The Daily Signal - No End in Sight for Shutdown, Supreme Court to Rule on Conversion Therapy, Mass Federal Layoffs | Oct. 8, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 Silly season continues in Washington, D.C. as the government remains shut down thanks to Senate Democrats' demands to provide taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants. Also, a major case in front of the Supreme Court yesterday that could result in a big win for social conservatives. And finally, President Donald Trump made a big announcement regarding the size of the federal government in light of the current government shutdown. I'm Daily Signal Politics editor Bradley Devlin in for Tony Kinnett. The date is October 8th, 2025, and this is your top news in 10. Now almost a week into the federal government shutdown, Senate Democrats are still withholding their support for a short-term funding extension, but pressure to reopen the government could soon intensify as the government starts to run out of money to fund certain programs

Starting point is 00:00:58 and pay government paychecks. On Monday, the Senate voted for a fifth time to advance a measure that would fund the government through November 21st, but that measure failed to surpass the Senate filibuster, with the final tally being 52 in favor and 42 oppose, reports George Caldwell for the Daily Signal. Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to keep forcing the Senate to vote on this measure in the coming days. Some Senate Democrats are already concerned enough to support Republican efforts to reopen government. most notably Senator John Federman of Pennsylvania. The Daily Signal asked Federman if there were specific programs that he was worried about lapsing during the shutdown. And he replied, quote, the whole government, end quote, adding that it is a, quote, core responsibility to keep our government open, end quote. For now, however, Senate Democrats are choosing to keep the government closed.

Starting point is 00:01:52 But the pressure to reopen the government could soon intensify. If the government shutdown continues through October 15th, military troops and many government employees will miss their first paycheck. According to several reports, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise identified that mid-October cutoff on House Republican conference call as a major pressure point for Democrats that could hasten their acquiescence to reopening government. Additionally, the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, WIC, for short, is a nutrition and health care program for pregnant women, mothers, and children. Well, that funding could run out in the coming days. The program has been running on $150 million in contingency funding during the shutdown, but an Office of Management and Budget spokesperson said in a statement that it will,

Starting point is 00:02:42 quote, run out of money in October, and women and children could no longer receive benefits, end quote. Trump administration has also applied pressure to end the shutdown by suggesting reductions in the federal workforce. Those could be coming as non-essential government employees are furloughed and more on that story in just a moment. But some Democrats don't think the pressure will break their resolve to keep the government shut down because cutting federal programs and the federal workforce is business as usual under a Trump administration. At least that's according to Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. He told reporters that caving to Republicans is bad politics because OMB director Russ vote is going to reduce the size of the federal workforce regardless. Quote, I believe that he'll fire people because he was firing people.

Starting point is 00:03:30 The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over a Colorado law that bans so-called conversion therapy for minors who are confused about their sexuality or gender. Mary Mowgli reports for the Daily Signal. Colorado says its law regulates a, quote, treatment, end quote, that is harmful and that violates the state's standard of care. But in Childs v. Salazar, Kaylee Childs, a Colorado-based counselor, argues the law violates her right to free speech by favoring, quote, the expression of some views over others, end quote. Childs, a Christian, says that under the law, she can't counsel a confused minor to embrace her biological sex, but she can counsel a minor to embrace their, quote, transgender identity.

Starting point is 00:04:16 And no surprise, this case has made its way to the highest court in the land. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard the argument, and in a shocking line of questioning early on, Justice Sonia Sotomayor abruptly asked whether Childs encourages her clients to vomit or exposes them to electric shock therapy. James Campbell, Child's attorney, said she simply engages in what she calls, quote, voluntary talk therapy, end quote, to help clients achieve their goals. And that's a question the court repeatedly turned to, with arguments largely focused on whether Childs engages in speech or conduct when she counsels these clients. Earlier this year, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against

Starting point is 00:04:59 Childs because it said her counseling was, quote, professional conduct, end quote, not speech, meaning it wasn't protected by the First Amendment. Justice Kachanji Brown Jackson harkened back to that decision on Tuesday, saying she was, quote, struggling to understand, end quote, whether a therapist who's acting in her professional capacity is really expressing a message for First Amendment purposes. Campbell describes child's counseling as voluntary speech between a licensed professional and a minor,

Starting point is 00:05:30 which he argued means it's protected under the First Amendment, citing a 2018 Supreme Court case called N-I-F-L-A versus Bersera. And Chief Justice John Roberts noted that simply because someone engages in conduct does not mean that she is not also engaging in protected speech. Meanwhile, the state of Colorado said its law simply bans certain harmful treatments that violate the state's standard of care. Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson pointed to two studies that allegedly found higher rates of suicidality among teens who underwent

Starting point is 00:06:03 conversion therapy. But Child's attorney accused Colorado's attorney of relying on biased sampling, self-reporting, and the conflation of aversion therapy, which is therapy designed to associate unwanted behaviors with negative experiences with the counseling that Child's provides. From here, the Supreme Court will decide whether Colorado's law is constitutional or whether it violates child's right to free speech, which could have major implications in conservatives' efforts to protect free speech and America's children from transgender ideology. And more on those reductions in force? Yes, President Trump will be making some big decisions on the size of the federal

Starting point is 00:06:40 workforce in the coming days. And Daily Signal White House correspondent Elizabeth Mitchell has the story. Have you identified programs to eliminate under this shutdown? Oh, sure. Sure. Which ones? We have a lot. I'm not going to tell you, but we'll be announcing it pretty soon.

Starting point is 00:06:55 But we have a lot of things that we're going to eliminate and permanently eliminate. You know, one of the things that are going to eliminate. that we have is some advantage, you could say. But because of the shutdown, which I think they made a big mistake, we're able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. And they've handed it, you know, or a silver platter. And you know, Russell Vote, he's a serious person, very serious person. He's sitting there, and he's getting ready to cut things. And this is something that was handed to us by, I assume, Schumer, I just don't know if Schumer has any power anymore. I look at your leadership. I don't know who to speak to. I'll tell you what,

Starting point is 00:07:34 I'm getting calls from Democrats wanting to meet. I never even heard their names before, and they're claiming to be leader. The Democrats have no leader. They remind me of Somalia, okay? No. And I met the president of Somalia. I told them about the problem he's got. I said, you have somebody from Somalia who's telling us how to run our country. She's from Somalia. Would you like to take her back? He said, no, I don't want her. Okay, you know what I'm doing? How many permanent jobs are you talking about to be a limited?

Starting point is 00:08:09 Well, I can tell you, I'll be able to tell you that in four or five days. If this keeps going on. If this keeps going on, it'll be substantial. And a lot of those jobs will never come back. But you're going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget, actually. On Monday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he will know which permanent jobs are being eliminated, quote, in four or five days, end quote, if the shutdown continues.

Starting point is 00:08:35 Quote, it'll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back, end quote. That's a big warning from the president who has been talking about these reductions in force in the case of a government shutdown for the past few weeks. But his comments saying it's four or five days away is seemingly an extension of a previous deadline floated by the administration. On October 1st, press secretary Caroline Levitt said layoffs would start to happen. and within two days, and she described cuts as being imminent or very soon. And on October 5th, Trump said that firings are taking place right now.

Starting point is 00:09:06 But Levitt later clarified to the Daily Signal that he was referring to federal workers who have been furloughed. Leavitt said, quote, the president was referring to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed as a result of this federal government shutdown, both here at the White House and across the entire. higher federal government, end quote. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has been gearing up for reductions in force over the course of the government shutdown, which furloughs thousands of non-essential federal employees.

Starting point is 00:09:39 The difficult task, however, for these reductions is which non-essential workers are more essential than others. Again, not an easy job. But that is all the time we have today this October 8th, 2025. Until next time, I'm Bradley Devlin, Politics Editor for the Daily Signal, and we'll see you again tomorrow. Thank you.

The Daily Signal - No End in Sight for Shutdown, Supreme Court to Rule on Conversion Therapy, Mass Federal Layoffs | Oct. 8, 2025

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