US Government Shutdown: 27 Days and Counting With No End in Sight

The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on Monday, but is not expected to vote immediately on a House-passed measure to fund the government. The shutdown, which began late last month after Congress failed to agree on a spending package, has furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers and disrupted key government services across the country.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, issued a statement urging lawmakers to end the impasse. "It's time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today," the union said, calling for a temporary funding bill to reopen government operations.

Federal employees missed their first full paycheck at the end of last week, prompting growing concerns over the economic and social impact of the prolonged closure. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he was not "100% sure" whether members of the US military would receive their pay this week.

The Department of Agriculture has said that federal food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will stop on November 1 unless funding is restored. The department warned that "the well has run dry," noting that more than 40 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits to purchase food.

Essential government functions, including air traffic control, border protection and federal law enforcement, have continued to operate, though workers in these sectors are working without pay. National parks, museums and research facilities, meanwhile, have either closed or scaled back operations.

On October 15, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from firing any federal workers during the government shutdown.

The funding stalemate centres on disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over spending on healthcare benefits. President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders have blamed each other for the deadlock, with both sides accusing the other of refusing to compromise.

Republicans have accused Democrats of demanding healthcare subsidies for illegal immigrants, a charge that Democrats have rejected as a lie peddled by the Trump administration.

Democrats, in turn, say they are merely seeking to reverse healthcare cuts for American citizens in the "Big Beautiful Bill", which was passed earlier this year.

While Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, they remain eight votes short in the Senate, as the funding bill requires 60 votes to pass.

The shutdown is now the second-longest in US history, surpassed only by the 35-day closure that took place from December 2018 to January 2019.

- IANS