Nearly 750,000 federal employees have been placed on furlough due to the government shutdown, the first since 2018.
The Trump administration may use the shutdown as an opportunity to reduce staffing levels within federal institutions, as Democrats and Republicans have so far failed to reach an agreement on the budget.
A wide range of federal services are affected, with only essential functions such as police, hospitals and fire departments continuing to operate.
Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over healthcare spending, with the Republican Party pushing to make access to the system more restrictive.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump pledged to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce. This week, the US president oversaw the country’s largest-ever mass resignation, with more than 100,000 federal employees leaving under his administration’s deferred resignation programme.
The Trump administration plans to cut 300,000 federal jobs by the end of the year.
