Trump administration attorney says guarantee of back pay justifies issuing widespread reductions in force, but judge finds the layoffs unlawful.

Republicans and Democrats keep hearing about the negative impact of the shutdown. But they just think those are arguments for the other side to cave.

Speaker Mike Johnson was briefly confronted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene during a private House GOP call on Tuesday.

A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday indefinitely barred the Trump administration from firing federal employees during the government shutdown, saying that labor unions were likely to prevail on their claims that the cuts were arbitrary and politically motivated.

Greene, a Georgia Republican and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, has had some high-profile breaks from her party in recent weeks.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went back-and-forth during a private call with House Republicans on Tuesday, according to one source on the call, as tensions rise during the shutdown.

A union calling for the shutdown's immediate end is not deterring Democrats, though they continue negotiating a bipartisan measure to pay all workers immediately.

WASHINGTON -- The pressure to end the second-longest federal government shutdown is gaining new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans.