The US government shutdown extended into a third week on Monday, with Congress deadlocked over spending and no resolution in sight for a crisis that has already resulted in thousands of job losses.
With hundreds of thousands of federal employees already on enforced leave, President Donald Trump is following through on threats to significantly cut the workforce to pressure Democrats into agreeing to Republican funding demands.
Trump has promised to find a way to pay troops who are due to miss their paychecks for the first time, although the uncertainty is already causing long lines of military personnel at food banks.
Trump has warned that continued Democratic refusal to support a House-passed resolution to fund the government through late November would lead to mass layoffs targeting workers perceived to be aligned with the opposition party.
“We’re ending some programs that we don’t want — they happen to be Democrat-sponsored programs,” Trump told reporters.
“But we’re ending some programs that we never wanted and we’re probably not going to allow them to come back.”
Vice President JD Vance told Fox News over the weekend that Democrats could expect more pain ahead if they did not relent.
Court documents filed by the Department of Justice show more than 4,000 employees were fired on Friday, with the US Treasury, and the health, education, and housing departments hardest hit.
The workforce reductions are part of a campaign of threats on multiple fronts to increase pressure on Democrats to support Republican efforts to reopen the government.
However, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House respectively, have dismissed the threat, predicting that the layoffs will be overturned in court.
About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are set to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday.
The Stronghold Food Pantry, a charity supporting military families, told Time magazine it had seen an “unprecedented increase in need since the shutdown began.”
Trump announced on Saturday that he would instruct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds to get our Troops PAID” by Wednesday.
Pentagon officials are reportedly diverting $8 billion in research and development funding, and while it is not clear that the move would be lawful, it has received little pushback from either party.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson — who has kept the House on recess since September 19 — is resisting pressure to bring back members to vote on a standalone bill to release military salaries for the duration of the shutdown.
“We have voted so many times to pay the troops. We have already done it. We did it in the House three weeks ago,” Johnson told reporters Friday.
“The ball is in the court of Senate Democrats right now. That’s it.”
The key sticking point is a Republican refusal to agree to Democratic demands for language in its government funding resolution to extend expiring health insurance subsidies for 24 million Americans.
Congress was out Monday for a federal holiday — guaranteeing that the shutdown would enter a 14th day — and while Trump’s vow to ensure military pay was welcomed, it also eased pressure for either side to end the stalemate.
The Senate was set to return on Tuesday to take an eighth attempt at reopening the government — with little hope of a different outcome from previous votes.
Airports are seeing increasing delays as the shutdown continues, with Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick rather than working without pay.
The Smithsonian Institution has also closed its National Zoo and museums as of Sunday.
