Source: Africa Publicity
The Government of the United States of America (USA) has shutdown after Senate failed to pass a spending bill.
Funding to keep the federal government running expired at 00.001 EDT (04:01 GMT) on Wednesday, October 1, 2025.
The shutdown came after Democrats and Republicans in the US Senated rejected each other’s stopgap proposals.
According to local media reports, Congressional Democrats and Republicans failed to agree how to fund the government ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline, leading to the government shutdown that began at midnight.
Reports say the shutdown comes after Republicans proposed extending government funding at current levels until Nov. 21, and Democrats made a counteroffer to keep the government open through October, but attached health care provisions and restrictions on Pres.
According to reports multiple reports sighted by Africa Publicity, President Trump’s ability to withhold funding — a nonstarter with most Republicans. Both counterproposals failed Tuesday.
Due to the shutdown, the federal government is now expected to seize all non-essential functions until funding is approved by Congress and signed into law, except for programs that are funded by other means, like fees or other legislation.
Previous shutdowns and Trump’s threats
The US has experienced government shutdowns on several occasions since 1980.
But President 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.
Addressing journalists at the White House on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, Trump threatened that he could use the shutdown to take actions that are “bad” for Democrats.
He says “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,” adding that “a lot of good” can come from government shutdowns.
