First government shutdown in seven years now in effect

Senate Democrats voted down a Republican measure to fund the government, 55-45, sending the federal government into a shutdown at midnight Wednesday.

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The U.S. government has shut down as of 12:01 AM today, Wednesday, October 1, 2025. This shutdown came after Senate Democrats voted down a Republican funding bill that would keep the government open for another seven weeks.

After the vote, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget released a memo saying that “affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.”

Democrats are making good on their threat to close the government if President Donald Trump and Republicans do not agree to their health care demands.

Key sticking points:

• Democrats are demanding that any funding bill include an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies and other health care policies
• Republicans argue Democrats are trying to reverse spending cuts and undo portions of the GOP tax bill passed earlier this year

Who's affected:

• Military members, including active duty, National Guard, and reserves (over 2 million service members), must continue working but won't be paid during the shutdown. This could include the 26,000 people living at Ft. Knox, which includes soldiers, civilian workers and their families.
• Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face furloughs, while others deemed essential must work without pay. Kentucky has 23,449 federal civilian employees (not including military personnel or contractors) who could be affected by furloughs or required to work without pay during a shutdown.
• Mammoth Cave National Park and Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Park could see closures.
• WIC will quickly run out of funding, and SNAP benefits may be affected

What's not affected

Social Security benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, mail delivery through USPS, and TSA/air traffic control will continue operating, though possibly not as efficiently, with staff refusing to work without getting paid.

How did we get here?

Government shutdowns occur when Congress fails to agree on a federal funding plan, and typically, deep partisan disagreements underlie them.

Republicans want Congress to pass a short-term funding bill without additional provisions, keeping the government funded at current levels through November 20th.

Democrats are demanding that any funding package include extensions of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, as well as reversals of Medicaid cuts enacted in earlier Republican legislation

President Trump has said a shutdown is likely unless top democrats back down from their negotiating position.

The last government shutdown in 2018 lasted 35 days, making it the longest government shutdown in more than four decades. It cost the United States $3 billion in lost GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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