From October 1st to November 13th, the Government had shut down, being the longest government shut down in 7 years, considering the fact it had lasted 43 days. The reason for the 2025 shutdown was due to the split of votes between the congress for the 2026 spending bill.

A Deeper Look Into The Cause Of The Shutdown

Both chambers of congress have to approve the bill before sending it in for the president to sign and confirm, however, as stated by BBC, “..but at the end of September, senators were seven short of the 60 votes needed to pass the bill.”

Although the House was able to pass a temporary bill to prevent the shut down happening, it could not clear the senate with the democratic resistance.

If the Congress voted “Yes,” the bill would put 88 million dollars into the security for Congress, Supreme Court, as well as the federal court system because of the increased violence of politics and threats. This was one of the many other things that would become laws. Another law that the bill would pass is stated by BBC, “It contains language that makes it illegal for federal prosecutors to search senators’ phone records without notice, and allows for payouts of up to $500,000 for each violation.”

Luz Riveras, a representative of California stated, “I opposed the Republicans funding bill because it would completely gut the healthcare system and increase prices for millions of Americans across the country. In CA-29, almost 59,000 people will lose their health coverage because of Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid and nearly 31,000 will see the cost of health coverage soar with the expiration of their health care tax credits.”

The reason for the disagreement was due to the bill’s (now signed) increase of healthcare prices for millions across the country. And this is the reasoning as to why democrats had opposed the bill. 

Six democrats would soon join republicans to vote “yes.”

The Effects of The Government Shutdown

There are many effects that the government shutdown had caused, one of them being the economy. BBC had announced, “Approvals for loans and permits are delayed and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts are suspended,” they also said,“ Overall, analysts had estimated that this shutdown would knock roughly 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off economic growth for each week that it goes on – about $15 billion a week.”

In addition, contractors, unlike government employees, do not receive payback after a government shutdown due to many of them being smaller businesses. Considering the fact that $15 billion is cut off from the economic growth weekly, due to the fact that the shutdown lasted 43 days, or 6 weeks, over $90 billion of economic growth was knocked off. 

Similarly, many flights as well were cancelled from the government shutdown, “During the shutdown, air traffic controllers were also expected to work without pay. But some of them had called in sick, leading to many flights being cancelled or delayed,” as claimed by BBC news.

The federal government had mandated flight cuts to over 40, including the busiest airports, to somewhat help with the alleviated workers working without pay. Even after the shutdown had ended, it was estimated a week before it had returned back like how it was before the shutdown.

Along with businesses having delayed services or closing up, The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, had massively affected many Americans during the shutdown.

“While that programme had enough funding to survive the first four weeks of the shutdown, the Trump administration has said the money will run out on 1 November,” stated by Ana Faguy on BBC.

Ove 40 million Americans use SNAP benefits, helping people stay out of poverty and provide food for people in need. The loss of SNAP could heavily impact Americans who use the program in their everyday lives, and could even risk making their situations worse than before. After the 1st, many states, including the District of Columbia, threatened and had sued Donald Trump’s administration.

In response, as said by Ana Faguy, “The administration, in turn, has blamed Democrats for the funding running dry and said it will only draw from a Snap contingency fund in an emergency such as a natural disaster.”

References

Faguy, Ana. Five Ways the Government Shutdown Is Hurting Americans. 30 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74jden8ddxo.

“FAQs on the Republicans’ Government Shutdown.” Representative Luz Rivas, 29 Sept. 2025, rivas.house.gov/services/faqs-republicans-government-shutdown.

Zurcher, Anthony. Why the US Government Might Shut down and What to Know. 29 Sept. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/crrj1znp0pyo.

‌