Vermont’s three members of Congress are casting the federal government shutdown that started Wednesday as a result of their Republican colleagues’ failure to come to the negotiating table to address looming funding cuts that are expected to raise health care costs for thousands of people in Vermont and millions more around the country.

The government shut down at midnight Wednesday after lawmakers missed the deadline to come to a spending deal ahead of a new federal fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. As a result, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are expected to be furloughed , which could hamstring government services nationally and in Vermont. President Donald Trump’s administration, meanwhile, has threatened to use the dispute to permanently eliminate some federal workers

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