Government shutdown: Scant indication efforts being made to end federal funding stalemate

The U.S. government shutdown will head into its 13th day Monday with little sign that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are making any effort to resolve the funding stalemate.

Trump left the United States on Sunday for the Middle East. Speaker Mike Johnson is still not planning to call the House back to Washington this week, with the chamber’s last vote being Sept. 19. And the Senate won’t reconvene until Tuesday.

During Sunday appearances on national news shows, top leaders of both parties continued to blame each other for a lack of a deal to restart funding and reopen shuttered federal agencies.

Johnson (R-La.) continued to criticize Senate Democrats for holding out votes needed in that chamber to advance an already House-passed measure by demanding Obamacare health insurance subsidies be tacked on. "The House has done its job," Johnson said on "Fox News Sunday," and he said the Senate needs to do its job.

Vice President JD Vance on CBS’ "Face The Nation" criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), saying, "This isn’t deal-making," but instead, "hostage taking."

But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) shot back in a separate Fox interview that Democrats will not back down on demanding the renewal of the insurance tax breaks, which are due to expire at the end of the year. He said Republicans don’t seem to understand. "We don't believe it's an extraneous issue. It's a central issue."

Jeffries and House Democrats will return to Washington this week, starting with a closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday, even if House Republicans won’t be in town.

Meanwhile, the impacts this week of the ongoing federal closure will start to hit harder.

One reprieve is that Pentagon officials say some $8 billion in leftover research and development funds will be used, for the time being, to make sure active-duty military personnel won’t miss their paychecks due on Wednesday. Trump over the weekend had ordered that some money be found for that.

But uncertainty remained over how long it will last.

Uncertainty also remained about pay for the nation’s Coast Guard members, who fall under the Department of Homeland Security. There are at least 200 members of the Coast Guard stationed on Long Island.

Meanwhile, more layoff notices are expected for thousands of federal employees — beyond those who received notices Friday that they will be laid off in 60 days. These moves by Trump and his budget-cutting lieutenant are already facing legal challenges.

The Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo posted notices Sunday that they were closed due to the shutdown.

Air traffic controllers Tuesday are set to receive only a partial paycheck for the time they worked before the shutdown started --- and will get a blank paycheck starting Oct. 28 if the shutdown is not resolved by then.

And worker furloughs that have caused a pause in various government economic data collection could postpone the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Oct. 15 Consumer Price Index report. That and other missing data could potentially complicate the Federal Reserve's plans later this month to set the level of interest rates.

The shutdown is also putting an awkward crimp in another type of economic activity — some of the fundraising lawmakers have been planning. Some, but not all, are plowing ahead with their events, despite the optics of raising campaign cash while workers face furloughs or layoffs or even being fired.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), has an event set for Monday, which is the federal Columbus Day holiday, at a Napa Valley resort hotel in California. Committee officials did not respond Sunday to questions about whether that fundraiser was still happening.