United States Vice President JD Vance has warned that the US is heading towards a government shutdown after a meeting between the White House and Congressional leaders on Monday failed to make headway on a federal spending bill.
US President Donald Trump and Vance met with leaders from both parties to try to hammer out a deal.
“I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,” Vance told reporters after the meeting, flanked by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Democrats and Republicans have until 12:01 am Wednesday (04:01 GMT) to reach an agreement, or government offices will start shutting down. Some federal employees will also be put on furlough until a deal is reached.
Republicans want to pass a bill extending federal funding at current levels until November 21.
Democrats have demanded concessions to extend healthcare subsidies and for Republicans to reverse cuts to programmes like Medicaid, which helps fund healthcare for low-income Americans.
They have proposed a short-term spending bill to keep the government running to give both sides time to negotiate, according to CBS News.
Faced by a minority in both houses of the legislature and a Republican president who governs through executive order, spending is one of the few areas Democrats have leverage, CBS News reported.
Vance accused Democrats of using that leverage to hold the government hostage.
“You don’t put a gun to the American people’s head and say unless you don’t do exactly what Senate and House Democrats do, we’re going to shut down your government,” he said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said they were trying to help Americans adversely affected by cuts made by Trump’s sweeping “Big Beautiful Bill” earlier this year.
Jeffries told reporters that changes needed to be made to healthcare spending before health insurance premiums rise for 2026.
“We believe that simply accepting the Republican plan to continue to assault and gut healthcare is unacceptable,” he said following the meeting on Monday.
Schumer said a government shutdown could be avoided if Trump and Republicans accepted bipartisan input.
“If [Trump] will accept some of the things we asked, which we think the American people are for, on healthcare and on rescissions, he can avoid a shutdown, but there are still large differences between us,” he said.
Despite failing to reach an agreement on Monday, Schumer still spoke positively about speaking directly to Trump after a lengthy delay.
“We laid out to the president some of the consequences that are happening in healthcare, and by his face and by the way he looked, I think he heard about them for the first time,” Schumer said.
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