Shutdown Enters Day 15 as Senate Deadlock Over Health Subsidies Holds

The federal government shutdown entered its 15th day on Thursday, October 15, with no end in sight. Senators have voted nine times on a Republican bill to reopen the government, and all nine fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance.

The bill passed the House in September. It would fund the government through Nov. 21 at current spending levels, with nothing else attached. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, so they need at least seven Democrats to break a filibuster. They do not have them. The House has left Washington while the Senate keeps voting.

The fight is over health care money

Democrats say they will not provide the votes until Congress extends the enhanced tax credits that cut premiums for health insurance bought through the Affordable Care Act. About 24 million people use the credits, which expire at the end of this year. Democrats want the extension locked into law before open enrollment starts on Nov. 1.

Majority Leader John Thune has offered a middle step: a guaranteed vote on extending the subsidies by a date certain. He will not guarantee it passes, and the details, he says, wait until the government reopens. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says his side needs an ironclad path to an extension, not a vote that could fail. Neither side has moved since.

Workers are taking the hit

More than 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed and told to stay home. Hundreds of thousands more are working without pay, including about 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 airport security officers.

Workers got partial paychecks on Oct. 10, and for most of them the first fully missed paycheck arrives on Friday, Oct. 24.

The military is the exception. President Donald Trump signed an order on Oct. 15 directing the Pentagon to shift money so active duty troops got paid on time. About 1.3 million service members were paid that day. Civilian staff are not covered, and about 55 percent of the Pentagon's 740,000 civilian employees are furloughed.

The administration has also used the shutdown to cut staff. Layoff notices went out on Oct. 10 to about 4,000 workers across seven agencies. White House budget director Russell Vought said on Oct. 15 the total could pass 10,000 if the shutdown drags on.

A federal judge in California put those firings on hold the same day. Judge Susan Illston granted a temporary restraining order in a case brought by two labor unions, said the administration appeared to be breaking the law, and paused the layoffs while the case proceeds.

Food aid runs into a deadline

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments continue, and the mail still moves. Food assistance is different. The Agriculture Department has warned states there is not enough money to pay SNAP benefits in full for November if the shutdown continues. SNAP serves about 42 million people. Officials in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Minnesota have begun warning families that November payments may come up short.

What happens next

The Senate was set to vote again on Thursday. Thune planned a new tactic: move the defense spending bill on its own, funding the Pentagon for a year and locking in troop pay. Nothing suggested it would change the count on the main bill.

The shutdown is the 15th since 1981. The longest ran 35 days in late 2018 and early 2019. Until one side gives ground, agencies stay closed, workers stay unpaid, and the Senate keeps voting on the same bill with the same result.