Congress fails to strike a financing agreement, and the US government goes into shutdown

After Congress and President Donald Trump failed to resolve a sour budget standoff, the US government formally shut down early Wednesday. This was the first funding lapse since the historic 35-day shutdown of 2018–2019 and the 15th since 1981. After Senate Democrats defeated a Republican stopgap plan that would have continued government funding through November 21, federal agencies started to shut down at 12:01 a.m. 

Up to 750,000 federal workers may be placed on furlough during the deadlock, which would cost about $400 million per day. Meanwhile, vital workers like military would remain unpaid. It is anticipated that the closure will hinder air travel, halt scientific research, disrupt services nationwide, and prevent the release of important economic statistics, such as Friday's jobs report.

Trump heightened tensions on Tuesday by threatening that the closure might lead to "irreversible" job and program losses as part of his larger goal to reduce the number of federal employees by about 300,000 by the end of the year. He stated that many of the people impacted will be Democrats and that "a lot of good can come down from shutdowns."