On September 30th, 2025, congressional democrats and republicans failed to agree on a spending bill for the next fiscal year —October 1st, 2025-September 30th, 2026. This meant that on October 1st at 12 AM, the government shut down. As of the night of Sunday, October 26th, 26 days in, there has been no successful effort to reopen the government.
Just because the government shut down does not mean that the entire U.S. federal government has ceased operations. Federal jobs deemed “essential work,” like air traffic controllers, airport security, ICE, and the military, have been furloughed. This means that these workers still legally have to report for work but will not receive pay until the strike is over. Many other non-essential jobs, like national park rangers and national museum tour guides, are not working and will not be paid for the time missed.
A few exceptions have been made about who will be working and who will be getting paid. The federal government has tried to pay military members during the shutdown, but that wish has not been fulfilled. However, a mystery donor has given tons of money to the U.S. government with the stipulation that it will be used to pay the 1.32 million U.S. military members. The second exception is that polling workers will be operating in New Jersey and California to monitor their election information.
What is very important to note is that after the last government shutdown, U.S. lawmakers passed a bill to allow themselves to be paid during government shutdowns. This is horrible since they have no losses in this situation when they control how others are losing money.
Still, as of the last congressional meeting on the 24th for the House and 23rd for the Senate, no progress has been made to pass a spending bill. Many report that this shutdown is on par with becoming the longest on record. The previous record holder for the longest shutdown was in 2018 at 35 days. 35 days of no pay on time or at all. Families living paycheck to paycheck are in financial uncertainty, while lawmakers are still able to be paid. How is this situation fair to the American people?
