WASHINGTON — Funding has lapsed for the federal government. A short-term bill to keep government operations going failed in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, so a government shutdown began at midnight.
Both Alaska senators voted for the stop-gap spending bill, to continue funding while Congress works on a longer-term bill. It got 55 votes but needed 60.
President Donald Trump is threatening mass federal layoffs. And by not passing a spending bill, Congress is giving Trump free rein, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.
“When you're in a shutdown, you do not have equal branches of government,” she said. “You just don't. The legislative branch has just kind of ceded this.”
Senate Democrats are holding out to get Republicans to agree to continue health care subsidies and restore cuts to Medicaid. Some of the subsidies are due to expire at the end of December, which will double or triple the monthly costs for millions of Americans who buy marketplace plans.
Murkowski would also like to continue insurance subsidies that some 25,000 Alaskans depend on. But, she says, negotiations went nowhere last week so Tuesday she voted for the bill to keep the government operating.
Murkowski warned that the partisan standoff could be a long one because each side believes voters will blame the other party.
“No one has an incentive,” to end a shutdown, she said. “If the Democrats feel that they've got the edge, where's their incentive for them to get out of it? If the Republicans feel like we're gaining with our base, what gives us any incentive to end it?”
Key functions of government will continue through a shutdown, including mail service and Social Security payments. Some federal employees, like the military and law enforcement, are deemed essential and have to work without pay until Congress agrees on a spending bill.
A spokesman for Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the state has funding to pay SNAP food benefits through October but only enough money to cover the first week of the month for WIC, the nutrition benefit for Women, Infants and Children.
Hours before the shutdown was to begin, only some agencies had published their shutdown plans.
RELATED: 5 things for Alaskans to know as another federal shutdown nears
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that the shutdown is in effect.
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