The current US government shutdown has become the longest on record, and it is not clear when the budget stand-off between Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress will end.
It means that many – but not all – US government services are temporarily suspended, and around 1.4 million federal employees are on unpaid leave or working without pay.
Although budget confrontations are common in US politics, this one is especially tense because President Donald Trump began drastically reducing the size of the national government as soon as he returned to office in January, and has threatened to use the current impasse to make further cuts.
Why did the US government shut down and when will it reopen?
Republicans and Democrats could not agree to pass a bill funding government services past 1 October, when the previous federal budget expired.
In the US system, Congress must approve a spending plan to send to the president to be signed into law.
Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress. But in the Senate – or upper chamber – they are short of the 60 votes needed to pass the spending bill, which gives opposition Democrats some negotiating power.
Democrats want the bill to include an extension of expiring tax credits that make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans and a reversal of Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, a government healthcare programme used by millions of elderly, disabled and low-income people.
Democrats also oppose spending cuts to government health agencies.
A stopgap bill designed to avoid the shutdown was passed in the House, or lower chamber, but did not clear the Senate.
And so on 1 October, the US government shut down for the first time in nearly seven years.
On 5 November the stoppage entered its 36th day, eclipsing the 35-day shutdown which happened during Trump’s first presidential term in 2018/2019.
Ending the shutdown requires the two parties in the Senate to find a compromise that Trump will sign. Several votes aimed at reopening the government have failed.
Republicans say they want to negotiate the health insurance subsidies separately, and only pass what they call a “clean resolution”. The Trump administration has been unwilling to offer substantive concessions and believes the Democrats will bear the brunt of the public’s blame.
On the other side, Democrats believe their efforts to secure cheaper healthcare are popular with voters. There is also pressure on congressional leaders to hold firm from the party’s left wing, which believes they folded too quickly during the budget dispute in March 2025.
However, analysts say there is some evidence that a number of moderate Democrats and Republicans are keen to reach a deal before Thanksgiving on 27 November.
BBC
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