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Republicans and Democrats are trading barbs on Wednesday morning as the federal government settles into the first day of a shutdown.

‘Democrats made this choice, Democrats forced this crisis, and Democrats alone will answer to hardworking Americans now paying the price for their reckless agenda,’ Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday night.

The government entered a shutdown just after midnight Wednesday after the Senate failed to advance a short-term federal funding bill called a continuing resolution (CR) hours earlier. The measure did not reach the necessary 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster — falling 55-45 — with just three Democrats joining the GOP on Tuesday night.

Certain federal services will temporarily cease to function, and some government workers — including the military and air traffic controllers at airports — must continue to clock in under deferred pay.

Veteran services and military operations will continue to be funded, and Social Security checks will continue to be sent out to Americans, among other essential services.

But some federal workers could lose their jobs altogether, as indicated by a memo sent to federal agencies earlier this month by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought.

Republicans are now blaming Democrats for plunging the government into a shutdown, while Democrats are accusing Republicans of refusing to negotiate on what’s traditionally a bipartisan exercise.

‘Virginia is home to tens of thousands of federal workers, contractors and service members who keep our country running. Tonight, they are once again being forced to wonder when they will get their next paycheck — not because they failed to do their jobs, but because lawmakers in Congress failed to do theirs,’ Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., whose district includes the D.C. suburbs, said in a Tuesday night statement. 

‘Trump and his rubber-stamp Republicans have chosen to hurt Virginia families instead of working across the aisle. It’s past time they come to the table so we can find real solutions, reopen the government, and deliver for the people we serve.’

Meanwhile, Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, whose coal country district includes Youngstown, told Fox News Digital, ‘The current government shutdown is the culmination of months of the same tired and disruptive tactics used by the left against the American people.’

‘In November 2024, President Trump and the Republicans received an overwhelming mandate to govern. Yet, every time we try to implement the changes demanded by voters, we face fierce resistance — even on straightforward measures like a clean CR, which Congress approved 13 times before,’ Rulli said.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., wrote on X, ‘FACT: Schumer led a shutdown to hold the government hostage for a $1.5 trillion liberal payout.’

His message came in reference to Democrats’ own CR proposal calling for a repeal of healthcare spending cuts made in the GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’ Their plan would have also restored funding to NPR and PBS that was cut by the Trump administration earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Democrats have also demanded any CR include Obamacare subsidies, enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic but due to expire this year, in exchange for their votes.

‘Thousands of hard-working federal employees in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District woke up this morning to learn whether they were furloughed or required to work without pay,’ Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., wrote on X. ‘This shutdown was entirely avoidable. Democrats in Washington remain ready, willing and able to negotiate a bipartisan agreement to keep the government open and lower healthcare costs for Americans everywhere.’

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., similarly said in a statement, ‘Democrats have been clear for months: we will not support a budget that inflicts a healthcare crisis on the American people in order to fund Trump’s continued destruction of our democracy and out-of-control mass deportations.’

First-term Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, countered that ‘Democrats created this crisis.’

‘Democrats in the Senate just voted to shut the government down. This will impact food assistance programs, veterans’ care, troops’ pay, TSA agents’ and air traffic controllers’ pay, and so much more. Their reason? They want to restore taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens and prop up liberal news outlets with your $$,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have also heaped blame on one another’s parties, with both expected to make their cases to Americans on Wednesday.

The Senate is also expected to vote on the CR again on Wednesday.

A leading nonprofit dedicated to consumer information is launching a seven-figure ad campaign against what it is calling the ‘wokest insurance company’ in the country.

In a letter to the Department of Justice and Treasury Department, Consumers’ Research alleges that Chubb Insurance has ‘ongoing practices’ which go against the Trump administration’s agenda but ‘very likely the Civil Rights Act and other federal anti-discrimination laws.’

‘Chubb Insurance is all-in on pushing radical woke ideology. CEO Evan Greenberg openly opposes basic protections for women’s spaces, attacks democratic laws, continues to embrace DEI, and props up groups that expose kids to dangerous transgender activism,’ Will Hild, Executive Director of Consumers’ Research, said in a statement exclusively to Fox News Digital.

‘On climate, Chubb has a history of weaponizing insurance coverage to hurt America’s energy industry, cutting support for coal and natural gas to chase leftist climate fantasies. Woke corporations like Chubb are going to extremes and ordinary Americans are paying the price,’ Hild continues.

Consumers’ Research is highlighting several past comments from leaders at the insurance company, including Executive Vice President and General Counsel Joseph Wayland saying in a LEADERS Magazine interview in 2021 that ‘Diversity, equity and inclusion are the foundation of our Chubb culture.’

‘I am concerned about my country’s America First brand of nationalism and its impact on our image and leadership in both trade and geopolitics in the short and potentially longer term,’ Evan Greenberg, CEO and Chairman of Chubb Insurance, wrote in a letter in a 2017 report, according to Carrier Management. 

Greenberg also criticized Trump’s America First platform in an interview with Carrier Management in 2021 and criticized the president’s trade policies. 

When it comes to the company’s business practices, NPR reported in 2019 that the insurance company would not underwrite coal facilities anymore. As recently as March 2025, the company put forth strict guidelines in order for it to underwrite in the oil and gas industry.

On its website, Chubb said it will not ‘underwrite the construction and operation of new coal-fired plants or new risks for companies that generate more than 30% of their revenues from coal mining or energy production from coal’ and began ending coverage for ‘existing coal plant risks’ that go above the 30% mark as of 2022.

‘Chubb recognizes the reality of climate change and the substantial impact of human activity on our planet,’ Greenberg stated, according to the company’s website. ‘Making the transition to a low-carbon economy involves planning and action by policymakers, investors, businesses and citizens alike. The policy we are implementing today reflects Chubb’s commitment to do our part as a steward of the Earth.’

On its webpage, Chubb discusses ‘Advancing Racial Justice,’ where the company touts its support of an organization called Equal Justice USA (EJUSA), which openly supported convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

According to that same webpage, the company believes ‘racial justice and equity is both an individual journey and collective duty.’

‘We believe in being anti-racist because a rejection of racism alone is insufficient,’ the website states. 

The company also says on that web page that it has curated a series of programs for employees instructing them how to ‘combat racism.’ 

As for the advertisements themselves, there will be a national television ad in addition to mobile billboards outside their offices in Washington D.C., New York City and New Jersey, as well as Capitol Hill. The campaign will also live on the website WokeChubb.com.

‘Dear conservatives, Chubb Insurance is for: DEI in Everything They Do, Radical Climate Ideology, Trans Activism,’ one ad states. ‘Chubb Insurance is against: The American First Agenda, U.S. Energy Producers, 2nd Amendment Advocates.’

Chubb’s business spans across 54 countries and territories, all 50 states, and employees over 40,000 people worldwide.

The company, based out of Zurich with a U.S. headquarters in New York City, did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uncovered that the Biden administration placed some Americans who resisted the COVID-19 mask mandate or were involved in the events of Jan 6, 2021, on prolonged TSA watchlists, including some on a no-fly list typically reserved for suspected terrorists.

Fox News Digital acquired the findings of an internal investigation conducted by the agencies that showed that then-President Joe Biden’s TSA initiated ‘Operation Freedom to Breathe’ in September 2021, roughly six months after the CDC relaxed the COVID-19 mask mandate, which targeted Americans who previously resisted mask mandates set forth by the Biden Administration. 

The initiative placed 19 Americans on various levels of intensive watchlists, with more than half added to the highest severity no-fly list, preventing them from boarding a flight in the U.S. entirely. Eleven of the individuals remained on watchlists until April 2022, when the national mask mandate was lifted by the Biden administration. 

‘Biden’s TSA Administrator [David] Pekoske and his cronies abused their authority and weaponized the federal government against the very people they were charged with protecting,’ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Digital. 

‘Biden’s TSA wildly abused their authority, targeting Americans who posed no aviation security risk under the banner of political differences,’ Noem added. ‘President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against the American people, and we are making good on that promise.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Pekoske, but did not receive a response.

The investigation also concluded that Biden’s TSA placed roughly 280 individuals allegedly involved in the Capitol protests on Jan 6, 2021, on watchlists, including five on a no-fly list. 

Biden’s TSA ignored internal concerns raised by career intelligence officials and TSA’s Chief Privacy Officer that placing individuals on the list ‘is clearly unrelated to transportation security,‘ and that ‘TSA is punishing people for the expression of their ideas when they haven’t been charged, let alone convicted of incitement or sedition,’ according to emails from a top privacy official at TSA dated Jan 13, 2021, obtained by Fox News Digital.

Another TSA intelligence employee also expressed worry over watchlisting individuals allegedly involved in the Capitol protest, saying most individuals who were arrested ‘are technically curfew breakers,’ and that ‘I hope we don’t end up adding them [to a watchlist] on just the arrest,’ according to an internal email obtained by Fox.

Internal emails said that TSA mainly relied on the George Washington University Program of Extremism academic database and social media, rather than traditional sources like the FBI and local police, to determine which individuals should be placed on watchlists.

One individual, a national guardsman deployed to the Capitol for Biden’s inauguration on Jan 20, 2021 and was not present at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, was added to a no-fly list because of bad intelligence from Biden’s FBI.

Another individual, the wife of a federal air marshal who was also not present at the Capitol on Jan 6, was added to a watchlist due to additional bad intelligence from the Biden FBI.

Americans allegedly involved with the events of Jan 6, 2021, who were not tied to unrelated, individual incidents, were removed from various watchlists on June, 28, 2021. 

A majority of Americans allegedly involved with the events of Jan 6, 2021, who were placed on watchlists were removed from them on June, 28, 2021, though some who had been charged remained watchlisted until they were cleared.

Sources at TSA say the Biden administration’s targeting of Americans is the most expansive use of putting U.S. citizens on a no-fly list in history. 

Noem told Fox News Digital that the agency will be ‘referring this case to the Department of Justice and for Congressional investigation.’

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston

The Trump administration is looking to cut funding for a program that provides permanent housing to the homeless, a move that may leave those the program aims to help back on the streets, according to a report.

More than 170,000 people could be at risk of experiencing homelessness when more than half the funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) permanent housing program is cut, Politico reported on Monday, citing three HUD employees, internal HUD documents and a person with knowledge of the Continuum of Care (CoC) program.

The cut funds will be moved to transitional housing assistance with some work or service requirements, according to the internal documents and those with knowledge of the situation. The cuts could have a greater impact on rural areas that have less access to city and state funds to supplement federal dollars, the people told the outlet.

‘When the subsidy and the support that goes along with those subsidies is removed, it puts people at grave risk,’ said the person with inside knowledge of the CoC program. ‘And most of these folks without these supports will likely end up back in emergency shelters or back on our nation’s streets.’

HUD Secretary Scott Turner wrote in a  Fox News Digital opinion piecei earlier this month about a ‘paradigm shift’ in the department’s approach to homelessness and housing.

‘But our goal is to let HUD use real, proven effective strategies, and there is no evidence that giving free apartments to the homeless without preconditions or participation requirements – like job training or treatment – leads to good outcomes,’ Turner wrote. 

‘There is evidence, however, that countless lives have been lost to overdoses in HUD-funded housing because of this failed ideology,’ the secretary continued.

Turner wrote that HUD wants to continue to help support work that aims to aid those experiencing homelessness and battling addiction to recover and become self-sufficient.

Permanent housing funding for 2026 is currently $3.3 billion and could be cut in half to $1.1 billion through the Trump administration’s effort, according to Politico.