The United States government shut down most of its operations on Wednesday after the White House and Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal funding before a scheduled deadline, Reuters reported.

More than 7.5 lakh federal employees are expected to be furloughed or temporarily discharged and some could be fired by the Donald Trump administration during the standoff, the Associated Press reported.

Several government offices will remain shut during the period. However, the US is expected to continue deporting undocumented migrants, even as education and environmental programmes face uncertainty about funding.

The current impasse began after the Senate, which is the Upper House of the Congress, rejected a short-term spending measure that would have kept government services afloat through November 21, Reuters reported.

The proposed legislation was opposed by the Democrats because Republicans refused to attach an extension of health benefits for millions of Americans set to expire at the end of the year, which could raise insurance premiums nationwide, AP reported.

Republicans have said that the matter must be addressed separately.

Although Republicans hold majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, spending bills require the support of at least 60 senators, meaning seven Democrats would need to cross party lines for the measures to pass.

This marks the 15th US government shutdown since 1981. Most have lasted only a few days, but the longest stretched 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019, during Trump’s first term, amid a dispute over border security.

Ahead of the current impasse, Trump had said that his administration did not want a shutdown.

But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that the current administration wanted to “bully” his party, Reuters reported. “And they’re not going to succeed.”

Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader John Thune described the failed short-term spending legislation as a “nonpartisan” measure that Democrats have had no problem accepting in the past.

“What’s changed is, President Trump is in the White House,” Thune told reporters. “That’s what this is about. This is politics. And there isn’t any substantive reason why there ought to be a government shutdown.”

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