At 12:01 am on October 1st, the United States Government went into shutdown. This marks the third shutdown to occur under President Trump, with the last government shutdown in 2018 being the longest in US history and lasting 35 days. Here are the key facts you need to know:
First, what exactly does a federal government shutdown entail, and who is impacted? A federal shutdown not only impacts federal workers, but also the people who rely on key government services, and the American economy as a whole. During a shutdown, the federal government must suspend all nonessential work. Most of those whose jobs are deemed essential must continue, but without pay until the shutdown ends, at which point they will receive backpay. The federal government is the largest employer in the US, and that means that the shutdown is being felt widely throughout the country. The US Treasury has said that a continued shutdown could cost the US economy approximately $15 billion a week in lost output. The “nonessential work”, which has been completely halted covers a vast array of federal activities: National Parks have stopped all operations and Smithsonian museums are currently closed to the public, with all of those employees currently furloughed. Yet, even “essential work” has been greatly altered or reduced. Air traffic control – a field already under stress before the shutdown – has reached a breaking point as controllers received their last paycheck on Tuesday 14th. Since the shutdown, thousands of flights across the US have been delayed. Many vital federal programs have had to severely cut back on their activities, and the people who benefit from those programs are starting to feel the impacts. For example, military families who receive financial assistance from the government are at risk of missing paychecks in the upcoming weeks. The Social Security Administration, which is responsible for helping people get food stamps, housing assistance, and pensions has also been unable to fulfill important services. Food banks across the country are struggling to meet the increased demand from people who are no longer receiving sufficient government assistance.
So, why is the shutdown happening in the first place? Simply put, the shutdown occurred because the Senate failed to pass a federal spending bill for the new fiscal year. The real focal point of this fight, though, has become American healthcare. Senate Republicans lack the 60-vote supermajority needed to push any bill through, and Democrats are refusing to vote yes on the current spending bill until Trump and the Republican Party reverse the huge cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act made earlier this year. Democrats are also requiring the bill to include a deal to preserve key health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Both of the cuts highlighted by the Democrats are expected to spike healthcare costs nationwide and cause some Americans to lose their healthcare coverage. The Democrats have proposed several alternative short-term budgets to extend federal funding until mid-November, but all have been rejected by Republicans. This has left the Senate in its current stalemate.
As the shutdown stretches into its fourth week, an estimated 750,000 federal workers remain furloughed. While this is typical of prior shutdowns, President Trump has taken an unprecedented and potentially illegal step: on October 10th, Trump announced he would be laying off 4,000 federal workers, telling reporters that the administration specifically cut from what he deemed “Democrat programs”. While the order has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in California, Trump has signaled this is only the beginning of mass dismissals. This move to slash numbers across federal agencies is a line right out of the conservative “Project 2025” playbook, which explicitly expresses a goal to severely reduce the federal bureaucracy.
As both sides accuse the opposite party of drawing out the shutdown, there currently appears to be no end in sight. In a rare occurrence, prominent far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Green has broken party ranks, telling fellow Republicans they need to pay attention to this healthcare issue. She warned the GOP that they could see backlash for the imminent rising health care costs and called out Republicans for not seeking any solutions, as she sees it. The shutdown has revealed part of the Democratic strategy for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, as Democrats coalesce around what they hope to be the biggest unifying issue for voters. The shutdown is just the most recent event to highlight the cavernous divide in American politics and society. The American public on the whole sees both parties as responsible for the shutdown, and over half of Americans believe Trump is at great fault.
