US government shuts down after Senate fails to pass spending bill

The United States government has partially shut down after last-ditch efforts by lawmakers to pass a spending bill failed.

Funding to keep the federal government running expired at 00:01 EDT (04:01 GMT) on Wednesday after Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate rejected rival stopgap proposals.

While the US government has partially ceased operations more than a dozen times since 1980, President Donald Trump’s threats to use the funding lapse to dramatically reduce the size of the public sector have raised the prospect of greater disruption than in past shutdowns.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump warned that he could use the shutdown to take actions that are “bad” for Democrats.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programmes that they like,” Trump said, adding that “a lot of good” can come from government shutdowns.

The shutdown, the first such funding lapse since 2018, means that some government services deemed to be non-essential will come to a halt, including the publication of key economic data and loan approvals for small businesses.

Essential workers, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel and air traffic controllers, will remain on the job, but will go without pay for the duration of the shutdown.

Social security and food assistance will continue to be paid out.

While hundreds of thousands of federal employees were placed on temporary leave and received back pay upon returning to work during previous shutdowns, Trump has threatened to use the current funding lapse to fire a “lot of people”.