Overview

• Funding expires at midnight on Oct. 1 after the House passed a seven‑week clean continuing resolution that Senate Democrats blocked, and the Senate is not due back until Sept. 29.
• An Office of Management and Budget memo instructs agencies to consider reduction‑in‑force notices for employees on programs whose discretionary funding will lapse, lack alternate funds, and are not aligned with the president’s priorities.
• The memo goes beyond routine furlough planning and warns that programs without new mandatory funding would bear the brunt of a shutdown, framing the move as preparation if Democrats refuse the stopgap.
• President Trump canceled a planned meeting with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, intensifying the stalemate as Republicans press for a clean extension and Democrats insist on ironclad health care protections.
• If a lapse occurs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid continue, but many services could pause, national parks could see reductions, federal employees would receive back pay after reopening, contractors may not, and the first missed paycheck would fall on Oct. 10.