With just over 24 hours before the government is set to shutdown, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders from both parties emerged from a high-stakes White House meeting on Monday with no agreement, setting the stage for large swaths of the federal government to close after midnight Wednesday.
The impasse came after closed-door talks between the four top congressional leaders and Trump in the Oval Office, where lawmakers appeared to trade blame but make little progress towards a deal.
“There are still large differences between us,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the meeting. “We have very large differences on health care and on their ability to undo whatever budget we agreed to through rescissions and through impoundments as well as pocket rescissions.”
At issue is a seven-week stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, that Republicans are pressing to pass before any broader deal is struck. The measure would extend federal funding at current levels through Nov. 21 and provide $88 million in added security for top government officials. Republicans say it would buy time for longer-term bipartisan talks.
But Democrats are insisting that their votes—which are needed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold—are contingent on the bill including key health care provisions, particularly a permanent extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that have helped millions of middle-class families afford coverage. Without action, those subsidies will expire at year’s end, raising premiums just as Americans begin signing up for 2026 plans in November.
Democrats also want to reverse $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid that Republicans enacted unilaterally this summer, eliminate new work requirements for that program, block the White House from clawing back funds previously approved by Congress, and restore funding for medical research. But Schumer and Jeffries have emphasized the spike in healthcare premiums as the main issue in the negotiations.
“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans—period, full stop,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said as he left the meeting. “There’s a Republican caused health care crisis that is causing hospitals and nursing homes and community based health clinics all across the country, in rural America, urban America, small town America, the heartland of America, and black and brown communities throughout this country, and that crisis is happening right now, and that’s why we believe there is urgency to both keeping the government open, reaching a bipartisan spending agreement that actually meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety, their economic, well being and quality of life, while also addressing the dangerous Republican health care crisis
Republicans argue that Democrats are making unreasonable demands on a stopgap bill that historically has served as a narrow, short-term bridge. “Keep the government open, and then let’s have a conversation about those premium tax credits,” Thune said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “That’s the responsible way forward.”
The deadlock leaves the government barreling toward its first shutdown in nearly seven years. If no agreement is reached, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed starting early Wednesday morning, while others deemed essential—such as air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and military service members—will be required to work without pay. Unlike in past shutdowns, the Trump Administration has threatened not only temporary furloughs but permanent job cuts in agencies overseeing environmental regulation, agriculture, and labor.
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