GOP sets the stage for extended shutdown
by Al Weaver - 10/15/25 6:00 AM ET
Republicans and the Trump administration are bracing for a lengthy government shutdown, taking steps to alleviate any political pain that might boomerang on them while seeking to make life difficult for Democrats.
The White House is taking steps to redistribute funds to ensure the military gets paychecks during the shutdown.
Doing so in this way takes care of a constituency important to the GOP and Trump, but it deprives Democrats of a vote to fund the military.
The White House also all but dared Democrats to push back on Trump’s maneuverings, a position Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) articulated Tuesday.
“If the Democrats want to go to court and challenge troops being paid, bring it. OK,” he said during a press conference at the Capitol.
Federal law enforcement may be next, as the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday indicated it is searching for ways to pay officers at the federal level.
In addition, the White House has laid out plans to keep funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it will use hundreds of millions of dollars from Section 32 tariff revenue to cover the nutrition program, which lawmakers consider vital because it covers 6 million participants per month.
The moves almost ensure the shutdown impasse will blow past the 16-day shutdown in 2013.
It increasingly looks like the fight could drag into November and challenge the longest shutdown on record — a 35-day lapse in funding that lasted from late 2018 to 2019 over President Trump’s insistence for border wall funding.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5555676-shutdown-white-house-pressure-points/
