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Government shutdown updates: Leavitt says Trump exploring cutting aid to Portland
"We will not fund states that allow anarchy," she told reporters.
The federal government remains closed amid a bitter impasse on Capitol Hill over competing congressional spending bills.
President Donald Trump and Republicans have cast blame for the shutdown on Democrats' health care demands, while Democrats insist Republicans need to negotiate.
The Trump administration has threatened mass layoffs of some federal workers during the shutdown.
Key Headlines
Senate to return Friday after Yom Kippur
The Senate will be out in observance of Yom Kippur on Thursday after it adjourned Wednesday without reaching a deal to end the shutdown.
The next votes scheduled for Friday afternoon, when the Senate is expected to once again take up two bills related to government funding: the Democratic proposal that includes health care provisions and the Republican stopgap bill.
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin
Trump calls for culling 'dead wood' in government amid shutdown
President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening called on Republicans to use the first shutdown in almost 7 years to cull potential "dead wood" from within the federal government.
"Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud," Trump said on social media, a quote later shared by official White House accounts.
"Billions of Dollars can be saved," Trump added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Wednesday told reporters that layoffs of some federal employees were "imminent."
"These are unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown," Leavitt said on Wednesday.
OMB director tells Republicans layoffs will come in next 'day or two': Sources
OMB Director Russell Vought warned Republican lawmakers on a conference call Wednesday that the Trump administration will start firing federal workers in the next "day or two," multiple sources who were on the call told ABC News.
The firings would be part of the administration’s effort to initiate a reduction in force, or RIF, targeting furloughed federal employees.
Vought issued a memo last week warning of possible cuts in the event of a shutdown.
The congressional sources on the call told ABC News Vought did not provide any additional details on which departments and agencies could be impacted, or how deep a new round of RIFs may cut into the federal workforce.
The sources said Vought also acknowledged that the WIC nutrition program -- providing funds to help feed women, infants and children -- will run out soon.
-ABC News' John Parkinson
White House cancels $8B in energy funding amid shutdown
The White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced that the administration is moving to cancel $8 billion in funding for programs that he claims, "fuel the Left's climate agenda."
"Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled," Vought said in a post announcing the move.
Vought added that more details would come from the Department of Energy.
"The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA," Vought added in the post.
The states that Vought listed all have at least one Democratic Senator voting against a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. The move comes after the administration paused funding for a New York infrastructure program that was championed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart