The government shutdown is set to stretch into a third week after Senate Republicans and Democrats once again failed Tuesday to pass a GOP-led short term funding bill.
The vote failed with 49 lawmakers in favor and 47 opposed. As in previous attempts, Republicans fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance their proposal, which would maintain current spending levels. With both sides refusing to compromise, it remains unclear when a resolution might come.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson warned this week that the current shutdown could become the longest in U.S. history. The record — 35 days — was set between late 2018 and early 2019.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said Democrats could end up feeling more of the pain from the ongoing shutdown.
"We're going to be cutting very popular Democrat programs that aren't popular with Republicans, frankly, because that's the way it works," he said. "They wanted to do this, so we'll give them a little taste of their own medicine."
Democrats have said many of the cuts, including layoffs being implemented by the administration, are illegal. Meanwhile, some federal workers still on the job have already missed a paycheck and are growing increasingly frustrated.
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The union that represents rank-and-file officers of the Capitol Police called for the shutdown to end immediately.
"The longer the shutdown drags on, the harder it becomes for my officers," said Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the Capitol Police Union. "Banks and landlords do not give my officers a pass because we are in shutdown - they still expect to be paid."
