President Donald Trump on Friday prepared plans for mass layoffs of federal workers and unilaterally cut $2 billion in funding for a previously approved Chicago subway project as the government shutdown continued with no end in sight.
With both sides standing firm, the Senate was set to vote again on what looked to be a doomed resolution to accept a Republican stopgap spending bill and fund the government until Thanksgiving.
Assuming the measure fails as expected, the shutdown was set to extend through the weekend at least, and possibly much longer than that.
“Until they have eight or hopefully more (Democratic senators) who want to decide they want to end the government shutdown, I’m not sure this goes anywhere,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said ahead of the Friday session.
Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress. But they need 60 votes in the Senate to pass the government funding legislation, giving minority Democrats a rare opportunity to effectively resist Trump’s controversial agenda.
Democratic leaders are demanding concessions on Trump’s draconian health care cuts and an extension of popular subsidies for the Obamacare health insurance plan, believing health care could be a key issue in the forthcoming midterm elections when they hope to win back a slice of power.
White House budget director Russ Vought, the architect of the far right-wing Project 2025 policy blueprint, said the Trump administration would withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, expanding the effort to retaliate against Democratic cities and states during the government shutdown.
Trump, who sought to distance himself from the controversial Project 2025 during his presidential campaign, is now enthusiastically embracing Vought’s hardball tactics. Late Thursday, he posted a video depicting Vought as the Grim Reaper, wearing a hood and holding a scythe.
The Chicago cuts will halt work on a long-awaited plan to extend the city’s Red Line subway through underserved parts of the South Side, a historically Black neighborhood.
Vought claimed the suspension was tied to Chicago’s racial diversity initiatives, without elaborating.
The Chicago cuts came after the White House pushed the pause button on $18 billion in New York-area infrastructure projects, including funding for the Second Avenue subway and a long awaited new rail tunnel under the Hudson River to New Jersey.
Trump also slashed millions in anti-terrorism grants to blue states, including damaging cuts to the NYPD, FDNY and New York state public safety agencies.
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