WASHINGTON – Hours from a federal government shutdown, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Steny Hoyer on Tuesday warned that the interruption of services and programs will be felt across the nation.
“When Donald Trump insists on it’s his way or the highway, insists on shutting down the government, the people who are going to lose the most are the American people,” Van Hollen, a Democrat, told federal workers and contractors protesting on the East Lawn of the United States Capitol.
Inside that building, there were no signs of a break in the weeks-long impasse over government spending. Without a stop-gap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, non-essential government services and programs were scheduled to stop at midnight Tuesday.
Hoyer, also a Democrat, told the protesters that Republicans were “now proud to shut down the government because we want to make sure that people have access to affordable healthcare.”
A shutdown would not affect the military, workers at the Transportation Security Administration, payments by Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, air traffic controllers or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
@cnsmaryland With tonight’s 12:01 a.m. deadline fast approaching, a government shutdown looks imminent. The House and Senate have not come to an agreement on the fiscal year spending. At issue is an extension of tax credits for Obamacare. CNS was outside the U.S. Capitol as Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, spoke to federal workers and contractors about the standoff. More to come on cnsmaryland.org. 🎥 Filmed by Peter Riccio 🧑💻 TikTok by Olivia Yasharoff #Maryland #MarylandNews #shutdown #governmentshutdown #fyp ♬ original sound – Capital News Service
Regardless of the agency, federal workers would not receive paychecks during the shutdown.
In a memo last week, the Trump administration encouraged government agencies to lay off federal employees in addition to issuing furloughs in the event of a government shutdown. Van Hollen called such a threat “mafia-style blackmail,” a sentiment endorsed by former Department of Education employee and Washington resident Bradley Custer.
“Threats from the Trump administration of more firings as a result of the Republican shutdown that could happen tonight is disingenuous,” Custer told Capital News Service. “I think he was always going to fire more federal workers… He’s just using this as an excuse.”
Custer worked for the department since 2023, helping people with their federal student loans in the Office of the Ombudsman. He was laid off on Aug. 1 as a result of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts.
“It’s been incredibly disruptive for all of us,” Custer said.
Custer and other fired federal workers have been protesting outside the Capitol since late January to get their jobs back. And they have been fighting their terminations in court.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Tuesday negotiations in Congress have stalled.
“Which became clearer last week when Trump said ‘yes’ and Trump said ‘no.’ The American people don’t like that,” Schumer told reporters in a Capitol press conference.
Democrats want Republicans to address the expiration of certain tax credits for Obamacare that expire at the end of the year. GOP leaders have said the continuing resolution is not the vehicle for doing that.
Republicans said Tuesday there was nothing to negotiate.
“We are not going to be held hostage for over a trillion dollars in new spending on a continuing resolution,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, told reporters.
Trump said at the White House that the Democrats want to use the stop-gap spending bill “to give health care to illegal immigrants,” a claim that nonpartisan fact-checkers have deemed false.
Capital News Service Washington reporters Peter Riccio, Audrey Keefe and Mary Burke contributed to this story.