Government shutdown becomes longest in U.S. history after failed Senate vote

The shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history, eclipsing the record previously held by the shutdown of late 2018 and early 2019.

That funding lapse ended on the evening of the 35th day, when President Trump signed a bill to extend government funding for three weeks. The White House announced the bill had been signed at 9:23 p.m.

The current shutdown began during daylight saving time and has lasted through the change to standard time, meaning it passed the comparable length of time one hour earlier, or 8:23 p.m.

Shutdowns are a relatively recent phenomenon, having only begun in their current form in 1980, when the attorney general issued a series of legal opinions saying it was illegal for government agencies to continue spending without authorization from Congress. There have been 15 shutdowns since then, including the current impasse.

Senate Republicans have been invited to the White House for a breakfast meeting with President Trump on Wednesday, a source familiar with the plans tells CBS News. The invitation was first reported by Punchbowl News.

The president has been pushing the Senate GOP to support abolishing the filibuster to make it easier to pass legislation. Republican leaders have said the votes are there to change the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to pass most bills.

Republican senators last met with the president at the White House on Oct. 21, when they joined him for lunch.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus said it supports a long-term continuing resolution that would extend current funding levels through the 2026 midterm elections if lawmakers are unable to pass individual appropriations bills that cut spending.

"In the likely absence of timely passage of regular appropriations bills at or below current levels, Members of the Freedom Caucus support a Continuing Resolution as far into 2026 as possible (ideally, past the November 2026 election and with necessary defense stop-start anomalies), which will effectively keep federal discretionary spending flat at the same levels since 2023," the Freedom Caucus said in a post on X.

A year-long CR would "block any further effort by Democrats and the Swamp to advance a budget-busting, pork-filled, lobbyist handout omnibus in November or December," the post said.

The contours of a potential deal to reopen the government began to emerge on Tuesday, with senators discussing an agreement that would fund the government alongside long-term appropriations bills in exchange for a vote on extending health insurance tax credits that Democrats have demanded.

Republicans argue that Democrats are waiting until after Tuesday's elections to back down, claiming they don't want to discourage their base from turning out to vote. A 14th vote on advancing the GOP-backed continuing resolution failed on Tuesday, with no new Democrats crossing the aisle.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, told reporters that he's "pretty confident" the shutdown will end this week: "I will tell you there's enough Democrats that I'm friends with that were willing to vote last week, and they were assured that Schumer would let them vote the way they need to this week."

The bipartisan conversations on Capitol Hill revolve around an effort to move forward on a so-called "minibus," or a package of full-year appropriations bills, in addition to the continuing resolution. Proponents of the plan say that approving the package would demonstrate Republicans' willingness to work on the long-term funding process on a bipartisan basis.

Read more here.

Speaking at a press conference after Democrats' unusually long caucus meeting, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the party is considering the path forward.

"We had a very good caucus, and we're exploring all the options," Schumer said.

Senate Democrats' lunch meeting dragged on far beyond its normal length as pressure built to come to an agreement to reopen the government.

Most senators would not speak with reporters off the Senate chamber as they left the meeting periodically to vote, remaining tight-lipped on what was transpiring behind closed doors.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, told reporters "I think there is" when asked whether progress was being made. And he acknowledged that there are "differences of opinion" on whether Democrats should accept the promise of a vote on extending health care tax credits in exchange for reopening the government.

Other Democrats did not say much else.

"No updates. In progress," Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire called the meeting "a good discussion."

And Sen. Angus King of Maine called it "a full and frank discussion of the issues."

Kaia Hubbard and Alan He

The White House clarified that the Trump administration is complying with a federal court order that requires it to tap into a contingency fund to provide food benefits to tens of millions of Americans after President Trump said the aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will go out only when Democrats vote to end the shutdown.

The reassurance from the White House came after the president wrote in a post on Truth Social that SNAP benefits "will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!"

Mr. Trump's comment raised questions as to whether the administration would abide by a Rhode Island judge's order to use reserve funds to issue federal food benefits to Americans enrolled in SNAP. Administration lawyers told the court Monday that it would tap into the contingency pot to issue reduced food stamp payments for November.

Asked about Mr. Trump's comments by CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration is "fully complying" with the court's order, but stressed that "it's going to take some time" for recipients to receive the payments.

"We are digging into a contingency fund that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war, and the president does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future," she said.

Read more here.

At the White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump "feels really strongly" about ending the filibuster rule in the Senate that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. Most GOP senators, including Thune, are opposed to doing away with the requirement.

Leavitt said she has spoken to the president on the topic.

"Republicans need to play tough and they need to play smart. That's how the president feels," she said. And we know that Democrats, when they — if they — are ever given a chance at power again in this city, they will absolutely take away the filibuster from the United States Senate. In fact, you had 49 Democrats who already voted to do this before. The only reason it did not move forward was because you had two Democrats who are no longer in office because they were run out of town by the far-left radical base of their party."

She added: "So President Trump is quite clear on this. He wants to see Republicans move as many good pieces of legislation for our country forward in the next three years of his administration as they possibly can, and the filibuster is one means to doing that."

Leavitt said the president has made his position clear to GOP senators, "privately and publicly."

The U.S. Department of Transportation may need to close "certain parts of the airspace" if the government shutdown continues into next week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.

"You will see mass flight delays, you'll see mass cancellations," Duffy said at a press conference in Philadelphia. "And you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it, because we don't have the air traffic controllers."

He added, "We will restrict the airspace when we feel it's not safe."

Read more here.

A procedural vote on a House-passed measure to fund the government until Nov. 21 fell short of the 60 votes needed in a 54 to 44 vote.

The measure saw no new support from Democrats on the 14th vote, despite expressions of optimism from some Republicans that the shutdown might be nearing an end. Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman supported advancing the measure, along with independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats. GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the sole Republican to oppose.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina did not vote.

The Senate is now voting on whether to advance the House-passed continuing resolution. Republicans need five more Democrats to vote with them to move the bill forward.

You can watch a live stream of the vote in the video player at the top of this page.

President Trump posted on Truth Social that food stamp payments under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, "will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!"

The post comes one day after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees federal funding for state food stamp programs, told a federal court that it would comply with a judge's order to use about $4.6 billion in a contingency fund to pay eligible SNAP recipients 50% of their benefits for November.

CBS News has asked the White House for clarification about what the president's post means for the contingency funds.

About an hour before the president's message, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a post on X that the administration had sent guidance to the states about how they should administer the partial benefits. Rollins and the USDA official in charge of SNAP have warned that difficulties in processing the partial benefits could lead to delays.

Read more here.

Asked about how close bipartisan talks are to reaching a solution, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters: "I hope close, but the pressures, the cross-pressures that everybody's feeling, are great."

"But I think there are people who realize this has gone on long enough and there's been enough pain inflicted on the American people and it's time to end it," Thune said. "We'll see whether the sufficient numbers are there."

He said he's doing "everything he can" to make it clear what Republicans are willing to do on appropriations, funding the government and changes to Obamacare.

"So the universe I think is pretty defined and established," he said. "The question is whether or not they take yes for an answer."

The South Dakota Republican said he's hopeful that "we'll make some progress" this week, saying "we are trying to land this appropriations bill on which I think a continuing resolution could ride, and obviously we're going to have to extend the date as everybody knows because we're already up against the November deadline right now."

"So we'll see in the next few days where it goes," Thune added.

At his daily press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked about the possibility of extending the funding date in the House-passed continuing resolution. He said the House would return to vote on any change that the Senate manages to pass.

"If the Senate passes something, of course we'll come back," Johnson said. "We're running out of clock, obviously."

He also said he favors extending the date until January rather than December.

"I am not a fan of extending it to December, because, let's be frank, a lot of people around here have PTSD about Christmas omnibus spending bills. We don't want to do that. It gets too close, and we don't want to have that risk. We're not doing that. Too many people have concerns," the speaker said. "I think putting it into January makes sense, but we've got to obviously build consensus around that. There's some discussion about it. We'll see where it lands. I'm not sure."

Conservatives have generally favored a continuing resolution extending funding until January, while some GOP appropriators have advocated for a December deadline to increase pressure to complete full-year appropriations. Johnson has long been opposed to massive year-end funding bills and has worked to pass individual appropriations bills.

The Senate convened at 10 a.m. for speeches ahead of the vote on advancing the continuing resolution at 11:30 a.m. You can watch a live stream of the Senate floor in the video player at the top of this story.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, told reporters Tuesday morning that he's "pretty confident" the shutdown will end this week, saying it could be resolved Wednesday night, or more likely on Thursday or Friday.

"You can't make sense out of crazy, and that's where Chuck Schumer's been this whole time, and it's hard to fight politics and policy at the same time," Mullin said. "But I will tell you there's enough Democrats that I'm friends with that were willing to vote last week, and they were assured that Schumer would let them vote the way they need to this week."

Mullin suggested that Democrats could support the measure to reopen the government after Tuesday's elections, saying they "didn't want to discourage their base" from turning out to vote.

"Fortunately, this nightmare's going to end for our federal employees and those that depend on SNAP this week, but it's unfortunate they've been held hostage by the Democrat Party as leverage points," Mullin said.

Lawmakers are considering extending the House-passed measure that would fund the government until Nov. 21 to a December or January date. Mullin said "I think that's a discussion that needs to happen today." Republicans are meeting for a conference lunch Tuesday afternoon.

More than 3 million passengers have been affected by delays or cancellations since the shutdown began. Marathon-long security lines could soon become a reality for more travelers across the country, as more flights are being canceled or delayed due to airport staffing issues and air traffic controllers go without pay.

Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu runs Airlines for America, the trade association representing the nation's airlines. He called the air travel situation an "exponential problem."

"You're looking at an exponential problem, a real gridlock problem, if these folks don't get their act together in Washington," Sununu said.

Asked by CBS News how concerned he is about the Thanksgiving holiday, Sununu said he is "extremely concerned."

The issue centers on air traffic control staffing, as sick calls have surged since controllers missed a paycheck last week. At least eight facilities were affected on Monday, delaying flights at major airports including Austin and Dallas.

"We've got air traffic controllers and technicians that are not being paid, and certainly that's got to put an additional strain on an already stressful job," former National Transportation Safety Board Chair Robert Sumwalt said.

The Senate will convene at 10 a.m. and take its 14th procedural vote on advancing the House-passed continuing resolution to end the shutdown at 11:30 a.m., according to Majority Whip John Barrasso's office.

Senators will meet for their weekly policy lunches from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m., after which they will vote on a judicial nomination.

The Senate is expected to vote again Tuesday on a House-passed measure to fund the government after the measure fell short for a 13th time last week.

Republicans have been seeking to peel off Democratic support for the measure, which requires 60 votes to advance, for weeks. With 53 Republicans in the chamber, they need support from across the aisle to end the shutdown. But there's been no movement since the shutdown began, with three senators repeatedly breaking with their party to support the GOP-led measure, while one Republican has opposed it.

The measure would fund the government until Nov. 21. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said that date will have to change to allow more time for work on year-long appropriations bills. He indicated to reporters Monday that doing so would require House lawmakers to return to Washington to reopen the government.

"I think that would be the objective here, is to try and get something that we could send back to the House that would open up the government," Thune said.

On the Nov. 21 deadline for funding, the South Dakota Republican added that "the date's going to have to change."

"That date's lost," Thune said. "So it's a question now of what the next date is."

The majority leader said there are procedural maneuvers for changing the date in the House bill, but doing so would require consent from all senators or at least 60 votes, meaning at least five more Democrats would need to be on board.

Kaia Hubbard and Alan He

Walking to the Senate floor on Monday afternoon, Thune was asked by a reporter if he was "optimistic of the deal to open the government this week" and whether there had been "progress over the weekend."

"I'm optimistic," Thune said.

"Confident?" the reporter asked.

"Don't push it," Thune replied, laughing.

Returning from the floor, Thune expanded on his thinking.

"I just think, based on, sort of, my gut of how these things operate, I think we're getting close to an off-ramp here, but … this is unlike any other government shutdown, in terms of the way Democrats are reacting to it," he said.

He declined to offer specifics about ongoing talks to resolve the stalemate, but reiterated the offer he has extended to Democrats.

"I think there are a number of things that we have made available to Democrats in terms of the path forward on appropriations, on doing, you know, obviously the minibus that we already have passed in the Senate, and obviously we've indicated in the past that if they want to vote on whatever their Obamacare bill is, a certain date by which they could have that vote," Thune said. "So it's all — these are things that I think, again, I've been saying for some time now. They've got to be willing to take yes for an answer."

The comments came as some senators have forecasted a possible end to the shutdown this week, as Republicans argue that Democrats may be willing to relent after Tuesday's elections. Meanwhile, Democrats argue the pressure will be up on the GOP due to the rising health insurance premiums, now visible after open enrollment on the Affordable Care Act marketplace began over the weekend.

A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to approve funding for federal agencies. Before 1980, agencies largely continued operating during a lapse in funding with the assumption that Congress would act quickly. But in 1980 and 1981, then-Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti authored a series of legal opinions that found government agencies didn't have the authority to continue running during a gap in funding.

President Ronald Reagan oversaw eight shutdowns during his time in office, the longest of which lasted three days. There were three funding gaps between 1990 and 1995, then none until 2013.

The longest shutdown occurred from late 2018 into early 2019, which stretched on for 35 days. The 1995 shutdown lasted 21 days, which the current shutdown has now eclipsed.

Read more about the history of shutdowns here.