Overview
- The Senate again failed to advance the House’s stopgap bill, with the latest vote at 54–44 and still short of the 60 votes required under the filibuster rule.
- Food aid for roughly 42 million SNAP recipients ran out, with USDA and the Justice Department saying benefits will flow using contingency funds ordered by the courts as President Trump threatened to halt them before a clarification that payments continue under those orders.
- Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed or unpaid, services are curtailed, and the transportation secretary warned of possible air-traffic chaos next week if controllers miss another paycheck.
- Trump has largely avoided direct bipartisan talks, inviting only Republican senators to a Wednesday breakfast, while Democrats question whether any commitments would hold without White House buy-in.
- Analysts and the CBO cite multi‑billion‑dollar weekly costs and data blind spots for policymakers, and early election results showing Democratic gains are increasing pressure to end the standoff.