No end in sight for shutdown as Congress leaves for weekend

Geoff Bennett:

After another day of deadlock, the U.S. Senate adjourned for the weekend, extending the government shutdown into next week. Democrats are holding out for Republicans to make health care concessions to their spending bill. But, until lawmakers figure out a way forward, thousands of federal workers are left worrying about their paychecks and looming mass layoffs.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, has more.

Liz Landers:

It's day three of the government shutdown.

Man:

The motion, upon reconsideration, is not agreed to.

Liz Landers:

And no end in sight after the Senate again failed to pass a stopgap spending bill and then left town for the weekend.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

You can see it's pretty empty around here.

Liz Landers:

Speaker Mike Johnson reiterating the same message he's had for the past few days. He's willing to discuss health care, but not under the current circumstances.

Rep. Mike Johnson:

The subsidies that they're saying is the issue is not the issue. That is an issue for the end of the year. December 31 is when that expires. So Congress has three months to negotiate that. Certainly, we could work on it in the month of October to find some consensus to figure that out, what reforms there may be necessary to make all that happen.

Liz Landers:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries showing no signs of budging.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffires (D-NY):

Donald Trump and the Republicans are not behaving responsibly. They're not behaving in a serious manner. They don't want to reopen the government, and they certainly do not want to address the health care crisis that Republicans have created.

Liz Landers:

The president, who has not had any public appearances so far during the shutdown, instead taking to social media to call Democrats — quote — "the party of hate, evil and Satan."

But his director of the Office of Management and Budget, usually an under-the-radar role, flexing his power to continue to target Democrat-voting cities and states, announcing two infrastructure projects in Chicago are on hold. The $2.1 billion in federal funding for train extensions is paused to — quote — "ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting."

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary:

Good afternoon, everyone.

Liz Landers:

Speaking to reporters today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said again mass layoffs are all but certain.

Karoline Leavitt:

The Office of Management and Budget is in constant communication and contact right now with our Cabinet secretaries and agencies across the board to identify, unfortunately, where layoffs have to be made and where cuts have to happen. But, again, the Democrats have an opportunity to prevent this if they vote to reopen the government.

Liz Landers:

As the week comes to a close, thousands of government workers remain off the job, bracing for a long shutdown without a paycheck.

April Goggans, Administration for Children and Families: We are essentially paralyzed and without any way to fight back in a real-time sense.

Liz Landers:

April Goggans works for an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. She's also a federal workers union leader and has hope that her fellow employees can make it through the shutdown, however long it lasts.

April Goggans:

They know that people are scared. They know that people want to come back, because they want to work. They want to do the work that they're doing, but they also got to feed their families. I feel today more solid in my resolve to not let this — it's not going to break us.

Liz Landers:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Liz Landers.