House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, center, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, center back, hold a press conference with House and Senate leadership from the United States Capitol on the morning of the first day of the federal government shutdown on October 1, 2025 after President Donald Trump and congressional leaders failed to reach a funding compromise.

WASHINGTON – When will the government shutdown end? That's the question lawmakers were hearing from constituents after the failure of another Senate vote to end the shutdown Oct. 3, despite President Donald Trump warning of "vast" layoffs and weighing which agencies to eliminate.

"I don’t know how many times we’re going to give them a chance to vote no," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said of Democrats. "Hopefully over the weekend they’ll have a chance to think about it."

Democrats are demanding negotiations to restore subsidies for lower-income families to buy health insurance, which are set to expire Dec. 31. Republicans have said they are open to talks but not while the shutdown continues.

“This madness must end," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House.

The fight is over a House-approved extension of funding until Nov. 21, to give lawmakers time to approve full-year spending legislation for the year that began Oct. 1. Democrats want to overturn spending cuts Republicans approved earlier in the year for Medicaid, which provides health insurance for Americans living in or near poverty, and extend insurance subsidies created by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. An estimated 10 million Americans could lose health insurance if the Medicaid cuts and Obamacare subsidy expiration moves forward as planned.

“Everybody’s now asking the question: How does this end?" Thune said Oct. 1. "Well, it ends when Senate Democrats pick this bill up, passed by the House of Representatives, and vote for it.”

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, said “cracks started to appear” in the Democratic front Sept. 30, when three senators who caucus with Democrats sided with Republicans to keep the government open.

The Senate has 53 Republicans and 47 Democratic caucus members, and 60 votes are needed to approve the spending bill.

Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, joined Republicans in 55-45 votes to keep the government open or reopen it, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, voting against it. The Oct. 3 vote was 54-44, due to one senator from each party not being present. At least another five Democrats are needed to end the shut down and six if Paul remains an opponent.

“They know the American people are hurt when the government shuts down,” Barrasso said.

Trump ratchets up partisan pressure on Democrats to end shutdown

Trump has warned of “vast” layoffs, rather than traditional temporary furloughs of federal workers, if the shutdown continues. He also threatened to eliminate “Democrat Agencies” more easily in the funding lapse and met with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to determine which ones to target.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said in a social media post Oct. 2.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said more Democrats would join Republicans as they see the impact of the shutdown.

“I think that number is going to rise dramatically as the pain increases and it is pain that they have caused,” Johnson said.

Unions of federal workers including the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and the AFL-CIO have filed a lawsuit arguing Trump doesn't have the authority to lay off workers and dismantle agencies during a shutdown. The unions asked a federal court in California to block Trump.

Vance talks with Senate Democrats about 'critical needs'

Vice President JD Vance, a former Ohio senator and now president of the Senate, told reporters Oct. 1 that he and Trump were talking to a number of Democrats, who break down into two categories of demands.

Vance said one portion of Democrats are making unreasonable demands to restore more than $1 trillion over the next decade in healthcare spending that was cut earlier this year.

“We just write those people off because they are not negotiating in good faith,” Vance said. “Frankly, we don’t need them.”

Another faction of Democrats is open to discussing how to fix "critical needs" over the next few months, Vance said.

“A lot of them will admit in private that it’s kind of absurd to shut down the people’s government over these disagreements,” Vance said. “That’s really where we’re going to focus on – getting those five additional Democrats.”

Health care talks plant seeds to resolve shutdown

Federal subsidies for people to participate in the Affordable Care Act, which is nicknamed Obamacare, are expiring at the end of the year. Without subsidies, premiums are expected to double, according to research organization KFF.

Democrats want to extend the subsidies and many states with Republican majorities have large populations of Obamacare participants. Trump and GOP congressional leaders said they are open to talks – but only after the government reopens.

Thune, the Senate GOP leader, said he couldn't promise the restore the subsidies because it's not clear the votes would support that.

"What I’ve said is I’m open to having conversations with our Democrat colleagues about how to address that issue," Thune said. "That can’t happen when the government is shut down."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said Republicans are committed to health care for Americans but could seek "reforms" to Obamacare during negotiations with Democrats. He said the issue does not have "an easy solution" and "we can't snap our fingers and say this is how the resolution works."

“Congress has three months to negotiate that," Johnson said. "Certainly, we could work on it during the month of October to find some consensus and figure that out."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Reopening government may hinge on Republicans agreeing to health care negotiations

Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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