United States lawmakers have failed to make progress on ending the partial shutdown of the federal government, with Republicans and Democrats blocking rival stopgap spending bills for a second straight day.
The US Senate on Wednesday voted down the duelling proposals by margins that mirrored similar efforts the previous day and that had also failed to avert the shutdown.
Senators rejected the Republican proposal to extend government funding until November 21 in a 55-45 vote.
Two Democrats, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and one independent, Angus King of Maine, crossed the aisle to support the bill as they had on Tuesday.
The Democrats’ bill, which ties an extension of government funding to about $1.5 trillion in new healthcare spending, failed with 53 votes in favour and 47 against, with all Republicans again opposed.
The impasse came as US President Donald Trump made good on his promise to start inflicting costs on Democrats over the shutdown, which has brought some government services to a halt and forced essential employees to report to work without pay on the promise of being compensated later.
Russell T Vought, the White House budget director, said the administration would freeze $26bn in infrastructure funding earmarked for Democratic-run states.
Vought said $18bn for transport projects in New York City had been put on hold to prevent it from being delivered on the basis of “unconstitutional DEI principles” – referring to diversity, equity and inclusion policies that have been harshly criticised by conservatives.
Vought said $8bn in “Green New Scam funding” for 16 states, including California, Washington and Hawaii, had also been cancelled.
Trump administration officials also signalled that the US president would move ahead with his earlier threat to use the shutdown to implement mass layoffs.
“We are going to have to lay people off,” US Vice President JD Vance told a White House briefing.
“We’re gonna have to save money in some places so the essential services don’t get turned off in other places.”
Stephanie Leiser, a lecturer in public policy at the Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said the uncertainty created by the shutdown was already hurting the economy.
“While everyone waits to see how the politics will play out and who the biggest losers and winners will be, we also need to remember that the uncertainty is already costing us in terms of delayed investment/spending, higher borrowing costs, depletion of reserves, administrative burdens,” Leiser told Al Jazeera.
“Everyone is spending all of their time spinning scenarios and worrying about the next few weeks and months instead of planning for the future.”
With the shutdown entering its second day, neither Republicans nor Democrats looked to be in any mood for compromise.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of treating Americans as “pawns” and “threatening pain on the country as blackmail”.
He said Democrats’ push to extend healthcare subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts contained in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act reflected the wishes of the public.
“Nothing more. Nothing less. They want us to sit down and negotiate something real that takes this huge burden off their shoulders,” Schumer said.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid the blame at the feet of Democrats.
“They have lost all rationale when it comes to their hatred for President Trump,” Thune said in a post on X.
“I hope Democrats will come to their senses and reopen the government.”
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