After reaching a last-minute deal to keep the federal government in operation in December, Congress is back on the clock to approve a spending agreement or else face a shutdown.
President Donald Trump delivered his first address of this term to joint sessions of Congress Tuesday night, just ten days before the current funding agreement runs out. In his speech, he touted the workforce cuts made under the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk.
Actions taken by DOGE and Musk are top of mind for Democrats, who warned Tuesday that a shutdown could be looming as they push back against Republicans’ proposal, endorsed by Trump.
Here is what to know about the latest negotiations.
Government shutdown:Congress at impasse as March 14 deadline approaches
When is the government shutdown deadline?
Current funding expires at the end of Friday, March 14. If a funding bill is not passed, then the government will see itself forced to furlough thousands of federal workers and reduce federal services.
Thousands of federal employees have already been laid off as part of Trump’s cost-cutting measures across the government.
DOGE cuts dragged into funding negotiations
The government narrowly missed a shutdown in December when Congress reached a last-minute, bipartisan deal.
With less than two weeks to go until that agreement runs out, Democrats seem willing to use the funding negotiations to try to put guardrails in place to stop Trump and Musk’s federal funding cuts.
“(Republicans) should not follow Elon towards a shutdown,” the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray, said last week.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Sunday hit the news circuit to tout a plan backed by Trump to keep federal agencies running at their current funding levels through September, Reuters reported. In his appearances, he quelled concerns that cuts made by DOGE would be codified in the continuing resolution (CR).
“We’re looking to pass a clean CR, to freeze funding at current levels, to make sure that the government can stay open while we begin to incorporate all these savings that we’re finding through the DOGE effort and these other sources of revenue that President Trump’s policies are bringing to the table,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
But ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee Rep. Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut told reporters Tuesday that a long-term CR is a “nonstarter,” The Hill reported.
What happens to federal workers during a government shutdown?
Although the word shutdown sounds like a complete stop, that is not the full picture. Federal agencies classify their workers either as “essential” or “nonessential.”
Workers identified as essential continue to work, but might not be paid right away. On the other hand, nonessential workers are furloughed and are not allowed to work or to be paid until the government reopens, according to a breakdown compiled by Reuters.
About 800,000 federal employees went without pay for 35 days during the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown in 2018 and 2019 during Trump’s first term.
How key agencies would be impacted
Federal workers around the U.S. would be impacted, many of them furloughed, in a government shutdown. Here’s how a government shutdown would impact:
Contributing: Reuters; Jeremy Yurow, Riley Beggin
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
