The US government has shut down after Congress failed to pass a budget.
Previous stopgap measures to fund the federal government have kicked the can down the road for months at a time, but Republicans and Democrats were unable to come to an agreement this time.
As deliberations continued, the White House posted a clock on its website, counting down the minutes to what it called a “Democrat Shutdown”. President Donald Trump has cast the blame on Democrats for Congress's failure to come to an agreement on the budget.
“The reason your government is shut down at this very minute is because, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans and even a few moderate Democrats supported opening the government, the [Senator] Chuck Schumer-AOC [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] wing of the Democratic Party shut down the government because they said to us, we will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens,” Vice President JD Vance said during a White House press briefing on Wednesday. “That's a ridiculous proposition.”
The shutdown began after the failure late on Tuesday of a Republican-backed bill that would have extended government funding without a healthcare fix championed by Democrats.
This is the 15th government shutdown since 1981.
At issue is $1.7 trillion that funds agency operations, which amounts to about one quarter of the government's total $7 trillion budget. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programmes and interest payments on the growing $37.5 trillion debt.
Federal agencies issued detailed plans that would close offices conducting scientific research, customer service and other activities, and send tens of thousands of workers home. Military troops, border guards and others doing work deemed “essential” will stay on the job, but will not get paid until Congress resolves the stand-off.
In memos to employees who will soon be sent on furlough, several agencies, including the Justice Department and the Social Security Administration, also blamed Democrats for the impending shutdown, breaching long-standing norms that aim to protect government workers from partisan pressure.
Budget-related showdowns have become routine in Washington as the nation's politics have grown increasingly dysfunctional, although they are often resolved at the last minute.
The government last shut down in 2018 and 2019, for 35 days, during Mr Trump's first term, due to a dispute over immigration. The shutdown cost the US economy $3 billion, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Mr Trump has threatened to fire more federal workers or entirely eliminate some programmes. Since returning to office in January, he has refused to spend billions of dollars authorised by Congress and reduced federal payrolls by about 300,000 people.
His actions have prompted some Democrats to question why they should vote for any spending legislation at all.
Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they need at least seven Democratic votes to pass legislation in the Senate.
Democrats are under pressure from their frustrated supporters to score a rare victory ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of Mr Trump's term.
But Democrats insist that any spending bill must make permanent Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year. Without a fix, healthcare costs for 24 million Americans will rise sharply, with a disproportionate impact in Republican-controlled states.
Republicans say they are open to a fix, but accuse Democrats of holding the budget hostage to their demands.
