WASHINGTON – There's no end in sight for the sweeping government shutdown after senators on Wednesday rejected a Republican and a Democratic plan to reopen the government's doors.

The vote marked the sixth time that the dueling agreements failed in the Senate. Democrats pushed for health care reforms in their package, while the GOP-backed legislation would have kept government funding at the same levels until Nov. 21.

The moves came as President Donald Trump warned he could block furloughed federal workers from receiving back pay once this shutdown is over, a major departure from previous shutdowns. Trump’s threat escalated his pressure on Senate Democrats to end the standoff and invited legal scrutiny over the White House’s tactics.

Trump has also threatened to fire federal workers and cut government programs if the shutdown continues.

“It depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office when asked by a reporter whether furloughed federal workers are guaranteed back pay when they return to workers.

“For the most part, we're going to take care of our people,” Trump added. “There are some people that really don't deserve to be taken care of, and we'll take care of them in a different way."

Pelosi says Trump would be looking to fire federal workers regardless of shutdown

Trump has threatened mass layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown and blamed Democrats, but former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN that the president would be doing the same thing regardless of the funding battle.

“They were going to fire these people anyway,” Pelosi said Wednesday. “Just look at their game plan.”

The Trump administration initiated mass layoffs earlier this year in a push led by the Department of Government Efficiency.

After CNN anchor Dana Bash said “it feels like we’re going to be in this for a long time,” referring to the stalled talked on Capitol Hill, Pelosi noted the last government shutdown during Trump’s first term lasted 35 days.

Union leaders blast shutdown

Union leaders across the country have blasted the shutdown, criticizing elected officials has hundreds of thousands of workers are missing paychecks.

“Denying them a paycheck is simply cruel,” Matt Biggs, president of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents 34,000 federal workers, some of whom are working and some are furloughed. “That is deplorable. That is shameful.”

Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents 110,000 federal workers, told reporters during a downpour that they won’t be able to pay rent, feed their families or buy medicine.

“They’re being treated like dirt,” Erwin said. “We can’t allow this shutdown to go on for weeks on end.”

Flight attendant union criticizes ‘unsafe scenario’ at nation’s airports

Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, praised airport security officers and air traffic controllers for coming to work, but said it is dangerous.

“They are coming to work under an increasingly unsafe scenario, because, in safety, we know, the first rule is to remove all distractions,” Nelson said at a press conference with several federal labor unions.

Nelson said if workers are unable to pay their bills, they are going to be distracted, creating a ripple effect on the Americans who need their services.

“This is putting the rest of us increasingly at risk,” she said. “This is a dangerous game.”

– Erin Mansfield

Can 'illegal immigrants' get federally funded health care?

At the center of the federal government shutdown is an argument over free and subsidized health care: who should get it and who shouldn't.

Republicans say Democrats won't vote for their funding package unless it includes "free health care for illegals." Democrats say they want to prevent millions of Americans from losing access to Medicaid and lower cost health insurance.

Here's what's behind the political rhetoric.

– Sarah D. Wire and Lauren Villagran

People already making health care choices as Congress fights over tax subsidies

Democrats say Congress needs to permanently extend enhanced tax credits now before open enrollment for state health insurance marketplaces begins Nov. 1. Republicans say they will not discuss health policy as part of a bill to reopen the government and can deal with the subsidies before they expire Dec. 31.

But the reality on the ground is that people are already being notified of the expected cost increases. Insurance companies have submitted their rates and open enrollment begins in less than a month, leaving little time to make adjustments.

Read more about what state insurance experts are telling Congress about timing of the fight over tax credits and the 24 million Americans who could be impacted by what Congress does.

Shutdown fight shouldn’t deal with Medicaid, Obamacare: Cole

The head of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, told reporters that his panel shouldn’t handle changes in Medicaid or an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act because the lawmakers don’t have expertise in those areas.

Most Senate Democrats have refused to reopen the government unless Medicaid cuts are restored and subsidies for Obamacare are extended. But Cole echoed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, in saying negotiations over Medicaid and Obamacare should be handled separately, after the government reopens.

“We should not be handling Medicaid on my committee,” Cole said. “We should not be handling the Obamacare subsidies because we don’t have the expertise or the jurisdiction to do either one of those.”

Will the military get paid during the shutdown?

Democrats in the House are urging Speaker Mike Johnson to put forward legislation ensuring U.S. troops get paid during the government shutdown.

Military service members will miss their first paycheck on Oct. 15 if the shutdown continues.

“While negotiations to re-open the government continue, we encourage you to bring bipartisan, commonsense legislation to the floor to ensure that military service members, as well as civilian personnel and contractors, will continue to receive pay during a government shutdown,” according to a Wednesday letter obtained by Punchbowl News signed by Reps Gabe Vasquez and Derek Tran.

The House has been in recess.

Expiring health care subsidies remain key sticking point

House Speaker Mike Johnson and other House Republicans are set to hold a news conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to address the shutdown, while House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats hold their own news conference at noon ET.

Republicans continue to blame Democrats on the shutdown for refusing to support a Republican-backed bill that would fund the government through Nov. 21. Democrats have demanded that any funding bill reverse Republicans’ recent cuts to Medicaid and extend subsidies in the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Trump on Monday said he’s open to negotiating a deal with Democrats to extend the health care subsidies. But Republican leaders in Congress have repeatedly said they won't negotiate health care policy with Democrats until the government is reopened.

White House claims loophole in guaranteeing back pay

Withholding payments to furloughed workers when they return would mark a dramatic departure from previous shutdowns, including the government's last shutdown in 2019, when Trump was president.

Trump’s threat came as the White House floated a new legal analysis claiming the 750,000 employees furloughed during the shutdown are not entitled to back pay when they return. A Trump administration official confirmed the analysis to USA TODAY.

The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which was passed during the last shutdown, says that federal workers who are furloughed during a lapse in government funding “shall be paid for the period of the lapse.” The law states that it applies to any government funding lapse after Dec. 22, 2018.

But the White House argues in a new legal memo that this law does not automatically cover all furloughed workers because of an amendment approved nine days after its original passage in January 2019, according to Axios, which first reported the White House's new opinion about back pay.

The amendment states that furloughed workers would be paid back "subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse."

Yet the White House's new interpretation undermines the Trump administration's own Office of Personnel Management guidance, which released a memo in September that said furloughed workers would get paid.

“After the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were required to perform excepted work during the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those work periods,” the OPM memo says.

White House shifts tariff funds to extend low-income food program: What to know about WIC

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on social media on Tuesday that tariff funds would be used to continue paying for a food-assistance program for low-income families.

The Women, Infants and Children program was projected to run out of money this week because of the government shutdown, Leavitt said. The program provided about $7.2 billion in aid last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But the administration identified funds from the tariffs on steel and aluminum to keep the resource funded. “The Trump White House will not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry because of the Democrats' political games,” Leavitt said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate rejects two spending deals as government shutdown drags on; live updates

Reporting by Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, Zac Anderson and Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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