The federal government shutdown stretched into its 27th day on Oct. 27, with pressure mounting on Congress to break the stalemate and restore pay for more than a million federal workers.
Speaking at his daily press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Republicans have voted “over a dozen times” to reopen the government but lack votes in the Senate to do so without Democratic support.
“Every Republican in Congress wants to stop this madness desperately, and we have voted many times, over a dozen times — collectively, 13 times — to reopen the government, to keep it open, and to reopen it once the Democrats closed it,” the Louisiana Republican said. “But here’s the very simple and important fact that no one should forget: we have no ability.”
He noted that Republicans cannot reopen the government alone, calling it a “simple math problem.” He noted that Republicans hold 53 Senate seats — seven short of the 60 needed to pass a funding bill.
“The Democrats are the ones voting repeatedly to shut down the government, but they’re not, they’re not opening it back up,” Johnson added. “They spent most of their time trying to distract the American people from the very simple truth.”
Since the shutdown began Oct. 1, Republicans have pushed a stopgap measure to fund the government at current levels through Nov. 21, allowing more time for long-term spending talks. Senate Democrats have blocked the proposal, insisting on healthcare funding changes that would expand coverage for illegal immigrants. According to the White House, the Democratic funding proposal would spend roughly $200 billion on healthcare for illegal immigrants and other non-citizens over the next decade.
Only three lawmakers of the Democratic caucus — Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and independent Angus King of Maine — have broken ranks to support the House-passed bill.
In an Oct. 27 statement, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, urged lawmakers to end the stalemate.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said, calling on Congress to “pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”
The union represents more than 800,000 federal employees, many of whom have gone without pay since Oct. 1. The New York Post reported that at least 1.4 million government workers missed their full paycheck last week.
“These are patriotic Americans — parents, caregivers, and veterans — forced to work without pay while struggling to cover rent, groceries, gas, and medicine because of political disagreements in Washington,” Kelley said. “That is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture has warned that federal food aid will stop Nov. 1, saying “the well has run dry” for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves more than 40 million Americans.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he spoke with the President, who is currently in Asia, and that “there are ongoing conversations about where things stand,” CBS News reported. Thune said the President “like all of us, wants the government opened up.”
On the Senate floor, Thune criticized Democrats for abandoning their past opposition to government shutdowns.
“Democrats once passionately opposed shutdown, or so they said, in large part because of the impact they would have on American citizens and American workers,” Thune said, according to CBS. “Now, government workers and every other American have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats’ political games.”
According to CBS, the Senate did not vote on a funding bill Oct. 27 but could take up narrower measures later this week to pay air traffic controllers and the military. Thousands of air traffic controllers are set to miss their first paycheck Oct. 28, while troops face their next scheduled pay date Oct. 31.
The current shutdown is now the second-longest in U.S. history, according to FOX News, approaching the 35-day lapse that occurred during Trump’s first term from December 2018 into January 2019.
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