At midnight on October 1 local time, the US federal government once again "shut down" after nearly seven years. Tens of thousands of federal employees will be forced to take unpaid leave, some public services may be suspended or delayed, and the release of economic data will be affected.
Due to disagreements over healthcare benefits, the two parties in the US failed to reach an agreement on a new temporary funding bill.
On the evening of September 30, the temporary funding bill, drafted by the Republican Party to keep the government running, failed to win the 60 votes required for passage in the Senate.
In the latest negotiations over the temporary funding bill, healthcare benefit spending has become one of the core issues causing the stalemate between the two parties. The Democratic Party is demanding an expansion of healthcare-related benefits, including an extension of the enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, and restoration of ACA benefits for certain legal immigrants. Republicans have opposed these demands and pushed to maintain current government funding levels.
Funding for the operation of the US federal government is supposed to come from annual budget appropriations. Normally, both parties in Congress should pass a new annual appropriation bill before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. However, in recent years, due to increasingly fierce partisan fighting, agreements are often not reached in time, so Congress tries to keep the federal government running temporarily through short-term funding bills.
Over the past year, the US federal government has repeatedly faced "shutdown" crises, with Congress passing short-term spending bills only hours before federal funding ran out in both December 2024 and March 2025.
The most recent and also the longest "shutdown" of the US federal government occurred from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019 during Trump's first term, when the Democrats opposed Trump's proposed funding for the US-Mexico border wall, resulting in a 35-day government closure due to prolonged disputes over immigration issues.