US government on brink of first shutdown in almost 7 years amid partisan standoff in Congress

By MARY CLARE JALONICK LISA MASCARO and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON AP A partisan standoff over medical care and spending is threatening to trigger the first U S cabinet shutdown in almost seven years with Democrats and Republicans in Congress unable to find agreement even as thousands of federal workers stand to be furloughed or laid off The regime will shut down at a m Wednesday if the Senate does not pass a House measure that would extend federal funding for seven weeks while lawmakers finish their work on annual spending bills Senate Democrats say they won t vote for it unless Republicans include an extension of expiring healthcare care benefits among other demands while President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans are refusing to negotiate arguing that it s a stripped-down clean bill that should be noncontroversial Related Articles Trump s shutdown blame contest Democrats pressured to yield while administration makes plans for mass layoffs Ex-Republican South Carolina House member admits to distributing hundreds of child sex abuse videos YouTube to pay million to settle lawsuit over Trump s account suspension after Jan attack Lawsuit accuses firearms industry group of using gun owners personal facts to tailor political ads FACT FOCUS Alleged FBI documents do not prove federal agents incited Jan Capitol attack It s unclear if either side will blink before the deadline It s now in the president s hands Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer declared Monday after a meeting with Trump at the White House that yielded little apparent progress He can avoid the shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want Vice President JD Vance who was also in the meeting declared afterward I think we re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won t do the right thing While partisan stalemates over establishment spending are a frequent occurrence in Washington the current impasse comes as Democrats see a rare opportunity to use their leverage to achieve approach goals and as their base voters are spoiling for a fight with Trump Republicans who hold a - majority in the Senate will likely need at least eight votes from Democrats to end a filibuster and pass the bill with votes since Republican Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to vote against it No agreement at the White House Trump had shown little interest in entertaining Democrats demands on medical care even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting Monday with Schumer D-N Y Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N Y Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House Monday Sept in Washington as House Speaker Mike Johnson of La and Vice President JD Vance listen AP Photo Alex Brandon As he headed into the meeting Trump made it clear he had no intention to negotiate on Democrats current terms Their ideas are not very good ones Trump declared It was Trump s first meeting with all four leaders in Congress since retaking the White House for his second term and he did more listening than talking Jeffries notified House Democrats at the Capitol afterward according to a lawmaker who attended the private caucus meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss it Schumer disclosed after the closed-door meeting that they had had candid frank discussions with Trump about medical care Vance also commented Trump unveiled several points of agreement on plan ideas Schumer reported Trump was not aware of the likely for fitness insurance costs to skyrocket once the subsidies end Dec But Trump did not appear to be ready for serious negotiations Hours later Trump posted a fake video of Schumer and Jeffries taken from footage of their real press conference outside of the White House after the meeting In the altered video a voiceover that sounds like Schumer s voice makes fun of Democrats and Jeffries stands beside him with a cartoon sombrero and mustache Mexican music plays in the background Jeffries posted in response that Bigotry will get you nowhere He added We are NOT backing down Expiring physical condition care subsidies Democrats are pushing for an extension to Affordable Care Act tax credits that have boosted strength insurance subsidies for millions of people since the COVID- pandemic The credits which are designed to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people are set to expire at the end of the year We are not going to endorsement a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the fitness care of everyday Americans Jeffries announced Thune has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later Particular Republicans are open to extending the tax credits but they want to place new limits on them We re willing to sit down and work with them on a few of the issues they want to talk about Thune stated reporters at the White House adding But as of right now this is a hijacking of the American people and it s the American people who are going to pay the price A crucial and distinctive vote for Democrats Democrats are in an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive and it s unclear how or when it would end But party activists and voters have argued that Democrats need to do something to stand up to Trump Particular groups called for Schumer s resignation in March after he and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote Schumer stated he voted to keep the executive open because a shutdown would have made things worse as Trump s administration was slashing establishment jobs He says things have changed since then including the passage this summer of the massive GOP tax cut bill that reduced Medicaid Selected of the Democrats who voted with Schumer in March to keep the regime open were still holding out hope for a compromise Michigan Sen Gary Peters mentioned Monday there s still time before the early Wednesday deadline A lot can happen in this place in a short period of time Peters explained Shutdown preparations begin Federal agencies were sending out contingency plans if funding lapses including details on what offices would stay open and which employees would be furloughed In its instructions to agencies the White House has suggested that a shutdown could lead to broad layoffs across the cabinet Trump s budget director Russ Vought explained reporters at the White House that a shutdown would be managed appropriately but it is something that can all be avoided if Senate Democrats accepted the House-passed bill Before joining the administration Vought had advised hard-line conservatives in Congress to use the prospect of a shutdown to negotiate for strategy concessions But on Monday he berated Democrats for engaging in a similar ploy This is hostage-taking he commented It is not something that we are going to accept Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim Kevin Freking and Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this account