Government grinds to a halt after Democrats force first shutdown in 6 years

While congressional Democrats continue to dig their heels in, the federal government has officially shut down for the first time in over half a decade.

The government shut down at midnight on October 1 after Democrats continuously blocked the Republican-led funding bill in the Senate. The GOP's funding bill is a clean, 91-page continuing resolution with no partisan anomalies. The only new provision in the Republican bill is a bipartisan provision that boosts security funding for politicians in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's horrific assassination.

'The ball is in the Democrats’ court.'

Rather than passing the clean bipartisan resolution, Democrats have insisted on ramming through their $1.5 trillion funding bill that reverses every meaningful legislative accomplishment Congress passed earlier in the year with President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Some of these Democratic priorities include continuing $350 billion worth of Biden-era subsidies, reviving federal funds for PBS and NPR, and reinstating public health care benefits for illegal aliens.

"House Republicans passed the SAME clean, nonpartisan CR that Chuck Schumer himself voted for back in March — and called 'the right thing to do,'" Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote in a post on X. "The ONLY thing that’s changed since then is pressure from his base to close down the government. That’s not leadership, it’s cowardice."

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"The ball is in the Democrats’ court," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a post on X. "But Chuck Schumer wants a Schumer shutdown."

The House previously passed the GOP's continuing resolution in a 217-212 vote, with just one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, joining Republicans to keep the government open. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted against the bill.

The Senate eventually took up both the Republicans' clean CR and the Democrats' hyper-partisan funding bill on Tuesday, both of which failed. Although Republicans enjoy a supermajority in Congress, the CR needs 60 votes to pass the Senate. Assuming all 53 Republicans vote for the bill, at least seven Democrats will have to cave to reopen the government.

Notably, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania as well as independent Sen. Angus King of Maine voted in favor of the Republican funding bill. One GOP senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against it. Both bills will be up for a vote again in the Senate on Wednesday.

RELATED: Most Democrats vote against bill boosting security funds for politicians following Kirk assassination

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Although shutdowns have historically proven to be unpopular, Republicans are seizing the opportunity to continue implementing the MAGA mandate.

Ahead of the shutdown, Russell Vought's Office of Management and Budget began circulating a memo directing different agencies to identify programs whose funding would lapse following the shutdown and to begin drafting reduction in force notices for employees who would be affected.

As of this writing, Vought announced that roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been halted to "ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles."

"It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict," Vought wrote in a memo released Tuesday. "Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities. We will issue another memorandum indicating that government functions should resume once the president has signed a bill providing for appropriations."

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To Vought's point, it remains unclear how long Democrats will allow the government to stay closed. The last shutdown began on December 22, 2018, during Trump's first term, after Congress failed to approve a spending package that included funding for Trump's border wall. The shutdown lasted 35 days, the longest in history.

The government eventually reopened on January 25, 2019, after Congress reached a deal to pass a temporary spending bill without border funding, and Trump signed it.

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