{"id":266726,"date":"2025-10-23T10:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=266726"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:13:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:13:36","slug":"cronkite-news-government-shutdown-drags-into-its-third-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/10\/23\/cronkite-news-government-shutdown-drags-into-its-third-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Government shutdown drags into its third week"},"content":{"rendered":" <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/10\/23\/cronkite-news-government-shutdown-drags-into-its-third-week\/gregstanton\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-266749\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1394\" data-attachment-id=\"266749\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/10\/23\/cronkite-news-government-shutdown-drags-into-its-third-week\/gregstanton\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/23\/GregStanton.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1394\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Greg Stanton\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Greg Stanton&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., speaks during a press conference at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. Photo by Safa Elhassan \/ Cronkite News&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/23\/GregStanton.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/23\/GregStanton.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/23\/GregStanton.jpg\" alt=\"Greg Stanton\"   class=\"size-full wp-image-266749\" \/><\/a> <figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., speaks during a press conference at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. Photo by Safa Elhassan \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Government shutdown squeezes Arizona federal workers, turns lives \u2018upside down\u2019<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Thursday, October 23, 2025<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\"> By Henry Smardo and Nick Karmia<\/div>\r\n<DIV class=source>Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n<DIV class=source-website><A \r\nhref=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p>PHOENIX &#8212; Arizona federal workers, labor leaders and elected Democratic officials demanded an immediate end to the government shutdown on Tuesday, saying the three-week stalemate is inflicting deep hardship across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Aliyah Levin, a Department of Labor employee, said she will soon need to borrow to pay her bills.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cThis past month, the world (has been) upside down,\u201d she said at a news conference at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. \u201cThe American government is not functioning, and it\u2019s causing chaos rippling out in all areas of life, in every industry.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>Levin is president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2391, which represents about 1,000 unionized federal workers in western states.<\/p>\r\n<p>Other unions turned out to show solidarity and announce donation drives to help federal workers make ends meet until Congress and the White House end the stalemate.<\/p>\r\n<p>According to the Arizona AFL-CIO, roughly 34,500 federal workers in Arizona have been furloughed or are working without pay.<\/p>\r\n<p>The tally nationwide is nearly 750,000, according to the Congressional Budget Office.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\r\n<div class=\"embed-twitter\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Leader Thune and I visited with President Trump this afternoon and he confirmed he is ready and willing for the three of us to meet with Leader Jeffries and Senator Schumer as soon as Schumer reopens the government.<\/p>&mdash; Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpeakerJohnson\/status\/1980743768644124788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 21, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<p>U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, framed the shutdown as a moral failure of congressional leadership \u2013 not just a political impasse.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cTo Arizonans, please stand with these workers who land your planes, keep you safe, protect your homes,\u201d he said. \u201cThose prolonging the shutdown to exert more pain, to punish these federal workers out of spite, shame on you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>Republicans have insisted on a stopgap spending deal that would fund the government through November 21, blaming Democrats for digging in even as the GOP refrained from using the leverage of a budget crisis to make any policy demands.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The House GOP used its majority to approve a so-called \u201cclean\u201d spending plan a month ago.<\/p>\r\n<p>But Democrats want a deal that extends massive health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year, potentially knocking millions off insurance.<\/p>\r\n<p>Senate Republicans have tried 11 times to approve the House bill but can\u2019t get the 60 votes needed without help from Democrats.<\/p>\r\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with President Donald Trump on Tuesday about the shutdown, telling reporters afterward that Republicans won\u2019t agree to Democrats\u2019 demands on health care subsidies.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Johnson, R-La., posted on X that the president \u201cconfirmed he is ready and willing for the three of us to meet\u201d with the Democratic leaders, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, \u201cas soon as Schumer reopens the government.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>At Sky Harbor, U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Phoenix, said\u00a0federal workers who have dedicated their lives to serving their country are being used as \u201cpolitical pawns.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cMany\u00a0have been furloughed and are working without pay, and still they are making sure that their fellow colleagues and their families don&#8217;t go hungry,\u201d she said. \u201cIt should not have to go this way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The Arizona AFL-CIO is accepting donations to support federal workers.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cEvery penny helps, so please, as we stand together, do not let these political games rob families of their security and their dignity,\u201d said Fred Yamashita, secretary-treasurer and executive director of Arizona AFL-CIO.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99,which represents private sector workers in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico,\u00a0kicked off the drive with a $20,000 donation.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Ansari and Stanton noted that the House hasn\u2019t been in session since Sept. 19 \u2013 a prolonged \u201cvacation\u201d that makes it hard to get a deal done.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>Johnson says there\u2019s nothing to negotiate and he won\u2019t call the House back into session until Senate Democrats help pass the House spending plan.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201cYou show up without pay, because duty still means something. That is patriotism in its purest form,\u201d Stanton said.<\/p>\r\n<p>This <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2025\/10\/21\/shutdown-arizona-federal-workers\/\">article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\">Cronkite News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<STRONG>For more stories from Cronkite News, visit <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/?utm_source=referral&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=client\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A>.<\/STRONG>\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" id=\"republication-tracker-tool-source\" src=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/?republication-pixel=true&#038;post=97032\" style=\"width:1px;height:1px;\"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: \"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2025\/10\/21\/shutdown-arizona-federal-workers\/\", urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=\"parsely-cfg\" src=\"\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/p.js\"><\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona federal workers, labor leaders and elected Democratic officials demanded an immediate end to the government shutdown, saying the three-week stalemate is inflicting deep hardship across the state.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[5366,42,170,46,94,1978,75,121,836,48,551,4292,167,85,91,6863,1994,508,6213],"class_list":["post-266726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-arizona","tag-congress","tag-cronkite-news","tag-democrats","tag-dol","tag-donald-trump","tag-employment","tag-greg-stanton","tag-house","tag-john-thune","tag-mike-johnson","tag-new-mexico","tag-republicans","tag-senate","tag-shutdownn","tag-unions","tag-utah","tag-yassamin-ansari","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/23\/GregStanton.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-17o2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266726"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266751,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266726\/revisions\/266751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}