Senate Nixes Both Stopgaps, Shutdown Looms
“The likelihood of a partial government shutdown on October 1 has sharply increased.”
The government is barreling toward a shutdown after the House and Senate deadlocked Friday on competing stopgap spending measures, leaving federal agencies set to run out of money on October 1.
Earlier in the day, the House narrowly approved a Republican-drafted continuing resolution (CR) on a 217–212 vote. The bill would have extended government funding for seven weeks, through November 21, while keeping most programs at current levels. It also included $88 million in added security for lawmakers, the Supreme Court, and the executive branch following the recent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Only one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), supported the measure.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) cast the bill as the only viable option:
“The ball is in Chuck Schumer’s court. I hope he does the right thing. I hope he does not choose to shut the government down and inflict pain on the American people.”
But the Senate swiftly rejected the House-passed CR. On a 44–48 vote, the measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance. Democrats were nearly unanimous in opposition, with only Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) breaking ranks to support it. Two Republicans, Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), also voted no. As reporter Burgess Everett noted, several Republican senators were absent, further eroding GOP support:
Ouch, House's CR doesn't even get a majority in the Senate, 44-48 (several GOP absences)
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) September 19, 2025
“Ouch, House’s CR doesn’t even get a majority in the Senate, 44-48 (several GOP absences).”
Before taking up the House bill, the Senate also rejected a Democratic alternative, which would have kept the government open until October 31 while permanently extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies and reversing nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts enacted earlier this year. That proposal also fell short of the 60-vote threshold.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) accused Democrats of loading down their bill with partisan priorities:
“The Republican bill is a clean, nonpartisan, short-term continuing resolution to fund the government to give us time to do the full appropriations process. And the Democrat bill is the exact opposite … a dirty CR — laden down with partisan policies and appeals to Democrats’ leftist base.”
Democrats countered that Republicans are refusing to negotiate on health care and other key issues despite knowing they lack the votes to pass a GOP-only measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared:
“When we were in the majority for four years, there was not a shutdown. Not one. Why? Because we did what you’re supposed to do — talk in a bipartisan negotiation and each side has input. We did it the right way. You are not.”
The twin failures leave Congress without a clear path forward just 11 days before the deadline. With the House preparing to recess until after September 30 and the Senate scheduled for a holiday break next week, the likelihood of a partial government shutdown on October 1 has sharply increased.
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Comments
I don’t think Johnson understands who is he is fighting. This new left actually wants a government shutdown. They are radicals and he is still thinking of them as normal Americans. They’re not and all you have to do is look at their present spokesmen. AOC, Talib, Omar, Sanders, Crockett, Raskin, Watrs, Swalwell, Jefferies, and more than I can name. They want a revoloution in this country and rational negotiations will not work with them. Their motto is “Burn it all down”!
Shutdowns are suddenly good to the Democrats. Usually they’re crying about all the government workers who didn’t save up for the government’s regular shutdowns and all the services they won’t be providing but now that they’re the minority party they’re suddenly okay with shutting everything down because they can blame the Republicans.
As an aside, government workers should know these shutdowns happen regularly and should put away a few dollars each paycheck so they’re not crying “I haven’t been paid in a month and I’m going to literally starve if the shutdown doesn’t end today!”
The democraps don’t have a large government constituency anymore. Most of them were downsized earlier in the year.
Quite frankly, let the government shut down. Then the American voter can see how much waste there is still in Washington.
I doubt that Trump’s administration will shut down areas like Obama did.
The taxpayer will still have access to the things that are important, and the rest can be downsized further.
Trump can take it one step further and announce that there will be no back pay for any government employee, except essential personnel. Military, law enforcement, needed services.
Who cares whether they saved enough money? When government employment is no longer secure, maybe people will leave and get real jobs.
Everyday, I have to work hard to generate revenue for my employer to keep my job. Government employment does not require that.
If they’d stop giving back pay to people who stay home, they’d save some money in addition to changing the dynamics. Otherwise it’s just a paid vacation.
Beat me to it! Thanks.
100% correct.
I am old enough to remember when the Communists were shrieking that a government shutdown was Worse Than 9/11 (TM).
Spending is congress’s major task and it hasn’t passed a true budget since 1997. By creating a shutdown crisis, they can spend whatever they want.
There ought to be a law.
There is, it’s called the Constitution. One of Congress is very few duties annually is to pass a God damn budget
other than the military
treasury
courts
what is the government funding that cant be done by the locals if truly needed?
parks rivers forests airports etc etc
all local all the time
I wonder if Trump should play hardball and welcome the shutdown opportunity to save “DOGE” style money, state that hardworking Americans will not support pay with no work and say he will veto any future bill that give such back pay?
Somebody capable of leadership needs to do something. Or as has been insinuated elsewhere in these comments, somebody else will.
At this point I think most Americans could care less if the government “shuts down”.
How about passing a friggin budget like your supposed to? Try that for a change
Whatever. Federal government hasn’t done diddly squat for me, never has and apparently never will, so if the whole darn thing just shutdown it wouldn’t affect me in any way whatsoever. So please, by all means. Just shut it down, shut it down forever.
The House has passed only 3 (maybe 4) of the 12 separate annual appropriations bills. Yet again the DC establishment refuses to do the work the voters sent them to do. As the GoP is the majority it falls on their leadership to wrangle the bills through the committee and schedule the separate floor votes for each appropriation bill.
People can complain about Thomas Massie all they want but don’t get things twisted; he predicted this is what would happen. He tried to tell anyone who would listen that all things that were not in the ‘big beautiful bill’ wouldn’t be taken up on time by the HoR to create needed changes/fixes. Instead we are, at best gonna get a CR on the same bloated big spending terms that have us adding approx $1 Trillion in Debt every 100 days.
IIRC, we’ve only had one government shutdown during a GOP president’s tenure that last more than a couple days. That happened in Trump’s first term. Even though that was the longest shutdown in US history (I believe), you may remember that unlike shorter shutdowns under Dem president, it wasn’t very painful for normies. As it turns out, the Executive has a lot of authority to ease the ‘pain’ of the shutdown if they’re inclined to do so. Given the position Schumer finds himself (with a certain primary challenge from AOC), I suspect the looming shutdown is going to last a while.
The only thing I don’t like about shutdowns is the civil servants won’t lose a penny. They all get paid eventually. Drives me mad.
Me too, but imagine the nonstop street agitation if they actually lost a paycheck.
Oh no would they ‘gasp’ get arrested for their unlawful conduct and end up fired for violating the terms of employment. Please throw us in that briar patch!
The trouble with shutdowns is that nobody ever gives them a chance to work.
Then they pay everyone for the vacation.
Hey!
Give them a chance!
Closed for a year, then… well… think about it…
The Uniparty is petrified of an actual shutdown.
The average citizen would finally realize how unimportant to his life they and their entire federal enterprise actually is.
Agreed. Shut it down. The President has a good deal of discretion in which functions keep operating and unlike Obama there won’t be petty, petulant closures but rather a very much highlighted group of ‘non essential’ Federal workers and their job functions identified for future spending reduction.
I’m down for petty, petulant closures of boondoggles the left likes — like PBS, NPR, National Endowment for the Arts…
Think of all the money we could save on student loans for the unprepared.
I would like to know whatever became of the 12 funding bills that Congress is supposed to write every freaking year. It’s literally like their one job that spelled out annually in the Constitution. So sick of this level of incompetence and of course they’ll sit there and give the Communists whatever the hell they want.
The sad part is they appear to have been voted out of their respective committee but not introduced to floor vote for passage by the HoR. Instead the excuse is always ‘we gotta wait and work with the Senate’ before passing appropriation bills from the HoR ‘to avoid conflict with Senate’. The DoD, VA and if memory serves the infrastructure appropriation bills are the 3 which have had a floor vote. The remaining 9 are just sitting there. Time to stop waiting on the squishy Senate, pass the HoR version and put it into the Senate. If Senate balks then have a discussion/negotiation, maybe even a compromise reconciliation bill afterwards but don’t just wait so there’s one bloated ‘must pass’ appropriation bill lined with boondoggles up against the deadline to fund gov’t.
Correct. Pass the bills. Send them to the Senate. Let the Dems refuse. Use that as a reason to give republicans a 60 vote lead, and then force them to pass the bills.
Or even just refuse based on bicameral institutional power play wrangling ‘we’re the Senate and we demand respect like Fredo’ sorts of reasoning.
Either way pass the dang appropriations bills and send them to this Senate to take up. The Senate can pass or refuse to pass. The Senate can pass an alternative and send it back to the HoR. There could be reconciliation bill.
The Kabuki budget drama of establishment DC has gotta stop. The DC establishment refuses to stop doing it b/c it is how they retain power and mask their own boondoggles and desires for increased deficit spending by wanting until the last moment, manufacturing a ‘crisis’, pointing fingers at each other along party lines hoping the Public won’t notice it is a charade. Love him or hate him Rep Massie predicted this is what would happen. Instead of being lauded as truth teller for exposing how DC insiders play a dangerously deceitful game he gets attacked as ‘not a.team player’. Gonna be amusing to see how many folks yet again vilify Massie for his correct analysis about how these budget games turn out, especially from those who claim to be in favor of smaller gov’t, lower spending, reducing the deficit. I suspect the same folks who claim to be in favor of those will not have the fortitude to stop doing them and will vilify Massie for pointing out their lies and hypocrisy.
In contrast to Trump, who tapped a bunch of firebrands to run his departments that waded in with sleeves rolled up to tear out the black mold, the GOP is constitutionally unable to find (or if found, agree to elect) a Speaker candidate who knows how to do his damn job.