Government enters longest full shutdown in US history with no end in sight

The federal government is now in its longest full shutdown ever, and Congress is not giving any signs that an end is in sight.

A full government shutdown occurs when the end of the fiscal year comes on Sept. 30 with none of Congress’ 12 single-subject appropriations bills passed by the House and Senate.

While both the House and Senate have passed three separate appropriations bills each, they have yet to sync up and pass the same version of any spending measure.

That means that, for the most part, all agencies and programs that rely on discretionary funds appropriated by Congress every year are either paused or severely altered to meet their lack of budget.

BATTLEGROUND REPUBLICANS HOLD THE LINE AS JOHNSON PRESSURES DEMS ON SHUTDOWN

The current government shutdown, now 22 days old, is now also the second-longest in U.S. history in general.

Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed, and thousands more laid off. Meanwhile, employees deemed essential, like congressional staffers, are working without paychecks until the shutdown is over.

Active-duty military personnel who were expected to work without pay did get their money on Oct. 15, when the Trump administration reshuffled Pentagon funding meant for research and development. However, it’s not clear if the same can be done during the military’s next pay period on Oct. 30 if the shutdown continues.

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A partial government shutdown lasted 35 days under President Donald Trump’s first term but saw several critical departments — including the Department of War, the Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services — funded.

The previous longest full shutdown occurred in fiscal year (FY)2014, under President Barack Obama.

“This is now the longest full shutdown in American history. And yet again, Senate Democrats voted for the 11th time — 12 times overall, when you count House and Senate Democrats — to prolong the pain and keep the government closed,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during his press conference on Tuesday.

The House passed a seven-week extension of FY2025 funding largely along partisan lines on Sept. 19. The measure, a continuing resolution (CR), is aimed at giving lawmakers more time to strike a longer-term deal for FY2026.

But in the Senate, where several more Democrats are needed to break a filibuster than have been voting for it, progress has stalled, with the legislation having failed 11 times already.

Democrats are demanding that any spending plan be paired with an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025.

The shutdown’s historic milestone has been a cause for frustration on both sides of the Senate.

“We have long since lost the plot — the purpose, you know, of the whole thing,” Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., told Fox News Digital. “Now it’s a food fight, and we have forgotten that on the other side of the food fight there’s a name and there’s a family. And I said it just a few minutes ago, but what this place needs more than anything is a constant IV of common sense.”

As the shutdown continues, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., extended an olive branch to Senate Democrats and offered a vote on the expiring subsidies, only after the government reopened, however. 

So far, Senate Democrats have not bitten on the proposal, largely due to a lack of trust in their Republican counterparts. 

“I think we would operate much better if people trusted each other,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said. 

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., argued that Senate Democrats made a “strategic error” in shutting the government down. 

“Now they don’t have a graceful way out, and that’s a problem,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, didn’t want to predict if the shutdown would break other records but took a shot at House Republicans for being out of session for weeks. 

“I will just say it’s very hard to get out of a shutdown if the majority party has an unexpected month-long break,” he said.