On October 1, 2025, the U.S. government was shut down because Congress couldn’t agree on a new budget. The main issue was over health-care funding, especially extra ACA (Affordable Care Act) insurance subsidies that Democrats wanted to keep and Republicans refused to include. Because no one could meet halfway, the government ran out of money, and thousands of federal workers were out of jobs or told not to come in.
Economists have said that the shutdown has cost the U.S. billions of dollars. The Congressional Budget Office predicted that the economy lost up to $7-14 billion, which is a lot of money considering people are already dealing with high prices. Some government programs like Social Security Offices, food assistance, and small business loans, slowed down or just stopped completely. A lot of federal workers were harshly affected by the shutdown; around 750,000 workers were furloughed, and other workers still had to work, but they are not getting paid. I spoke to Angel, a TSA worker at LAX, and he told me, “I still have to show up, but I don’t get paid, and I don’t know when I will get paid, which sucks because I need to pay rent.”
A lot of regular people were starting to feel the effects of the shutdown in their everyday lives. A lot of families weren’t receiving their SNAP benefits, also known as the food stamps, which give people money for food. Emma Arellano, an assistant at a valley nursing home, stated, “I didn’t receive my full Snap benefits this week, and I used that money to buy my kids food for the week. I had to use the rent money this week.” Problems like this are happening in a lot of cities, especially in cities where people depend on the government’s help to get by.
By early November, the shutdown became the longest in U.S. history, breaking the record from 2018-2019. Both of the political parties were putting the blame on each other and blaming each other in the news. Democrats were saying that the shutdown wouldn’t end unless health-care funding is protected, while Republicans wanted to reopen the government without adding more money for that, and while they were arguing, a lot of families were left waiting. A lot of people were left hoping that something like this would never happen again
Some good news happened on November 12th 2025: Congress finally passed a funding bill, and President Trump signed it, ending the shutdown, and the government finally reopened. Under the new law, a lot of agencies are funded through January 30, 2026. The law also restored pay and reversed layoffs for a lot of federal workers. Some big services, including food aid through the SNAP program fully got funded again.
