‘I’m scrambling’: Government shutdown spurs confusion and concern with no funding deal in sight

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By Tami Luhby, Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — A self-described national park fanatic, Lucas Wall was excited to start a weeklong trip to visit seven National Park Service sites in Virginia on Thursday. The Washington, DC, resident prepaid for a rental car to drive to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Richmond National Battlefield Park and Prince William Forest Park, among others.

But the government shutdown has thrown those plans into disarray. Wall, a retired writer, is now checking the parks’ websites and reading through the agency’s shutdown contingency plan to see what might still make sense to visit – though he says they aren’t very helpful. He’s hoping he can go to parks that are mostly outdoors, though it won’t be the same if he can’t enter the visitor centers, talk to the rangers, watch films or videos about the site and pick up brochures and maps.

“I’m scrambling to figure out how to modify my plans,” said Wall, who is considering adding some state parks to his itinerary, though they don’t have as much history. “I haven’t booked any hotels yet because of this confusion and uncertainty … because of this threat of a shutdown.”

Wall is far from alone in having to contend with the widespread uncertainty sparked by the first federal government shutdown in more than six years. Hundreds of people have written to CNN in recent days about the shutdown, with many voicing worries over interruptions to their crucial federal benefits or grant funding, the shuttering of federal sites, potential delays in air travel or problems doing business with the federal government.

Lawmakers, however, remain far from reaching an agreement to fund the government for fiscal year 2026, which began October 1, and end the impasse. Instead, Republicans and Democrats, entrenched in their positions, are playing the blame game over who’s at fault and have shown little momentum toward reaching a bipartisan deal to end the shutdown before it results in nationwide closures and layoffs.

Nothing will be resolved before Friday, when the Senate returns to town after a break to allow members to observe the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. But neither party appears prepared to back off their positions, meaning the shutdown may not end anytime soon.

Looking to ramp up pressure on Democrats, the White House’s budget chief is repeating his warnings that the shutdown will allow the administration to initiate mass layoffs in the federal workforce in coming days. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told Republicans senators on a Wednesday conference call that the layoffs would target agencies that don’t fit into the Trump administration’s priorities, according to multiple people on the call.

Plus, he is canceling billions of dollars in infrastructure and energy projects across blue states – a day after President Donald Trump warned that his administration can do things that are “irreversible” during the impasse.

A frightened federal workforce

The shutdown’s burden falls particularly heavily on federal workers, hundreds of thousands of whom are being furloughed without pay until Congress acts. Others are deemed essential and have to continue working, though many of them also won’t collect paychecks until the impasse ends.

But less than 48-hours into the funding lapse, this shutdown has already proven particularly stressful for many federal workers, who received notices of their employment status and shutdown plans later than usual and are spooked by the prospect of mass layoffs.

“What has made this one different from the rest is that we’ve not been threatened with being RIF’ed during an emergency shutdown before,” said Yolanda Jacobs, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883, which represents staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to Vought’s reduction-in-force threats.

“‘Now that they’ve shut down, how long before they can fire me?’ Those are some of the questions that we’re receiving.”

One Transportation Security Administration worker going through his first shutdown as a federal employee told CNN that he did not get official notice from his agency about the shutdown until Tuesday night, though his airport manager earlier told the team they would have to report for work but not get paid.

Vought’s signaling of looming mass layoffs has left everyone on edge, said the worker, who was granted anonymity to discuss his experience without fear of retribution. It comes after multiple moves by the Trump administration to overhaul and shrink the federal workforce, including the Department of Homeland Security’s March announcement – now tied up in court – that it was rescinding the collective bargaining agreement covering tens of thousands of transportation security officers.

“You can see in their eyes and faces that it’s a scary time to work – not a scary place, but a scary time,” the worker, who is also a veteran, said of his colleagues.

AFGE and other federal workers unions have filed a lawsuit against the administration to block it from laying off employees during the shutdown.

Broader impacts

The ramifications of Capitol Hill’s deadlock are steadily rippling across a broad swath of American lives.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said that the state cannot afford to keep its national parks open during this shutdown, while New York will not pick up the tab to keep the Statute of Liberty open. The Interior Department then told CNN that the administration would keep the statue — as well as Ellis Island — open.

The Washington, DC, court system said it will not issue marriage certificates or perform wedding ceremonies. And the National Flood Insurance Program can’t issue new policies, potentially snagging the closing of home sales.

For Roeland van der Hoorn, the impasse may mean two years of planning and saving to visit the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art down the drain. Van der Hoorn, a librarian who lives outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, booked a non-refundable flight to Washington, DC, to do research on Francis de Erdely, a Hungarian-American artist whose papers are at the museum. It never occurred to him that his project – and first trip to the US – could be derailed by a government shutdown.

If the Smithsonian remains closed when he is in town, he will have to save for another few years before he can return. But this time, van der Hoorn said he’ll get a refundable ticket.

“I don’t trust the US government enough that basic government activities are functioning, like museums,” he said.

Democrats not deterred by White House firing threats

So far in Washington, Democratic leaders are standing firm. They are demanding that any funding package include an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at year’s end and cause premiums to more than double, on average, for 2026, according to KFF, a nonpartisan research group.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, say negotiation is a non-starter as long as the government remains closed. And Vice President JD Vance and others in the party are doubling down on their false claims that the Democrats’ true goal in the funding battle is to provide health care to undocumented immigrants.

In the days leading up to the government shutdown, Republicans suggested the threat of the Trump administration unilaterally cutting federal programs and firing federal employees would help deter Democrats from holding their position.

Vought and others in the Trump administration have previously warned that they would use their powers during a shutdown to further shrink the size of the federal government to reflect the White House’s agenda.

“If I was a Democrat, that would concern me,” GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said of Vought’s unilateral moves.

“Get [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer to get the votes to get government up and running. Then Vought wouldn’t have any excuse to do what he is doing,” GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa echoed.

But Democrats, for now, don’t seem to be blinking.

“I think they miscalculated,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said of his Republican colleagues.

The Trump administration, a number of Democrats have argued, would have continued to slash the federal government regardless of a funding agreement. “The status of government opened or closed is not relevant to Russell Vought. He just goes on his rampage every day,” Vermont Sen. Peter Welch remarked.

For now, with little movement toward a political off ramp, the growing threats from the administration intended to shake Democrats, appear to have instead left some Republicans with concerns.

“It makes everything going forward more difficult for us,” Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said.

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CNN’s Sarah Ferris and Manu Raju contributed to this report.