The US government has shut 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 after the shutdown began 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.

Explained: What is a shutdown and who does it impact?

It comes after rival Democrats 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.

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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”.

Image:
Republican senators blamed the Democrats for not keeping the government open. Pic: Reuters

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 spearheaded by Elon Musk upon Mr Trump’s return to the White House.

Donald Trump spoke in the Oval Office ahead of the shutdown. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Donald Trump spoke in the Oval Office ahead of the shutdown. Pic: Reuters

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. The former would fund the government through to 21 November.

Analysis: This shutdown is a huge deal – and it’s hard to predict when it might end

This is a huge deal.

This shutdown happened because the Senate is deadlocked on two competing funding bills, one proposed by Republicans and one by Democrats.

Neither got the requisite amount of votes.

But this is not just about the politicians – real people will feel the impact of this shutdown.

National parks like the Grand Canyon, like Yosemite, will go unstaffed – some might close indefinitely.

Flights could get cancelled. The National Mall in DC, the iconic stretch between the Capitol – where these politicians work – and the Lincoln Memorial, could be chained up.

Trump has threatened mass layoffs of federal workers, who he says “will be Democrats”. It’s a scary time for them.

Trump is trying to spin this to his political advantage. He claims, falsely, that Democrats are trying to fund free healthcare for “illegal aliens”.

Democrats are pushing to improve government help on affordable healthcare, but this would not extend to undocumented immigrants.

Republicans say Democrats have sacrificed the interests of the American people to have a public showdown with the president.

It would be folly to predict how long this stand-off will last.

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.