Senate fails to advance GOP funding bill for 9th time on Day 15 of government shutdown

The Senate will vote for a 10th time on the Republican stopgap measure on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. 

The Trump administration will continue paying FBI agents despite the ongoing government shutdown that has frozen paychecks for nearly all federal workers, FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday.

“You’ve found a way to get these individuals paid during a government shutdown,” Patel said to President Trump during an unrelated Oval Office event. “On behalf of the FBI, it’s a great debt that we owe you.”

Patel did not specify the source of the funds that would be used to pay the agents.

Read more here.

The Trump administration for now must stop firing workers during the government shutdown, a federal judge ordered.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco said the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and were being carried out without much thought.

“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” she said. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”

She granted a temporary restraining order blocking the job cuts, saying she believed the evidence would ultimately show the cuts were illegal and in excess of authority.

The judge’s decision came after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government. 

Read more here.

The White House released the text of a memo from the president directing the Pentagon to use unspent funds to pay the military despite the ongoing shutdown. 

Failing to pay service members, the memo said, “presents a serious and unacceptable threat to military readiness and the ability of our Armed Forces to protect and defend our Nation.”

The funds used to pay the troops “should be those that the Secretary of War determines are provided for purposes that have a reasonable, logical relationship to the pay and allowances of military personnel, consistent with applicable law.” 

Officials have said that the Pentagon is drawing upon unspent research and development funds to make payroll, and that those accounts will be replenished when the shutdown is over.

“At the conclusion of the current lapse in appropriations, every effort should be made, as authorized by law, to adjust applicable funding accounts within the Department of War to ensure the continuation of Department of War operations and activities consistent with planned expenditures prior to the lapse,” the memo said. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has faced backlash from Republicans for his comments last week on the shutdown about Democrats’ position. “Every day gets better for us,” Schumer told PunchBowl News. 

Republicans have criticized the remark as insensitive as the shutdown drags on and federal workers miss paychecks. 

“Look, every day, more and more Americans see how bad this health crisis is as they get their notices, as they hear all about it,” Schumer told CBS News’ Nikole Killion on Wednesday about the remark. “Every day they are seeing more and more that Democrats are on their side, fighting for what they believe in.” 

A House-passed measure to fund the government until Nov. 21 fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance for a ninth time in a 51 to 44 vote. Five senators did not vote.

Republicans have been looking to peel off support from Democrats, but no additional senators crossed the aisle Wednesday afternoon. The measure last saw new support in a vote hours before the shutdown began. 

Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said that layoffs of federal workers could reach more than 10,000 as the shutdown continues.

Appearing on “The Charlie Kirk Show” from the White House, Vought said court filings that showed 4,000 people had already received layoff notices were “just a snapshot.”

“I think it’ll get much higher. And we’re going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown, because we think it’s important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people,” he said, referring to a reduction in force, the government’s term for layoffs.

“We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding, but the bureaucracy … We now have an opportunity to do that, and that’s where we’re going to be looking for our opportunities,” Vought said.

“It could grow higher. I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000,” he added later, referring to the number of federal workers who could lose their jobs permanently.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said conversations happening in the Senate about a path forward are making progress but have not included members of the House. 

“There are informal conversations that are taking place in the Senate relative to a potential bipartisan path forward, but those conversations have not extended to the House,” Jeffries said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. 

Jeffries responded “yes” when asked if he was receiving updates on the talks and if they were making progress. 

Jeffries also said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has had “no outreach” from the panel’s Republican chairman, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, confirmed earlier Wednesday that talks were happening but said Democrats are “dug in” on their positions. 

The Senate is taking the ninth procedural vote on advancing the House-passed GOP funding bill to end the shutdown. The eighth vote failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance on Tuesday.

There are no signs that the underlying dynamic has changed. Republicans need to win over five more Democrats to move the bill forward, a number that stayed the same since the start of the shutdown.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries railed against House Republicans for staying away from Washington amid the shutdown, gathering House Democrats for a news conference outside the Capitol as the party puts pressure on House GOP leaders to call the chamber back into session.

“House Democrats are here, reporting for duty,” Jeffries said. “We are ready, we are willing and we are able to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that actually meets the needs of the American people, reopen the government and decisively address the Republican health care crisis.”

But the New York Democrat stressed that “we also need a common sense partner on the other side of the aisle.”

“House Republicans shut the government down, then they ran out of town. And for the last three weeks, they’re nowhere to be found,” Jeffries said. 

He said House Democrats are fighting to lower the cost of living, to fix “our broken health care system” and to “clean up corruption.”

“It’s time to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, it’s time to prevent tens of millions of Americans from experiencing dramatically increased health care premiums. It’s time to make sure that every single American can afford to go see a doctor when they need one. It’s time to reopen the government and stand by our hard-working, patriotic federal workers and it’s time to do all of that right now,” Jeffries said. “No further delay — House Republicans need to get back to work.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, asked by reporters whether there are conversations between any members on a shutdown exit ramp, said “there are.”

But the South Dakota Republican said Democrats are “dug in,” arguing that Saturday’s “No Kings” protests mark a “threshold issue for them.”

“I’m hoping that in some of their conversations they’ll get sort of more realistic,” Thune added.

Thune also indicated that Senate Republicans are hoping to include a package of appropriations bills in a procedural vote on the full-year Defense Department spending bill slated for Thursday.

“I think the goal is to see what the traffic will bear in terms of additional bills,” Thune said. “We would like to put together a package, like we did last time on the floor, which will take consent, and if we can get on Defense appropriations, which we’ll vote on tomorrow, then we can start that negotiation process.”

Asked whether he expects the government to remain closed until full-year funding bills are passed, Thune said “I certainly hope not.”
“Shutdowns are not good for anybody, and the sooner we end it the better,” Thune said. 

Speaking at his daily press conference at the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson took aim at Democrats over the continuing shutdown, saying members of the military are in danger of missing their next paycheck later this month if the funding lapse continues.

Johnson said the Trump administration’s move to pay service members on Wednesday using other funds is a “temporary fix.”

“If it weren’t for the bold leadership of President Trump helping us to protect our military, everybody needs to understand that 1.3 million active duty service members would be missing a paycheck,” Johnson said. “They’ll get their check, thankfully, because President Trump has shown strong leadership.”

He blamed Democrats for refusing to vote for the House-passed continuing resolution.

“If the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed as they have done now so many times, then we know that U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month,” the speaker said. “And that means service members on deployment who’ve left their young families back home, reliant upon these checks, it means service members who are thousands of miles away from home, it means service members trying to make their rent and those who have ailing relatives who need to be taken care of — none of those people will be paid if the Democrat obstruction continues. And it should outrage every American.”

Speaking on the Senate floor, Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats “are dug in.”

“Fifteen days into a government shutdown, Democrats show no sign that they’re ready for it to end. Not even the prospect of military families going without a paycheck was enough for Democrats to reopen the government,” the South Dakota Republican said. “Nor are Democrats concerned about needy families uncertain about the future of nutrition assistance, or Americans in flood zones who are unable to update their insurance or close on a home in the midst of hurricane season. No, Democrats are dug in. And all those Americans living in uncertainty — well, they’re just going to have to wait until Democrats’ far-left base is satisfied.”

He added: “The truth is that what Democrats really want is something Republicans can’t give them — and that’s the approval of their far-left base.”

Thune said that Democrats are motivated by “pleasing their far-left base and preserving their political careers.”

“We’ll have another opportunity later today to vote on that bill sitting right at the desk,” Thune said, pointing to the Senate rostrum. “Five more Democrats, it passes. It goes to the White House, gets signed into law by the president and the government opens up. Will today be Day 15 of Democrats’ shutdown? Or will it be the day we reopen the government and get back to the business of serving the American people?”

The Senate convened at 10 a.m. for morning business, with senators making 10-minute speeches on various topics. You can watch a live feed of the Senate floor in the player at the top of this page.

The chamber will stand in recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for both parties’ weekly conference meetings. Senators will vote on the House-passed continuing resolution after those meetings, according to Majority Whip John Barrasso’s office.

Senate Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked after failing for the eighth time to pass a GOP-led measure that would end the government shutdown on Tuesday. CBS News’ Taurean Small has more details:

Members of the military are set to be paid today at the direction of President Trump, while other federal workers go without paychecks until the government reopens.

Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social over the weekend that he was directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.”

“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS. I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown,” Mr. Trump said. 

Around $8 billion in funds from the previous fiscal year had been identified to cover the mid-month paychecks, according to a Pentagon official. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said Coast Guard personnel will also receive paychecks. 

The Oct. 15 deadline for military paychecks had been widely viewed as a possible off-ramp in the shutdown, exerting pressure on both sides to come to the table to avoid forcing service members to miss their paychecks. But military pay will continue to be an issue for lawmakers, since the president’s actions only cover the Oct. 15 paychecks. Some in Congress have been pushing for standalone legislation to pay the military.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is trying an alternate approach to restart some funding, by setting up votes on regular-order appropriations bills. On Tuesday evening, he teed up a vote on the full-year Defense Department appropriations bill, setting up a possible procedural vote for Thursday.

Thune’s move marks a departure from the series of failed votes on the stopgap measure to fund the government into next month. It puts pressure on Democrats, who have said they support work on the regular appropriations process, though they’re at odds with Republicans over how to keep the government funded in the short term. 

Thune told reporters last week that he’d be willing to hold votes on standalone bills to fund parts of the government, including the defense bill, as the impasse over the shutdown continues.

The Senate is expected to vote again this afternoon on the House-passed measure to fund the government, after the measure fell short for an eighth time Tuesday evening. 

While Republicans have been hoping to pick up new support from Democrats on the measure, the bill has failed to gain any new votes from across the aisle since before the shutdown began. There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, but because most legislation requires 60 votes to advance in the upper chamber, Republicans need support from Democrats to reopen the government.

Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada have supported the measure, along with Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats. GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has voted against the bill.