Both sides – Republicans and Democrats – blame each other with hours left until the deadline.
Hundreds of thousands of federally employed people may be laid off if no agreement is reached before the turn of the month at midnight.
I think we are heading for a shutdown because the Democrats are not doing the right thing. I hope they change their minds, but we'll see, said Vice President JD Vance after a meeting with members of Congress from both parties at the White House on Monday.
”Major differences”
The Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said after the meeting that the talks ended without any agreement:
There are still major differences between us.
Republicans in the House of Representatives voted through a proposal to extend the funding of the federal government until November 21. But in the Senate, this proposal requires the support of at least eight Democrats to come into effect.
In order to agree to this, the Democrats in the Senate are demanding, among other things, more money for healthcare support after the turn of the year. They also want the Trump administration to withdraw cuts in the Medicaid support program earlier this year. Stricter reins on the President's ability to stop payments of money that Congress has decided on are also required.
Trump refuses to give in
President Donald Trump has declared that he will not give in to any concessions. Instead, he has threatened with a massive wave of permanent layoffs within the federal government if the budget crisis leads to shutdowns.
The longest shutdown so far in the US lasted for 35 days, around the turn of the year 2018-2019. Then, the dispute concerned Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in budget supplements to build a border wall against Mexico.
Shutdowns due to disagreements over the budget in Congress are seen as less serious on the market than if the US were to hit the debt ceiling and be forced to stop payments of interest and amortization on US government bonds – which has never happened.
