White House Confirms Government Shutdown, Blames Democrats

Last Updated:October 01, 2025, 06:13 IST

The lawmakers voted 55-45 on a resolution that would keep current levels of funding until November 21. It ultimately failed to reach the 60 votes needed.

several agencies have announced their shutdown plans, which includes furloughing thousands of federal workers, while many others will have to continue working without pay. (AFP Image)

The US senators on Tuesday failed to pass a last-minute funding bill to avert a government shutdown.

BBC quoted Republican Leader John Thune as saying that after the bill failed to pass, expressing disappointment – but also optimism that an agreement could be made to jumpstart government funding.

“Democrats may have chosen to shut down the government tonight, but we can reopen it tomorrow,” he said.

He further said: “All it takes is a handful of Democrats to join Republicans to pass the clean, nonpartisan funding bill that’s in front of us. And I hope, I really hope, that some of them will join us to reopen the government resume bipartisan appropriations work, and get back to the business of the American people.”

The Democrats in Congress had been demanding the extension of healthcare subsidies and the reversal of cuts to domestic programmes.

According to a report by The Guardian, the lawmakers voted 55-45 on a resolution that would keep current levels of funding until November 21. It ultimately failed to reach the 60 votes needed.

Following this, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum confirming that the government will indeed shutdown at midnight on Tuesday while blaming Democrats for the impasse.

It stated: “President Trump supports passage of H.R. 5371, but it is now clear that Democrats will prevent passage of this clean CR prior to 11:59pm tonight and force a government shutdown.”

“Affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown. It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict. Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities,” it further stated.

The memo was signed by Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House.

According to CNN, several agencies have announced their shutdown plans, which includes furloughing thousands of federal workers, while many others will have to continue working without pay.

Following this, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of “plunging America into a shutdown”.

“There are going to be millions of American families sitting down and saying, how are we going to pay these damn bills?” Schumer said. “There’s going to be a crescendo through the beginning of October, the vast majority of Americans get those bills and they’re going to say, what the heck are we going to do?”

“At midnight, the American people will blame them for bringing the government to a halt,” Schumer said of Republicans.

The shutdown will likely leave hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay, disrupt services from food safety inspections to air travel, and risk damaging the world’s largest economy.

The Defence Department has already warned that active-duty and reserve military members will have to keep reporting for work without pay. Judiciary officials have said federal courts could be disrupted within days.

According to CNN, since 1980, there have been 14 shutdowns. The longest occurred under Trump in 2018–19, lasting 35 days and sidelining around 800,000 workers.

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