Shutdown beats record set during Trump’s first term as succession of Senate votes fails to yield breakthrough
The US government shutdown became the longest in history on Wednesday, crossing the 36-day mark with no end in sight as Republican and Democratic senators remained at loggerheads over restarting funding to shuttered federal departments.
The shutdown beat the previous 35-day record set in December 2018 and January 2019 during Donald Trump’s first term, when government funding legislation was held up over his insistence on including money to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
The standoff began on the first day of October, after Democratic senators refused to vote for a government funding bill unless it included an extension of Joe Biden-era tax credits that lower costs for health plans purchased through Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. Tens of millions of Americans are expected to be unable to afford insurance once the credits expire at the end of 2025.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives had in September passed the funding bill with only a single Democrat voting in favor, and speaker Mike Johnson has kept the chamber out of session ever since. That has shifted much of the legislative action to the Senate, where John Thune, the majority leader, has held 14 votes on the legislation – all of which failed due to insufficient Democratic support.
