Federal government shutdown grinds into a week two as tempers flare at the Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tours at the Capitol have come to a standstill. The House is keeping its doors closed, while the Senate repeated its loop Wednesday of failed votes to reopen the government. President Donald Trump is threatening to mass fire federal workers and refuse back pay for the rest.

As the government shutdown entered a second week, there's no discernible endgame in sight.

“Congress, do your damn job,” said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, with other top union leaders near the Capitol.

No negotiations, at least publicly, are underway, but behind the scenes quiet talks are emerging. Clusters of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, are meeting privately, searching for ways out of the impasse, which hinges on striking a deal for preserving health care subsidies.

Signs of discomfort are apparent: Military personnel and federal employees are set to miss paychecks, flights are being delayed at airports nationwide and federal programs are disrupted. Confrontations erupted at the Capitol.

Two dueling bills, one from Republicans and the other from Democrats, failed again in the Senate.

The Republicans who have majority control in Congress believe they have the upper hand politically, as they fend off Democratic demands to quickly fund health insurance subsidies as part of any plan to end the shutdown.

House Speaker Mike Johnson appears so confident he is preparing to take live questions from callers on C-SPAN's Thursday morning public affairs show.

But so have Democrats dug in, convinced that Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent the looming health care price spikes and blaming Trump for the shutdown.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer insisted it was Republicans who are “feeling the heat.”

Tensions rose Wednesday to a boil.

Outside the speaker's office, Arizona’s two Democratic senators who were demanding that Johnson re-open the House to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. She won a special election to the state's Tucson-area seat last month and has said she would sign on to releasing the files on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, but has yet to be seated in Congress.

Johnson, facing a diminished GOP majority once the new Democrat takes office, declined.

A short time later House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York was confronted by home state GOP Rep. Mike Lawler. He was demanding the leader's support for a one-year extension of the expiring health care subsidies, as Democrats pushed for a better deal. The encounter quickly digressed.

“You shut the government down,” Lawler railed.

“You're embarrassing yourself,” Jeffries retorted.

At its core, the debate is over the health care issue that has tangled Congress for years, and in particular, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that Trump tried, and failed, to repeal and replace during his first term at the White House.

Congress increased the federal subsidies that help people purchase private insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act exchanges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal aid was popular, and it boosted ACA enrollment to a record 24 million people. Those enhanced subsidies are set to expire at year’s end.

Republicans say Congress can deal with the health insurance issue in the months ahead. Democrats are fighting to resolve the problem now, as people are receiving notices of higher policy rates for the new year.

Two prominent Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, have broken from their party, saying something must be done to help Americans pay for the coming health insurance rate hikes.

A loosely formed collection of senators, Republicans and Democrats, have bantered about options for addressing the health insurance problem. Some of them met over Thai food dinner.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has offered her own plan for kickstarting talks. It involves re-opening the government now, but with a “commitment,” she said, to discussing the health care issue.

Another option floated by GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a former state governor, is a temporary extension of the subsidies, for one year, and then a phase out.

And Trump himself signaled he was open to negotiating with Democrats over their demands to save health care subsidies. Earlier this week, the president said that talks were already underway as he wants “great health care” for the people, only to shift his tone hours later to say the government must reopen first.

“I’m pretty discouraged,” Rounds said Wednesday. “My sense is that’s probably past the point of getting anything done.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., sounded a similarly sour note.

"I’m an optimist, but wow are we not making much progress,” Coons said.

But GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who is close to Trump, said, “There’s always a group talking,”

While federal employees have often missed paychecks during shutdowns, Trump is now threatening to do away with guaranteed back pay, which would be a stark departure from what is normal. The White House budget office, under Russ Vought, argues the law says back pay is not automatic, and Congress would need to approve it.

The union leaders warned Trump against using the federal workers as “political pawns” in the political brawl.

“And president, you better start obeying the Constitution,” Erwin said.

Part of the reason the parties are so unwilling to budge from their positions is because their internal data is encouraging them not to cave.

Senate Democrats have been briefed on information suggesting their health care messaging was resonating with voters. A memo from Senate Majority PAC was also circulated to House Democrats and campaigns nationwide on Tuesday, with a clear directive: hold the line.

Republicans, meanwhile, are sticking to their own playbook. A memo from the House GOP’s campaign arm urged candidates to focus on the shutdown’s economic impact, including a district-level breakdown of who would be affected by a government shutdown.

Each side has framed the shutdown fight as a precursor to the 2026 midterm elections.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, listens to House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., speaks at a news conference on the 8th day of a government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., passes a sign on a stage that the House Democratic leaders held a news conference on the 8th day of government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., left, confronts House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a heated discussion to endorse House bill H.R.5145 that would extend the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

From left, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., Chair of the House Republican Conference, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Tom Cole, R-Okla., during a press conference on the 8th day of the government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee speaks during a hearing on healthcare on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

Early morning cloudy skies over the U.S. Capitol during the 8th day of the government shutdown on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters following the weekly Senate policy luncheon that he attended on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is joined by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., right, as they speak with reporters following a closed-door Republican strategy session as the government shutdown heads toward a second week, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians could call abroad on mobile phones Tuesday for the first time since communications were halted during a crackdown on nationwide protests in which activists said at least 646 people have been killed.

Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press and speak to a journalist there. The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back. The witnesses said SMS text messaging still was down and that internet users in Iran could connect to government-approved websites locally but nothing abroad.

The witnesses gave a brief glimpse into life on the streets of the Iranian capital over the four and a half days of being cut off from the world. They described seeing a heavy security presence in central Tehran.

Anti-riot police officers, wearing helmets and body armor, carried batons, shields, shotguns and tear gas launchers. They stood watch at major intersections. Nearby, the witnesses saw members of the Revolutionary Guard's all-volunteer Basij force, who similarly carried firearms and batons. Security officials in plainclothes were visible in public spaces as well.

Several banks and government offices were burned during the unrest, they said. ATMs had been smashed and banks struggled to complete transactions without the internet, the witnesses added.

However, shops were open, though there was little foot traffic in the capital. Tehran's Grand Bazaar, where the demonstrations began Dec. 28, was to open Tuesday. However, a witness described speaking to multiple shopkeepers who said the security forces ordered them to reopen no matter what. Iranian state media had not acknowledged that order.

The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Monday night, said he continued to communicate with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

The communication “continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing," Araghchi said. However, “Washington’s proposed ideas and threats against our country are incompatible.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran’s public rhetoric diverges from the private messaging the administration has received from Tehran in recent days.

“I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”

Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrators flooded the streets Monday in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, which appeared to number in the tens of thousands, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Others cried out, “Death to the enemies of God!” Iran’s attorney general has warned that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.

Trump announced Monday that countries doing business with Iran will face 25% tariffs from the United States. Trump announced the tariffs in a social media posting, saying they would be “effective immediately.”

It was action against Iran for the protest crackdown from Trump, who believes exacting tariffs can be a useful tool in prodding friends and foes on the global stage to bend to his will.

Brazil, China, Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are among economies that do business with Tehran.

Trump said Sunday that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

Iran, through the country’s parliamentary speaker, warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,700 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the latest death toll early Tuesday. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 512 of the dead were protesters and 134 were security force members.

With the internet down in Iran, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government hasn’t offered overall casualty figures.

A picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set alight by protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media shows protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire as they take to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)

FILE - Protesters march on a bridge in Tehran, Iran, on Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP, File)