The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 11, 2025) extended an order blocking full SNAP payments, amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid payments resume.

The order keeps in place at least for a few more days a chaotic situation. People who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed their families in some states have received their full monthly allocations, while others have received nothing.

The order will expire just before midnight Thursday (November 13).

The Senate has approved a bill to end the shutdown and the House of Representatives could vote on it as early as Wednesday (November 12). Reopening the government would restart the program that helps 42 million Americans buy groceries, but it’s not clear how quickly full payments would resume.

The justices chose what is effectively the path of least resistance, anticipating the federal government shutdown will end soon while avoiding any substantive legal ruling about whether lower court orders to keep full payments flowing during the shutdown are correct.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only one of the nine justices to say she would have revived the lower court orders immediately, but didn’t otherwise explain her vote. Jackson signed the initial order temporarily freezing the payments.

Beneficiaries in some states have received their full monthly allocations while in others they have received nothing. Some states have issued partial payments.

How quickly SNAP benefits could reach recipients if the government reopens would vary by state. But states and advocates say that it’s easier to make full payments quickly than partial ones.

Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst at the advocacy group Share Our Strength, also said there could be some technical challenges for states that have issued partial benefits to send out the remaining amount.

An urgent need for beneficiaries

In Pennsylvania, full November benefits went out to some people on Friday. But Jim Malliard, 41, of Franklin, said he had not received anything by Monday (November 10).

Mr. Malliard is a full-time caretaker for his wife, who is blind and has had several strokes this year, and his teenage daughter, who suffered severe medical complications from surgery last year.

That stress has only been compounded by the pause in the $350 monthly SNAP payment he previously received for himself, his wife and daughter. He said he is down to $10 in his account and is relying on what’s left in the pantry — mostly rice and ramen.

“It’s kind of been a lot of late nights, making sure I had everything down to the penny to make sure I was right,” Mr. Malliard said. “To say anxiety has been my issue for the past two weeks is putting it mildly.” The political wrangling in Washington has shocked many Americans, and some have been moved to help.

“I figure that I’ve spent money on dumber stuff than trying to feed other people during a manufactured famine,” said Ashley Oxenford, a teacher who set out a “little food pantry” in her front yard this week for vulnerable neighbors in Carthage, New York.

SNAP has been the center of an intense fight in court

The Trump administration chose to cut off SNAP funding after October due to the shutdown. That decision sparked lawsuits and a string of swift and contradictory judicial rulings that deal with government power — and impact food access for about 1 in 8 Americans.

The administration went along with two rulings on Oct. 31 by judges who said the government must provide at least partial funding for SNAP. It eventually said recipients would get up to 65% of their regular benefits. But it balked last week when one of the judges said it must fund the program fully for November, even if that means digging into funds the government said need to be maintained in case of emergencies elsewhere.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to pause that order.

An appeals court said Monday that full funding should resume, and that requirement was set to kick in Tuesday night before the top court extended the order blocking full SNAP payments.

Congressional talks about reopening government

The U.S. Senate on Monday (November 10) passed legislation to reopen the federal government with a plan that would include replenishing SNAP funds. Speaker Mike Johnson told members of the House to return to Washington to consider the deal a small group of Senate Democrats made with Republicans.

President Donald Trump has not said whether he would sign it if it reaches his desk, but told reporters at the White House on Sunday (November 9) that it “looks like we’re getting close to the shutdown ending.”

Still, the Trump administration said in a Supreme Court filing Monday (November 10) that it shouldn’t be up to the courts.

“The answer to this crisis is not for federal courts to reallocate resources without lawful authority,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the papers. “The only way to end this crisis — which the Executive is adamant to end — is for Congress to reopen the government.”

After Tuesday’s ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media: “Thank you to the Court for allowing Congress to continue its swift progress.” The coalition of cities and nonprofit groups who challenged the SNAP pause said in a court filing Tuesday that the Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, is to blame for the confusion.

“The chaos was sown by USDA’s delays and intransigence,” they said, “not by the district court’s efforts to mitigate that chaos and the harm it has inflicted on families who need food.”

Published – November 12, 2025 09:25 am IST

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., makes a statement to reporters following a vote in the Senate to move forward with a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. Senate took a major step toward ending the longest government shutdown in American history when it cleared the way for a formal debate on a motion to resume funding to federal agencies.

The development represents significant progress toward ending a government shutdown that has dragged on for over 40 days, halted funding to federal programs and disrupted air travel and other essential industries.

The breakthrough late Sunday (November 9, 2025) came after Republican and Democratic lawmakers reached a stopgap agreement to fund the government through January, after wrangling over healthcare subsidies, food benefits and Mr. Trump’s firings of federal employees.

Following the deal the Republican-led chamber approved a procedural vote by 60 votes to 40, putting a hard limit on how much longer senators can discuss the legislative measure.

It gave lawmakers a maximum of 30 more hours to conduct debate before voting on the motion, which will only need 50 votes to pass.

It will still need approval from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives before it lands on President Donald Trump’s desk — a process which could take days.

As the news emerged, Mr. Trump told reporters when he arrived at the White House after a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida: “It looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending.”

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia was among the eight who joined Republicans to support the measure, saying: “I need a moratorium on the punishing of the federal workforce.”

Virginia is home to 300,000 federal workers, and the deal would restore all furloughed employees and reverse reductions-in-force layoffs by the Mr. Trump administration.

The bill to keep the government funded at pre-shutdown levels “will protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay” as required by law, Mr. Kaine added.

Fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer could not be persuaded and voted against the measure, saying that “Republicans have spent the past 10 months dismantling the healthcare system, skyrocketing costs, and making every day harder for American families.”

But Republican Senator John Thune celebrated the win, and what it could mean for Americans facing intense financial strain.

“After 40 days of uncertainty, I’m profoundly glad to be able to announce that nutrition programs, our veterans, and other critical priorities will have their full-year funding,” Mr. Thune said.

Stock markets rallied Monday (November 10, 2025) on hopes the shutdown could be nearing an end, with Tokyo and Hong Kong up more than 1% and European bourses higher in early trade.

Federal services in demand

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier Sunday (November 9, 2025) that if the shutdown continued, the number of flights being cut would multiply — even as Americans gear up to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday later this month.

Mr. Duffy warned that US air travel could soon “slow to a trickle,” as thousands more flights were cancelled or delayed over the weekend.

The number of cancellations both within the United States as well as to and from the country had surpassed 3,000, with more than 10,000 delays, by Sunday (November 9, 2025) evening, according to data from tracking platform FlightAware.

Without a deal, Mr. Duffy warned that many Americans planning to travel for the November 27 Thanksgiving holiday are “not going to be able to get on an airplane, because there are not going to be that many flights that fly if this thing doesn’t open back up.”

It could take days for flight schedules to recover after the shutdown finally ends and federal funding, including salaries, starts to flow again.

According to lawmakers, the bill would restore funding for the SNAP food stamp program which helps more than 42 million lower-income Americans pay for groceries.

It would also ensure a vote on extending healthcare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

Many Democrats in the House and beyond the beltway have opposed the deal.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that the average monthly SNAP benefit is $177 per beneficiary and the average monthly healthcare benefit under the Affordable Care Act is up to $550 per person.

“People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives,” the Democrat wrote on X.

“Working people want leaders whose word means something.”

Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom also panned the move with one word on X: “Pathetic.”

Published – November 10, 2025 07:22 am IST

Republicans and Democrats remained at a stalemate on the government shutdown over the weekend as it headed into its sixth week, with food aid potentially delayed or suspended for millions of Americans and President Donald Trump pushing GOP leaders to change Senate rules to end it.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday that Mr. Trump has spoken to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson as he has publicly and repeatedly pushed for an end to the Senate filibuster.

But Republicans have strongly rejected Mr. Trump’s calls since his first term, arguing that the rule requiring 60 votes to overcome any objections in the Senate is vital to the institution and has allowed them to stop Democratic policies when they are in the minority.

Ms. Leavitt said on Sunday (November 2, 2025) that the Democrats are “crazed people” who haven’t shown any signs of budging.

“That’s why President Trump has said Republicans need to get tough, they need to get smart, and they need to use this option to get rid of the filibuster, to reopen the government and do right by the American public,” Ms. Leavitt said on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News.

Democrats have voted thirteen times against reopening the government, denying Republicans the votes in the 53-47 Senate as they insist on negotiations to extend government health care subsidies that will be cut off at the end of the year. Republicans say they won’t negotiate until the government is reopened.

With the two parties at a standstill, the shutdown, now in its 33rd day, appears likely become the longest in history. The previous record was set in 2019, when Mr. Trump demanded that Congress give him money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Mr. Trump’s push on the filibuster could prove a distraction for Mr. Thune and Republican senators who have opted instead to stay the course as the consequences of the shutdown have become more acute, including more missed paychecks for air traffic controllers and other government workers and uncertainty over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP).

Republicans are hoping that at least some Democrats will eventually give them the votes they need as they hold repeated votes on a bill to reopen the government.

Democrats have held together so far, but some moderates have been in talks with rank-and-file Republicans about potential compromises that could guarantee votes on health care in exchange for reopening the government. Republicans need five additional Democrats to pass their bill.

“We need five with a backbone to say we care more about the lives of the American people than about gaining some political leverage,” Mr. Thune said on the Senate floor as the Senate left Washington for the weekend on Thursday.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that there is a group of people talking about “a path to fix the health care debacle” and a commitment from Republicans not to fire more federal workers. But it’s still unclear if those talks could produce a meaningful compromise.

The coming week could also be crucial for Democrats as the open enrollment period for health care marketplaces governed by the Affordable Care Act opened Nov 1 and people are already starting to see spikes in premium costs for the next year, meaning it may be too late to make immediate changes.

Democrats are also watching the results of gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday.

As Democrats have pushed Mr. Trump and Republicans to negotiate, Mr. Trump has showed little interest in doing so. He immediately called for an end to the Senate filibuster after a trip to Asia while the government was shut down.

Ms. Leavitt said Sunday that the President spoke to both Mr. Thune and Mr. Johnson about the filibuster. But a spokesman for Mr. Thune said on Friday that his position hasn’t changed, and Mr. Johnson said on Sunday that Republicans traditionally have resisted calling for an end to the filibuster because it protects them from “the worst impulses of the far-left Democrat Party”.

Mr. Trump’s call to end it “is a reflection of all of our desperation,” Mr. Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday”.

Mr. Trump has spent much of the shutdown mocking Democrats, posting videos of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a Mexican sombrero. The White House website has a satirical “My Space” page for Democrats, a parody based on the social media site that was popular in the early 2000s. “We just love playing politics with people’s livelihoods,” the page reads.

Democrats have repeatedly said that they need Mr. Trump to weigh in. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said that he hopes the shutdown could end “this week” because Mr. Trump is back in Washington.

Republicans “can’t move on anything without a Trump sign off,” Mr. Warner said on “Face the Nation” on CBS.

The 35-day shutdown that lasted from December 2018 to January 2019 ended when Mr. Trump retreated from his demands over a border wall. That came amid intensifying delays at the nation’s airports and multiple missed paydays for hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on “This Week” that there have already been delays at several airports as air traffic controllers aren’t getting paid “and it’s only going to get worse”.

Many of the workers are “confronted with a decision,” he said. “Do I put food on my kids’ table, do I put gas in the car, do I pay my rent or do I go to work and not get paid? They’re making decisions.”

“I’ve encouraged them all to come to work. I want them to come to work, but they’re making life decisions that they shouldn’t have to make,” Mr. Duffy said.

Also in the crossfire are the 42 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits. The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold $8 billion needed for payments to the food program starting on Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to fund it.

House Democratic Leader Jeffries accused Mr. Trump and Republicans of attempting to “weaponise hunger”.

He said the administration has managed to find ways for funding other priorities during the shutdown, but is slow-walking pushing out SNAP benefits despite the court orders.

“But somehow they can’t find money to make sure that Americans don’t go hungry,” Mr. Jeffries said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in his own CNN appearance on Sunday, said the administration continues to await direction from the courts.

“The best way for SNAP benefits to get paid is for Democrats — for five Democrats to cross the aisle and reopen the government,” Mr. Bessent said.

Published – November 03, 2025 04:55 am IST

A ‘We Accept Food Stamps’ sign hangs in the window of a grocery store on October 31, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP

The Pentagon confirmed it had accepted the donation on Thursday “under its general gift acceptance authority.”
| Photo Credit: Reuters

As Democrats dig in for a lengthening government shutdown, former Vice-President Kamala Harris is cheering them on as she travels the country touting her presidential campaign memoir amid speculation about another White House run.

The Democratic 2024 nominee told The Associated Press in an interview on Friday (October 17, 2025) that she remains in contact with Democrats on Capitol Hill, encouraging them to maintain their demands that President Donald Trump and the Republican congressional majority address looming spikes in Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums.

“The Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They are in charge, and they are responsible for the shutdown,” she said.

Democrats, she said, “are doing the right thing by standing up for working people and not allowing the Republicans to carry a tax cut for the wealthiest people in our country on the backs of working people in America”.

It was just one example of Ms. Harris using her book tour to urge Democrats to lead a consistent, aggressive resistance to Mr. Trump while at the same time recommitting to reaching working and middle-class voters who supported the Republican or stayed home last November.

Over the course of the day, Ms. Harris sat down for an hour-long conversation with five black college students, spoke to the AP and held two book discussions in Alabama’s largest city. Paid ticketholders filled downtown Birmingham’s Alabama Theatre, where Ms. Harris discussed her campaign, the Democratic Party and the course of the nation with radio host Charlamagne tha God.

Through it all, Ms. Harris projected the aura of party elder and future candidate. She expressed concern for the country’s direction and outright incredulity over many of Mr. Trump’s actions. When VIP ticketholders told her in a photo line how disappointed they had been by her loss, she played it forward.

“We’ve got work to do,” she said repeatedly. “Keep fighting.”

On stage and to the AP, she praised her party’s “deep and wide bench” and even called for lowering the nation’s voting age to 16 to bring more young people into the political process.

Harris signals she’s not done

Ms. Harris, 60, maintained she has made no decision about her own political future. But she made clear that running again in 2028 is still on the table and that she sees herself as a player in the party and a voice in the national discourse.

“I am a leader of the party,” she told the AP. “I take seriously that responsibility and duty that I feel”, as the previous nominee. That “includes travelling the country talking and mostly listening with folks,” she said, and “getting folks ready to fight in the midterms” in 2026.

Ms. Harris’s aides confirmed she will help Democratic gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia with virtual events, fundraising appeals and robocalls. She also recently headlined a fundraiser for North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper, a former Governor and Ms. Harris’s longtime friend.

Later this month, she plans to campaign for California’s “Yes on Prop 50”, the ballot measure that would allow a Democratic-led redraw of the State’s congressional districts to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas and other Republican-controlled States.

Authenticity will be key for Democratic candidates

Ms. Harris, who was unusually blunt in her book “107 Days” about her opinions on a range of political figures, was more circumspect on Friday (October 17, 2025) when asked to assess other leading Democrats.

“We have to get away from this idea of ‘Who is the one?’. There are many ways that I think will be effective when people are authentic unto themselves,” she said when asked about her fellow Californian, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and his recent social media mockery of Mr. Trump.

She named U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Brittany Petterson, D-Colo., but did not elaborate. “Every voice and every perspective” can resonate with certain voters, she said.

Ms. Harris rejected conventional political wisdom that she lost in part because of Republicans’ sustained attacks on cultural and social issues, especially transgender issues. She said economics, notably inflation, was the bigger factor.

“There are a fair number of people who voted for Donald Trump because they believed what he said, which is that he was going to bring down prices,” she said. “Sadly, he lied to them.”

Economic arguments matter most

With prices still high and wealth gaps growing, Ms. Harris said, “We’ve got to do a better job of dealing with the immediate needs of the American people.” She praised the Biden administration’s legislative accomplishments but said that household-level policies such as child tax credits, family leave and first-time homebuyer credits should have come before a sweeping infrastructure program and the CHIPS semiconductor manufacturing law.

Even with a sharper economic message, Ms. Harris acknowledged structural challenges for Democrats: the proliferation of false information and what she described as conservatives’ assault on democracy.

She rejected the idea of “low-information voters”, saying the problem is actually an abundance of misinformation and disinformation that makes it harder to reach many voters. She said that the Democrats must penetrate those silos rather than presume anyone is a lost cause.

“They deserve to be heard,” she said.

Backsliding on civil rights

Onstage, Ms. Harris described a “reversal” of the Civil Rights Movement. She lamented that the Supreme Court could eliminate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects political district boundaries drawn to ensure minority communities can elect candidates of their choice.

Without that law, nonwhite representation — especially black representation in the South — could diminish considerably, from Congress to local school boards and municipal councils.

“How can we say at this moment in time that the Voting Rights Act and Section 2 have no purpose?” Ms. Harris said to the AP.

The issue carried special resonance given the venue. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 after Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights leaders marched from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. A later Supreme Court case out of Mobile led Congress to clarify its intent with Section 2 of the law. And it was a Shelby County, Alabama, case that the Supreme Court used in 2013 to gut the law’s requirement that the U.S. Justice Department approve election procedures in local jurisdictions with a demonstrated history of discrimination.

Besides the pending Supreme Court case, Ms. Harris said she has followed Mr. Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants, along with statements from top Mr. Trump adviser Stephen Miller and other Republicans suggesting the U.S. owes its identity to white European settlers.

“Just looking at it in terms of their words, they’re race-baiting, they’re scapegoating,” she said. But she stopped short of saying that the administration is being driven by a white nationalist ideology: “I can’t pretend to know what is in their head.”

Ms. Harris said on Friday (October 17) that she never doubted former President Joe Biden’s ability to serve, even when he ended his reelection bid because of concerns about his age. That’s different, she explained, than discussions about whether the 82-year-old could have served another term.

“He and I have been playing phone tag, actually, in the last couple of days,” Ms. Harris told the AP when asked whether she still talks to Mr. Biden, who is undergoing prostate cancer treatment. “I’d invite everyone to say a prayer if that’s what you do for his well-being and health right now.”

Plunged into a government shutdown, the U.S. is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running by Wednesday’s (October 1, 2025) deadline.

Roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed, some potentially fired by the Trump administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Mr. Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” as retribution. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide.

“We don’t want it to shut down,” Mr. Trump said at the White House before the midnight deadline.

But the President, who met privately with congressional leadership this week, appeared unable to negotiate any deal between Democrats and Republicans to prevent that outcome.

This is the third time Mr. Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse, the first since his return to the White House this year, in a remarkable record that underscores the polarizing divide over budget priorities and a political climate that rewards hardline positions rather than more traditional compromises.

The Democrats picked this fight, which was unusual for the party that prefers to keep government running, but their voters are eager to challenge the president’s second-term agenda. Democrats are demanding funding for health care subsidies that are expiring for millions of people under the Affordable Care Act, spiking the costs of insurance premiums nationwide.

Republicans have refused to negotiate for now and have encouraged Mr. Trump to steer clear of any talks. After the White House meeting, the president posted a cartoonish fake video mocking the Democratic leadership that was widely viewed as unserious and racist.

What neither side has devised is an easy offramp to prevent what could become a protracted closure. The ramifications are certain to spread beyond the political arena, upending the lives of Americans who rely on the government for benefit payments, work contracts and the various services being thrown into turmoil.

“What the government spends money on is a demonstration of our country’s priorities,” said Rachel Snyderman, a former White House budget official who is the managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington.

Shutdowns, she said, “only inflict economic cost, fear and confusion across the country.”

An economic jolt could be felt in a matter of days. The government is expected on Friday (October 3, 2025) to produce its monthly jobs report, which may or may not be delivered.

While the financial markets have generally “shrugged” during past shutdowns, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis, this one could be different partly because there are no signs of broader negotiations.

“There are also few good analogies to this week’s potential shutdown,” the analysis said.

Across the government, preparations have been underway. Mr. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Russ Vought, directed agencies to execute plans for not just furloughs, as are typical during a federal funding lapse, but mass firings of federal workers. It’s part of the Trump administration’s mission, including its Department of Government Efficiency, to shrink the federal government.

The Medicare and Medicaid health care programs are expected to continue, though staffing shortages could mean delays for some services. The Pentagon would still function. And most employees will stay on the job at the Department of Homeland Security.

But Mr. Trump has warned that the administration could focus on programs that are important to Democrats, “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”

As agencies sort out which workers are essential, or not, Smithsonian museums are expected to stay open at least until Monday (October 6, 2025). A group of former national park superintendents urged the Trump administration to close the parks to visitors, arguing that poorly staffed parks in a shutdown are a danger to the public and put park resources at risk.

Ahead of Wednesday’s (October 1, 2025) start of the fiscal year, House Republicans had approved a temporary funding bill, over opposition from Democrats, to keep government running into mid-November while broader negotiations continue.

But that bill has failed repeatedly in the Senate, including late Tuesday (September 30, 2025). It takes a 60-vote threshold for approval, which requires cooperation between the two parties. A Democratic bill also failed. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Democrats are leveraging their votes to demand negotiation.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans are happy to discuss the health care issue with Democrats — but not as part of talks to keep the government open. More votes are expected on Wednesday (October 1, 2025).

The standoff is a political test for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has drawn scorn from a restive base of left-flank voters pushing the party to hold firm in its demands for health care funding.

“Americans are hurting with higher costs,” Schumer said after the failed vote on Tuesday (September 30, 2025).

House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home nearly two weeks ago after having passed the GOP bill, blaming Democrats for the shutdown.

“They want to fight Trump,” Johnson said on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) on CNBC. “A lot of good people are going to be hurt because of this.”

Mr. Trump, during his meeting with the congressional leaders, expressed surprise at the scope of the rising costs of health care, but Democrats left with no path toward talks.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, the nation endured its longest-ever shutdown, 35 days, over his demands for funds Congress refused to provide to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

In 2013, the government shut down for 16 days during the Obama presidency over GOP demands to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Other closures date back decades.

Washington is just hours away from yet another federal government shutdown, with prospects looking rather bleak for a last-minute compromise in Congress to avoid federal closures beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday (October 1, 2025).

Republicans have crafted a short-term measure to fund the government through November 21, but Democrats have insisted that the measure address their concerns on health care. They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s mega-bill that passed this summer, as well as extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable for millions who purchase through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say the Democratic proposal is a non-starter.

Neither side is showing any signs of budging, with the House not even expected to have votes this week.

Here’s a look at how a shutdown would occur

When a lapse in funding occurs, the law requires agencies to cease activity and furlough their “non-excepted” employees. Excepted employees include those who perform work to protect life and property. They stay on the job but don’t get paid until after the shutdown has ended.

During the 35-day partial shutdown in Mr. Trump’s first term, roughly 340,000 of the 800,000 federal workers at affected agencies were furloughed. The remainder were “excepted” and required to work. A great deal, actually.

FBI investigators, CIA officers, air traffic controllers and agents manning airport checkpoints continue to work. So do members of the Armed Forces.

Those programs that rely on mandatory spending also generally continue during a shutdown. Social Security checks continue to go out. Seniors who rely on Medicare coverage can still go see their doctors and health care providers and submit claims for payment and be reimbursed.

Veteran health care also continues during a shutdown. Veterans Affairs medical centers and outpatient clinics will be open and VA benefits will continue to be processed and delivered. Burials will continue at VA national cemeteries.

Yes. In 2019, Congress passed a bill enshrining into law the requirement that furloughed employees get retroactive pay once operations resume.

While they will eventually get paid, the furloughed workers as well as those who remain on the job may have to go without one or more of their regular paychecks, depending upon how long the shutdown lasts, which will create financial stress for many families.

Service members would also receive back pay for any missed paychecks once federal funding resumes.

The U.S. Postal Service is not affected by a government shutdown. It is an independent entity that is funded through the sale of its products and services, not by tax dollars.

All administrations get some leeway to choose which services to freeze and which to maintain in a shutdown.

The first Trump administration worked to blunt the impact of what became the country’s longest partial shutdown in 2018 and 2019. But in the selective reopening of offices, experts say they saw a willingness to cut corners, scrap prior plans and wade into legally dubious territory to mitigate the pain.

Each federal agency develops its own shutdown plan. The plans outline which agency workers would stay on the job during a government shutdown and which would be furloughed.

In a provocative move, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has threatened the mass firing of federal workers in the event of a shutdown. An OMB memo said those programs that did not get funding through Mr. Trump’s mega-bill this summer would bear the brunt of a shutdown.

Agencies should consider issuing reduction-in-force notices for those programs whose funding expires October 1, that don’t have alternative funding sources and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” the memo said.

Aggressive than previous shutdowns

That would be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when furloughed federal workers returned to their jobs once Congress approved government spending. A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but also eliminate their positions, which would trigger yet another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that has already faced major rounds of cuts this year due to efforts from the Department of Government Efficiency and elsewhere in the Trump administration.

Some agencies have recently updated plans on their websites. Others still have plans that were last updated several months or years ago, providing an indication of past precedent that could guide the Trump administration.

Here are some excerpts from those plans:

Health and Human Services will furlough about 41% of its staff out of nearly 80,000 employees, according to a contingency plan posted on its website. The remaining employees will keep up activities needed to protect human life and property.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue monitoring for disease outbreaks. Direct medical services through the Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center will remain available. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention communications to the public will be hampered and NIH will not admit new patients to the Clinical Center, except for whom it is medically necessary.

At the Food and Drug Administration, its “ability to protect and promote public health and safety would be significantly impacted, with many activities delayed or paused.” For example, the agency would not accept new drug applications or medical device submissions that require payment of a user fee.

The Education Department will furlough about 1,500 of 1,700 employees, excluding federal student aid workers. The department will continue to disburse student aid such as Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans. Student loan borrowers will still be required to make payments on their outstanding debt. The department would cease new grantmaking activities, but most grant programs typically make awards over the summer so there would be limited impact.

National Park Service: As a general rule if a facility or area is inaccessible during non-business hours, it will be locked for the duration of the lapse in funding, said a March 2024 plan. At parks where it is impractical or impossible to restrict public access, staffing will vary by park. “Generally, where parks have accessible park areas, including park roads, lookouts, trails, campgrounds, and open-air memorials, these areas will remain physically accessible to the public.”

Transportation: Air traffic controller hiring and field training would cease, as would routine personnel security background checks and air traffic performance analysis, according to a March 25 update.

Smithsonian Institution: “The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, like all Smithsonian museums, receives federal funding. Thus, during a government shutdown, the Zoo — and the rest of the Smithsonian museums — must close to the public.”

Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said a short shutdown doesn’t have a huge impact on the economy, especially since federal workers, by law, are paid retroactively. But “if a shutdown continues, then that can give rise to uncertainties about what is the role of government in our society, and what’s the financial impact on all the programs that the government funds.”

“The impact is not immediate, but over time, there is a negative impact of a shutdown on the economy,” he added.

Markets have not reacted strongly to past shutdowns, according to Goldman Sachs Research. At the close of the three prolonged shutdowns since the early 1990s, equity markets finished flat or up even after dipping initially.

A government-wide shutdown would directly reduce growth by around 0.15 percentage point for each week it lasted, or about 0.2 percentage point per week once private-sector effects were included, and growth would rise by the same cumulative amount in the quarter following reopening, writes Alec Phillips, chief U.S. political economist at Goldman Sachs.

Biden has signed the US government funding bill. (FILE)