage points since a previous Reuters/Ipsos survey in April. Only 8% of Democrats support the firings.
Senate to vote again to end shutdown with no end in sight
The Senate is scheduled to vote again Oct. 9 on competing proposals to reopen the government, but there are no signs the results will differ from the previous six failed attempts.
Votes are set to start about 11:30 a.m. include a Democratic proposal to restore cuts in Medicaid and extend subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans who control the chamber propose to extend previously approved spending through Nov. 21, as the House GOP approved, and leave healthcare negotiations for later.
“The government needs to be funded, federal employees need to go back to work, federal agencies and departments need to be open in providing the services that the American people expect,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor Oct. 8. “It’s that simple.”
Most Democrats continue to insist on remedying healthcare at the same time as reopening government. Three Senate Democrats have voted with Republicans to reopen government but the GOP needs another five to advance the bill.
“We can do both: fix health care and reopen the government,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said on the Senate floor Oct. 8. “This is not an either-or thing.”
Trump is set to hold a Cabinet meeting Thursday as the shutdown rolls on.
It will mark Trump’s ninth Cabinet meeting of his second term.
Trump’s meetings with his Cabinet are typically lengthy affairs as his top officials, one-by-one, usually shower the president with praise and tout how they’re carrying out his policy agenda.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. ET to appear on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” ‒ the longtime political show in which Americans call in to ask questions.
Trump would not commit on Wednesday to supporting an extension of subsidies in the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year.
“All I want to do is very simple. I want to get the country open, and then we’ll discuss that,” Trump said when asked whether he wants to extend the subsidies.
Earlier in the week, he had expressed openness to making a deal with Democrats to extend the subsidies.
Democrats in Congress have demanded that extending the health care subsidies be included in any funding bill to reopen the government. Republican leaders in Congress have repeatedly said they won’t negotiate health care policy until the government is reopened.
If the Affordable Care Act subsidies are not renewed, premiums are expected to double, according to the research organization KFF.
Trump on Wednesday said most furloughed federal workers will receive their back pay when the government reopens but claimed some “won’t qualify.”
The president made the remarks one day after he threatened to withhold back pay from furloughed federal employees once the shutdown is over.
“Most of them are going to get back pay, and we’re going to try and make of that,” Trump said. “But some of them are being hurt very badly by the Democrats, and they therefore won’t qualify.”
Trump did not specify why certain federal workers would not qualify to receive back pay owed to them.
Withholding payments to furloughed workers when they return would mark a dramatic departure from previous shutdowns, including the government’s last shutdown in 2019, when Trump was president.
The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which was passed during the last shutdown and signed by Trump, says that federal workers who are furloughed during a lapse in government funding “shall be paid for the period of the lapse.” The law states that it applies to any government funding lapse after Dec. 22, 2018.
But the White House argues in a new legal memo that this law does not automatically cover all furloughed workers because of an amendment approved nine days after its original passage in January 2019. The amendment states that furloughed workers would be paid back “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”
Trump said U.S. military members don’t need to worry about missing their next paychecks amid the government shutdown as he signaled support for Congress to pass legislation to ensure they are paid.
“Yeah, that probably will happen,” Trump said Wednesday when asked by a reporter whether he supports Congress passing a stand-alone bill on military pay. “We don’t have to worry about it yet. That’s a long time.”
The nation’s 1.3 active-duty military members last received their paychecks on Oct. 1. But they will not receive their next paychecks on Oct. 15 if the government remains shut down.
The House is adjourned until Oct. 10, meaning any action would have to wait until Friday at the earliest.
“You know what one week is for me? An eternity,” Trump said. “One week for me is a long time. We’ll take care of it.”