Image source, Reuters

In a news conference about the shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats have not moved from their position: they will continue fighting to bring back funding for Americans' healthcare.

Jeffries says that congressional Republicans won't do anything unless President Donald Trump tells them to.

"I said this directly to the president, with Johnson and Thune right next to me, this does not get resolved until you decide to give permission to Republicans on Capitol Hill to negotiate a bipartisan resolution," Jeffries says, referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Jeffries also adds that House Democrats are ready to consider any bipartisan, good-faith proposals that come out of the Senate.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Question: What is the total federal dollar spending for illegal immigrants’ health? Lorenzo Valla

That’s an important question amid the shutdown and goes to the heart of Republican claims about what the Democrats want and, in their view, why the shutdown is happening.

Donald Trump, for example, has posted in the past that “Democrats want to give your healthcare money to illegal aliens” - a claim that is often repeated by other administration officials and senior Congressional Republicans.

But the reality is far more nuanced, and Republicans have provided little evidence to back these claims up.

Occasionally, some Republicans will point to a 2024 letter from the Congressional Budget Office which noted that $27m was spent by federal and state governments on emergency Medicaid over a seven-year period.

By most accounts, the bulk of that money, however, went to lawfully present immigrants, rather than undocumented.

Undocumented immigrants are already not eligible for federal healthcare schemes like Medicaid. But federal law mandates that hospitals give emergency assistance to anyone - regardless of their status in the US - for which they are reimbursed by federal Medicaid funds.

That money, however, represents just a tiny fraction of the total. One estimate, by KFF, puts the sum for noncitizen immigrants at less than 1% of the total between 2017 and 2023. Some years, it has been estimated to be less than half a percentage point.

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Natalie Sherman
US business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Federal worker Michael Galletly sat down with his wife earlier this month to work out how their family would make it through the shutdown with no income from his federal government job.

The outlook: uncertain.

"I could make it two months, maybe three lean, very lean months," said Galletly, who was put on unpaid leave this month from his job as an IT management specialist at the Department of Agriculture in Utah. "But I don't know how long this thing is going to go."

Galletly, who is also president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 4016, said he had already started to pull back his purchases, scrapping plans to buy a camper trailer, opting for a second-hand laptop for his daughter, and putting on hold thoughts of replacing windows, including one that is leaking.

The adjustments point to the ways the impact of the shutdown is starting to be felt across the economy.

Not all aspects of government stop during a shutdown. Services deemed essential continue as normal, although in many cases staff are not paid for the duration of the suspension.

Border protection and law enforcement staff, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and in-hospital medical care workers are expected to operate as usual.

However thousands of flights have been cancelled or delayed because of a shortage of air traffic controllers, who are also expected to work without pay.

US troops were on track to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday, but the Trump administration said it had "identified funds" to keep them paid.

Several agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have also furloughed many workers, affecting ongoing research projects.

Services like the food assistance programme and federally-funded pre-school and institutions like the Smithsonian museums have been reduced or closed.

Mail is still being delivered and post offices are open because the US Postal Service does not depend on Congress for funding.

Most American schools are state-funded, but the federal government is responsible for billions of dollars in grants and student loans, which could effectively come to a halt.

Members of Congress are still being paid, a convention that has been criticised by some politicians.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Question: Is the Congress paid during a shutdown? Dave

Yes. Members of Congress are paid during a shutdown.

They're in the fortunate position of having a line in the US constitution that mandates that they receive "compensation for their services" out of the US treasury. Their pay, set by federal law, is independent of the annual spending bills that Congress enacts (or, in this case, hasn’t enacted) to fund government operations.

Congressional staff – the folks that really keep things running at the Capitol – aren't so lucky. Like most federal workers, they've been going without pay since the shutdown began.

It is the 24th day of the federal government shutdown, and as of now, there still seems to be no end in sight.

On Wednesday, lawmakers voted for the 12th time on a Republican funding bill to re-open the government, but it failed once again, 54-46.

The Senate won't return until Monday afternoon, meaning the shutdown will last at least into next week.

Republicans and Democrats are at an impasse, each side blaming the other for the prolonged pause for many government services.

This week, a post on the Democratic caucus's social media account said Democrats were hearing "directly from Americans" about their complaints, while accusing Republicans of having a "month-long vacation".

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has repeated mostly the same remarks since the shutdown began, saying it is up to Democrats to re-open the government. This week he said the party is on "an all-out assault" against what he says as the truth of Democrats' role in the shutdown.

Sakshi Venkatraman
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The US federal government has been shut down for more than three weeks.

Today, thousands of US government employees will miss their first paycheques, and many others have already been furloughed or laid off.

After 12 votes on a motion to reopen the government, Republican and Democratic lawmakers' priorities are still not in alignment.

This means that some, but not all, US government services are temporarily suspended, and around 1.4 million federal employees are on unpaid leave or working without pay.

We're here to bring you the latest as the shutdown becomes one of the longest in US history.

Stick with us to hear the latest updates as well as what furloughed employees, expert voices and political leaders have to say.

We'll also be answering your questions about what it all means. Thanks for joining us.