WASHINGTON — Funding has lapsed for the federal government. A short-term bill to keep government operations going failed in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, so a government shutdown began at midnight.

Both Alaska senators voted for the stop-gap spending bill, to continue funding while Congress works on a longer-term bill. It got 55 votes but needed 60.

President Donald Trump is threatening mass federal layoffs. And by not passing a spending bill, Congress is giving Trump free rein, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.

“When you’re in a shutdown, you do not have equal branches of government,” she said. “You just don’t. The legislative branch has just kind of ceded this.”

Senate Democrats are holding out to get Republicans to agree to continue health care subsidies and restore cuts to Medicaid. Some of

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