“I’m tired of political gamesmanship,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota).
Which airports are affected by the closure?
These are 40 airports across the country facing reduced flights due to the ongoing government shutdown.
WASHINGTON – After weeks of little progress toward lifting the government shutdown, senators are spending their first weekend working overtime since the crisis began.
Typically, they return to their home states for the weekend, a fact that has remained true for more than a month, even as the funding crisis, the longest of its kind, worsens by the day and hurts millions of Americans.
But with flight cuts mounting, food insecurity rising and hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay for nearly 40 days, lawmakers are increasingly worried about reopening the government.
Given the situation, President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon called on lawmakers to stay in Washington until a way out of the crisis is found.
“The United States Senate should not leave town until there is a deal to end the Democratic shutdown,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
In a sign that lawmakers are at least a little closer to compromise, Democrats on Friday offered Republicans a compromise proposal for a short-term funding package that would likely extend Obamacare subsidies for another year but keep the government open until next year.
“All Republicans have to do is say yes,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday.
Instead, they balked at the proposal, effectively guaranteeing that the shutdown would extend into next week.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said Friday his party is tired of the situation.
“I’m tired of political gamesmanship,” he said.
Asked Friday night whether a revised bill could be finalized on Saturday that could potentially end the government shutdown, he said he was hopeful but “that remains to be seen.” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said the Senate would vote Saturday afternoon.
SNAP brings hunger to millions of Americans
For tens of millions of Americans who rely on SNAP food assistance, delayed benefits are causing hunger.
“I don’t understand how they want us to survive,” Tonya Laffer, 47, a SNAP benefit recipient from Des Moines, Iowa, told USA TODAY.
Some funds went to the states. But Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said November’s distribution was hampered by inaccurate information from the Department of Agriculture.
SNAP food assistance is available to households with incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty line ($2,888 or less per month for a family of three).
— Cybele Mays-Osterman, Sarah D. Wyer
On Friday night, senators narrowly rejected a bill to pay federal workers amid the government shutdown.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and supported by the American Federation of Public Employees, failed on a 53-43 vote. Several Democrats, including Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, broke with their party to support the bill.
The defections underscored a growing sense of alarm about the crisis among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The Trump administration said it is working to comply with a federal judge’s order to provide full SNAP benefits for November to the program’s 42 million recipients amid the government shutdown.
In a memo released by the USDA on Friday, the agency said it is “working toward implementation of full benefit issuance in November 2025.” The memo said the department would make full funding available for the SNAP program “as of today.”
The move comes after Rhode Island Federal Judge John McConnell said during a Nov. 6 hearing that the Trump administration was not working quickly enough to release the funds.
The USDA had previously agreed to distribute only a portion of SNAP benefits after the judge ordered the administration to use USDA emergency funds to cover SNAP benefits.
-Joey Garrison
