Government shutdown becomes third-longest in history with no end in sight on Day 18

The Supreme Court is expected to run out of federal funding on Saturday, according to Patricia McCabe, the court’s public information officer. Without new money appropriated by Congress, the high court is expected to make changes in its operations to comply with the Anti-Deficiency Act, she said. That law prohibits federal agencies from spending federal dollars in advance or above the amount approved by Congress.

The Supreme Court’s building will be closed to the public “until further notice,” she said. It will, however, stay open for official business.

“The Supreme Court will continue to conduct essential work such as hearing oral arguments, issuing orders and opinions, processing case filings, and providing police and building support needed for those operations,” McCabe said.

Russ Vought, the head of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said on X that the Army Corps of Engineers is pausing $11 billion in projects as the shutdown continues. 

“The Democrat shutdown has drained the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to manage billions of dollars in projects,” Vought wrote. “The Corps will be immediately pausing over $11 billion in lower-priority projects & considering them for cancellation, including projects in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore.”

Vought said the Corps would release more information about the projects that are paused. 

At the beginning of the shutdown, Vought paused billions of dollars in federal funds to projects in blue states across the country, including $18 billion alone for infrastructure work in New York.

Read more here.

During a brief pro forma session, the House clerk read a notice from the speaker designating all of next week as a district work period, extending the lower chamber’s break into its fifth week. 

The presiding Republican, Rep. Craig Goldman of Texas, did not recognize Democratic Rep. Johnny Olszewski of Maryland, who shouted to demand that Democrat Adelita Grijalva be sworn in. 

The federal judiciary said that beginning Monday, it will no longer have funding to maintain “full, paid operation” as a result of the ongoing shutdown.

Federal judges will continue to serve, but court staff will curtail their activities to only perform those that are allowed under federal law, such as those necessary to perform constitutional functions and activities “necessary for the safety of human life and protection of property, and activities otherwise authorized by federal law.” 

That work will be performed without pay during the shutdown, the judicial branch said, and staff that do not engage in those critical activities will be furloughed.

“Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary’s constitutional functions,” the judiciary said.

As expected, House GOP leadership officially canceled votes Monday, according to guidance from the Democratic whip’s office. The cancellation means the House will have been on break for more than a month whenever they return. The House last voted on Sept. 19 to pass Republicans’ short-term funding measure. 

The House was scheduled to be out Sept. 22 through Sept. 26 and return for two days beginning Sept. 29. But House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled votes on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30. He also canceled votes on Oct. 7 through Oct. 10 and Oct. 14 through Oct. 17. 

The House was previously on recess from the end of July through Labor Day in September. 

Rogers’ office shared the notice that the National Nuclear Security Administration provided on Thursday. It said that the money used to pay salaries and expenses is expected to run out on Saturday. Once it does, roughly 1,400 employees will be placed on furlough, and 375 employees will continue to work.

The agency also said it was reviewing contractors’ plans to place facilities in “minimum-safe” status — that is, continuing “only those functions necessary to ensure the safety of life or protection of property.” NNSA will “provide estimates of the number of contractor employees affected upon finalization of those plans.”

At his daily press conference at the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson reacted to Jeffries’ comment that refusing to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona would lead to “swift and decisive legal action” by the state’s attorney general.

“I thought Hakeem was a better attorney than that. It’s a publicity stunt by a Democrat attorney general in Arizona who sees a national moment and wants to call me out. She has nothing whatsoever to do with what’s happening in Congress,” Johnson said. 

He added: “Rep.-elect Grijalva is to be congratulated for winning her late father’s seat. We love that. We’re going to administer the oath to her as soon as we get back to our regular legislative session, as I’ve said a thousand times.”

Johnson said he holds “no ill will towards her at all.” 

“I’m going to congratulate her as I do every colleague who comes in, and we’ll do it as soon as we can get the government open again, and get all these Americans who are suffering taken care of,” he said.

At the House Republicans’ daily press conference, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the federal agency that oversees the country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons is at risk of making deep staffing cuts as the shutdown continues. 

“We were just informed last night that the National Nuclear Security Administration, the group that handles and manages our nuclear stockpile, that the carry-over funding they’ve been using is about to run out,” Rogers said. “They will have to lay off 80% of their employees. These are not employees that you want to go home. They’re managing and handling a very important strategic asset for us. They need to be at work and being paid.”

A spokesperson for Rogers clarified that the chairman meant the staff would be placed on furlough, as opposed to laid off permanently.

The National Nuclear Security Administration is part of the Department of Energy, and one of its core missions is “to ensure the United States maintains a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear stockpile through the application of unparalleled science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing,” according to its website.

CBS News has reached out to the Department of Energy for more details about Rogers’ comment.

Read more here.

Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election to fill her late father’s seat several weeks ago, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to swear her in, saying he will do so once the House is back in full session.

Democrats have accused Johnson of slow-walking her swearing in to deny the last signature needed to force a vote on requiring the Justice Department to hand over files related to Jeffrey Epstein. They have tried to earn recognition during the House’s brief pro forma sessions to call for her to be sworn in, with no success. Jeffries said Democrats would try again on Friday.

“This has gone on now for weeks, and so it’s my expectation that, if she is not sworn in today, during the pro forma session today, as the Arizona attorney general has made clear, expect swift and decisive legal action,” Jeffries said.

Earlier this week, Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes sent a letter to Johnson demanding Grijalva “be immediately sworn into office and admitted to her rightful seat.” She asked for Johnson to provide assurances within two days that he would do so, and threatened legal action if he did not.

“Should you fail to provide such assurance, we will be forced to seek judicial relief to protect Arizona and the residents of its Seventh Congressional District,” Mayes said. 

Jeffries said Friday that he has not heard from Johnson regarding the letter. Johnson has said the delay in Grijalva’s swearing in has nothing to do with the Epstein files.

Speaking at the Capitol, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats remain united in their demands for an extension of health care tax credits to reopen the government.

“House and Senate Democrats are going to continue to hold firm as it relates to a basic common sense position that when we enact spending bills, we should be helping the American people, not hurting them,” Jeffries said. 

“We need to reopen the government, and we need to reopen the government now,” he said later. “Part of the problem is that House Republicans are nowhere to be found, literally, have been on vacation for three consecutive weeks. Have canceled votes for three consecutive weeks. They are in the legislative witness protection program.”

The Senate is not in session Friday and plans to return at 3 p.m. Monday. 

Thune said Thursday that senators will have another opportunity to vote on the House-passed GOP funding bill when they return next week, but no votes have been officially scheduled. The previous 10 votes on the GOP funding legislation have failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance. 

Three Democrats have voted consistently to advance the measure, but five more would be needed to reach 60 votes, a dynamic that has not changed since the shutdown began.

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, when funding lapsed for 34 days. The second-longest came in December 1995, at 21 days. The 2013 shutdown lasted for 16 full days, which the current shutdown has now eclipsed.

Read more about the history of shutdowns here.

Thune’s office confirmed Thursday evening that the South Dakota Republican plans to bring up a bill next week that would pay “excepted” federal employees, including active-duty military, who are required to work during the shutdown. 

Thune referred to the bill, from Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, as the “pay everybody” bill. 

Typically during a shutdown, some essential federal workers are expected to keep reporting to work, but they don’t get paid until after the government reopens.

Nikole Killion and Alan He

Law enforcement officers from the Department of Homeland Security will be paid if they work during the government shutdown, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on X on Thursday afternoon.

That includes “sworn law enforcement officers” from the Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service.

It’s not clear who at the TSA will be included in the policy. The agency employs tens of thousands of security officers who work at airport checkpoints, as well as law enforcement personnel like air marshals. CBS News has reached out to DHS and TSA for clarification.

Noem said law enforcement officers will get a “super check” by Oct. 22 that covers four days of lost pay, overtime and their pay for the next pay period.

Members of the military and FBI have also been promised pay during the shutdown. The legal authority to keep paying federal workers remains unsettled.