US government shutdown to begin within hours

The US government is hours away from shutting down for the first time in almost seven years after last-ditch Senate votes on funding plans fell short.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers deemed not essential for protecting people or property - such as law enforcement personnel - could be furloughed or laid off when the shutdown begins at midnight (5am UK time). Critical services, including social security payments and the postal service, will keep operating but may suffer from worker shortages, while national parks and museums could be among the sectors that close completely.

It comes after rival Democrat and Republicans refused to budge in their stand-off over healthcare spending. A Democrat-led proposal to keep the government funded went down by 53 votes to 47 in the Senate, before the Republicans' one notched up 55 in favour - five short of the threshold needed to avert a shutdown.

Unlike legislation, a simple majority isn't enough to pass a government funding bill. Following the votes in Washington DC on Tuesday night, the White House's budget office confirmed the shutdown would happen and said affected agencies "should now execute their plans".

It blamed the Democrats, describing their position as "untenable". The opposition party wants to reverse cuts to the government's health insurance programme, Medicaid, which were passed earlier this summer.

Senate majority leader John Thune, a Republican, accused the Democrats of taking federal workers "hostage". His Democrat counterpart, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, said the Republicans' funding package "does absolutely nothing to solve the biggest health care crisis in America".

Trump threatens layoffs President Donald Trump was defiant ahead of the votes, and warned he could make "irreversible" cuts "that are bad" for the Democrats if the shutdown went ahead. He threatened to cut "vast numbers of people out" and "programmes that they (the Democrats) like".

"We'll be laying off a lot of people," he told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of government employees have already been laid off this year, driven by the "DOGE" initiative that was spearheaded by Elon Musk upon Mr Trump's return to the White House.

The last shutdown was in Mr Trump's first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, when he demanded money for his US-Mexico border wall. At 35 days, it was the longest on record.

Mr Thune has expressed hope the latest shutdown will come to a much quicker conclusion, telling reporters: "We can reopen tomorrow - all it takes is a handful of Democrats to join Republicans to pass the clean, nonpartisan funding bill that's in front of us." Before this week, the government had shut down 15 times since 1981. Most only last a few days.

The Senate will hold further votes on the Republican and Democrat stopgap funding bills on Wednesday. What happens now? Immigration enforcement, air-traffic control, military operations, social security and law enforcement are among the services that will not be brought to a halt.

However, should employees miss out on payslips as a result of a prolonged shutdown, they could be impacted by staffing shortages. For example, delays at airports.

Cultural institutions deemed non-essential, like national parks and museums, will be more directly impacted from the very beginning, with large cuts to the workforce. The popular Smithsonian, for example, has said it only has enough funding to stay open for a week.

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