President Donald Trump threatens "irreversible" mass layoffs as Vice-President JD Vance says Democrats have taken the government "hostage"
"Republicans can't bully us" Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says, urging that "both sides of the aisle come together"Thousands of federal employees face unpaid leave but some essential workers still on the job face losing out on pay. Politicians in Congress will still be paid
One federal worker in the US prison system tells the BBC: "Holding onto our pay until they come up with a compromise is toying with millions of lives"
We are back on familiar ground, but if the stakes seem higher this time it's a reflection of Trump's presidency, writes our North America correspondent
Stepping away from the multiple news conferences in Washington DC briefly, we've taken a look at how the shutdown is affecting various sites in the UK that are operated by Americans.
This includes two war cemeteries - the Brookwood American Cemetery, in Surrey, and the Cambridge American Cemetery.
Run by the American Battle Monuments Commission, their websites state the sites will remain open during the shutdown.
There are several US air bases in England, stretching across the country.
Significant US bases in the UK include RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. These bases, among others, have shared a message that their websites won't be updated during the shutdown. No further information is provided.
The website for RAF Alconbury, in Cambridgeshire, says the shutdown means there will be changes to "facility hours and programming".
It says many of the facilities are closed or operating with different hours, such as the school liaison office, the family readiness centre and the education centre.
The shutdown plans for the military state: "Military personnel on active duty, including reserve component personnel on Federal active duty, will continue to report for duty and carry out assigned duties."
Non-essential civilian staff will be furloughed, it adds."The last shutdown was brutal," one federal worker tells me.He wants to remain anonymous, but says the previous 35-day shutdown in 2018 "forced me to withdraw money from my retirement plan just to cover my bills".
It's now more difficult to do this, he says, adding that if the shutdown goes on as long as the last he doesn't know how he will pay his bills.
"I voted for Trump, but I did not vote for his abuses against us."
Another anonymous worker, who is based in the prison system, says things are bad enough with their pay already."Shutting down the government really does make life more complicated for us," he adds.
"There are human lives that we take care of daily, and we go in whether there’s a shutdown or not. Holding onto our pay until they come up with a