Congressional leaders and White House refuse to compromise on first day of shutdown

Amna Nawaz:

Attempts to end the government shutdown that began overnight have so far been unsuccessful. Democrats are refusing to vote on funding without ensuring the extension of health care subsidies.

Geoff Bennett:

And Republicans say they will not negotiate until the funding is secure. Federal workers across the country are either on the job today without pay or temporarily furloughed. And President Trump has threatened to make some cuts permanent.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

Lisa Desjardins:

A quiet morning on the National Mall. As the government shuts down, closed signs go up at the National Archives.

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary:

Vice President J.D. Vance.

Lisa Desjardins:

At the White House, a different sign of the high-stakes moment, the vice president in the Briefing Room.

J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States: We need to reopen the government. Let's fix America's problems. Let's work together to solve them. But let's reopen the government before we have our negotiation about health care policy.

Lisa Desjardins:

As the Capitol itself closed to tours, part of a Republican message was, the government will stay shut down until Democrats relent.

Man:

The motion is not agreed to.

Lisa Desjardins:

Inside the building, other news. Two more senators who vote with Democrats broke ranks supporting Republicans' funding bill, but it is still five short of what it needs, this as agencies, felt the shutdown.

Some functions are fully operating, like the Armed Services, FBI, CIA, and air traffic controllers, though many of those workers won't be paid until the government is funded. Elsewhere, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are expected to be under a furlough, not working at all.

President Trump and Republicans are using all of this and the threat of permanent mass firings to pressure Democrats.

J.D. Vance:

Let's be honest. If this thing drags on for another few days, or, God forbid, another few weeks, we are going to have to lay people off. We're going to have to save money in some places so that essential services don't get turned off in other places.

Lisa Desjardins:

Another pressure point, the administration put a hold on $18 billion marked for New York City, transit, and infrastructure. A blunt statement from the Department of Transportation said the funding was a "casualty of radical Democrats' reckless decision."

Budget Director Russ Vought later teased that $8 billion of energy project funding would be cut from mostly blue states. House Democrats encouraged their Senate colleagues to hold strong.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA):

The goal from Donald Trump and his administration has been all along to make this painful. This isn't about policy priorities for them. They want to send a message.

Lisa Desjardins:

And so it was the start of a major shutdown, but little change from party leaders. The Republican speaker says Democrats are unreasonable.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

There isn't anything we can do to make this bill any better for them. We literally did not put one single partisan provision in the bill. There's no policy riders, there's no gimmicks and no tricks.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY):

Good afternoon, everyone.

Lisa Desjardins:

Democrats insist Republicans can't be trusted to address major health care cuts, and they must be forced to do it.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:

The Republican health care crisis is immoral in nature, and Democrats are fighting hard to reverse it. Cancel the cuts, lower the costs.

Lisa Desjardins:

Meanwhile, the shutdown moves forward in a different form at each agency. Health and Human Services will keep benefits going, but furlough 41 percent of its staff. For the National Park Service, open air facilities will stay open even as two-thirds of its workers stay home.

At the Federal Communications Commission, the furlough figure is 81 percent. One agency is expected to be mostly safe from any disruption, Homeland Security, as its immigration raids and enforcement continue.

Amna Nawaz:

And Lisa joins us now, along with our White House correspondent, Liz Landers.

So, Lisa, I know you have been in touch with federal agencies and workers. What are they telling you about what the shutdown has already meant?

Lisa Desjardins:

It varies wildly. In some agencies, nearly everyone is staying on the job without pay. In some agencies, nearly everyone is staying home and the entire agency is shuttered.

There was confusion this morning across different agencies as well because a lot of this notification, many of these plans didn't come out until late last night. I spoke to one DOJ source, for example, who talked about confusion over immigration courts. They weren't sure if the courts were actually going to hear their cases or not today. They are, in fact, hearing them now.

Now, as far as RIFs go, there's only one that we know of. "PBS News Hour" learned of one at the Patent and Trademark Office, that office telling workers that 1 percent of the agency will be RIFed. Those were long…

Amna Nawaz:

RIFs are reduction in force, right, the layoffs..

(Crosstalk)

Lisa Desjardins:

Thank you, reduction in force. Mass layoffs at the Patent and Trade Office, those mass layoffs had been long planned. But they are happening during shutdown.

And some people wonder if they're legal. Also, just an update in the last few minutes. Now the agency sent out another notice saying, oh, we're also hiring, so we may hire back the people we just RIFed a few hours ago, all of this part of the confusion around today.

Amna Nawaz:

Very fluid, very confusing.

Liz, you were at that White House briefing today. There was a lot of questions about those federal worker layoffs and when they might start.

Liz Landers:

Right.

Amna Nawaz:

What did you find out?

Liz Landers:

There were so many questions about this because this is not typical sort of procedure. Usually, people go on furlough. But this administration is using this as an opportunity to slim down the federal work force, the press secretary saying that layoffs are — quote — "very likely and imminent."

She was asked if there was a percentage of the specific agency or the overall federal government that would be slimmed down. She did not have an answer to that. And you heard the justification from the vice president in Lisa's report there saying that they're going to have to save some money from some agencies to fund essential services in others.

We got a little bit more information, though, from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought. He had a call around 1:00 p.m. with Republican members. And he told them that these reduction in force layoffs could happen in the next day or two.

The source that I talked to who was on the call said that Vought was very intentional not to give information about which agencies would be impacted, just saying that this is part of the administration's larger priorities.

Vought has been a very aggressive defender of the president's agenda. And he has taken a political bent to the Office of Management and Budget. For example, he sent out an e-mail late last night, this memorandum that went out to all of the federal agencies.

And, in it, he blames the shutdown on — quote — "Democrats' insane policy demands."

Amna Nawaz:

Lisa, this is shutdown day one. Is there any movement to resolve it?

Lisa Desjardins:

Not real movement, but conversations, yes.

I want to show people something that happened during those Senate votes today. A group of bipartisan senators were meeting if you kind of looked — knew where to look. That's the start of some conversations trying to figure out if there is possible common ground.

But a major problem here is trust. Democrats are not sure how to verify that Republicans really will negotiate with them later if they allow the shutdown to end now. And all of this rhetoric from the administration, including what some agencies are saying, frankly, doesn't help Democrats with trust.

Amna Nawaz:

Lisa Desjardins and Liz Landers, our thanks to you both.

Liz Landers:

You're welcome.