On October 1st, 2025, the U.S. government shut down for the first time in seven years. Previously, in 2018, the government shut down for nearly 35 days due to a disagreement in Congress over funding the border wall. In effect at the start of October, following months of political disagreement between the two parties in Congress, the shut down occurred. In September, the House of Representatives decided to approve a continuation to fund the government until November 21st. However, this was blocked in the Senate, furthering tensions leading up to the shutdown at the beginning of October.
Combined with this, the shutdown occurred after Republican and Democratic politicians failed to reach an agreement about funding the government, and missed the deadline for the fiscal year. This means that if the government doesn’t obtain any funding by the end of the fiscal year, a shutdown will occur. 12 annual bills have to be put into effect for the government to fund its operations and services, or some of these government services will face disruptions. As of November 12th, the U.S. government shutdown came to an end, and employees returned to work as federal agencies reopened. Lasting a total of 43 days, this shutdown under President Trump was the longest lasting in U.S. history.
During this shutdown, government workers were told not to work. Employees who work jobs that are essential still report to work, but go without pay. Jobs that are essential include air traffic controllers, law enforcement, border security, and other jobs that enforce public safety and wellbeing. The Department of Health and Human Services’ fiscal year 2025 contingency plan said that “55% of its 90,000 employees would remain on the job and 45% would be furloughed”. If a worker is furloughed, they are temporarily suspended from their job and are unpaid. Similarly, some government services experienced impacts on their functionality due to the layoffs and lack of workers. Because of low staffing and many furloughs, there has been a shortage of air traffic controllers. According to BBC News, “Thousands of flights have been cancelled or delayed, and about 3,200 U.S. flights were delayed as of Tuesday [October 7th] afternoon”. Social Security suspends services that are unessential in the event of a crisis, which puts strain on some systems. During a shutdown, workers will try to receive claims and checks as per usual. Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth from Maryland says that, “Customer Service wait times have increased significantly during previous shutdowns”. During October and early November, important services like Medicare and Medicaid services were still provided, but due to limited staffing, there were some delays.
As of November 12th, the government reopened. Previously, President Bill Clinton’s 21-day shutdown in 1996 was the longest the government shut down. According to CBS News, President Trump signed a Senate-approved bill into law on November 12th that continued to fund most government agencies until January 30th, 2026, and other agencies were addressed in separate bills that funded them through 2026. After thousands worked without pay for weeks, employees returned to work still expecting their “back pay”, which is a system that entitles them to their money that they earned over the six weeks of shutdown. The longest government shutdown in the U.S. finally came to an end after being down from October 1st to November 12th.
