On October 1st, 2025, the United States Congress was unable to reach an agreement on how to come up with how to fund the government for this year and thus leading to shutdown of many government agencies and services. However, to fully understand the shut down, we need to look as to what caused the shut down to occur, who and what are being affected, and how does the government plan to reopen.
Firstly, while Congress did indeed not reach an agreement on creating a budget for the fiscal year, this is an oversimplification of why the government is shut down. Typically, before the end of a fiscal year which for the United States government, the fiscal year ends on September 30th and typically Congress would have approved a plan to fund throughout the next fiscal year. However, this September 30th, the members of Congress were unable to reach a consensus mainly because while the Republican Party has majority of both the House of Representatives and Senate, they are just short of the 60 votes needed to pass their bill which gives the Democrats a great deal of leverage during negotiation. The main argument between the two parties is about expiring tax credits included in the Affordable Healthcare Act and Medicaid along with reversing cuts to programs made earlier in the year.
Without an agreement on the budget, the government has been shut down since the 1st of October and counting. Due to the government being closed, many government agencies are operating at limited capacity such as NOAA, NASA, EPA, and the Department of Education. Services like the National Park Service, for example, are heavily affected by the shutdown as many national parks have been shut down along with roads within the parks that are not being maintained. While the government shutdown has impacted federal employees the most as most have been furloughed and those who continue to work in essential services like those responsible for weather forecasting at the National Weather Service or TSA agents continue to work unpaid. However, it also has effects on the general population. For example, many flights were delayed or even canceled early in the shutdown as air traffic controllers were furloughed and those who remained continue to work unpaid. Additionally, starting November 1st, the USDA issued a statement that SNAP benefits more commonly known as food stamps to most people will not be issued which will leave millions of Americans who use the program unable to pay for groceries. This lapse in funding will also be affecting WIC which is a program used to help 7 million pregnant, postpartum, and breast feeding women along with children up to 5 years old.
As it currently stands, the government shutdown will appear to continue into November and if things continue at a standstill into December and the new year. As of today, senators have reconvened today to discuss how to end the shutdown though there have been no talks about voting on the House-passed continuing resolution today. Although if in the next few days the Senate decides to vote, this will be the 14th attempt to reopen the government as there had been thirteen attempts before though all have ended in none of them passing the Senate despite passing the House of Representatives. In the latest attempt which was the 13th attempt, the previous bill backed by Republicans failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass with the votes that ended up as 54 for the bill and 45 against the bill.
Until the members of Congress can come to a consensus, the US government and its services will remain closed until further discussions are made on how to finally end the shutdown quickly and soon.
