DAY 14: Mixed signals and mounting consequences as shutdown week three dawns
- Agora
- Oct 14
- 3 min read
AGORA SHUTDOWN UPDATE
October 14, 2025
Call it the OTOO Shutdown.
On one hand, lawmakers don’t seem to be acting with any urgency to end the shutdown (save for a perfunctory vote in the Senate today, which is likely to fail). On the other hand, Republicans are starting to map out some ways to address Democratic demands to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
On one hand, the White House followed through on its pledge to lay off employees as the shutdown continues. On the other hand, they quickly re-hired CDC officials in charge of tracking the measles outbreak and an Ebola outbreak overseas.
On one hand, President Trump directed the Pentagon to find the money to pay the troops. On the other hand, civilian workers received their last (partial) paycheck for what could be a while.
As the shutdown enters its third week, the impacts are piling up but the key players don’t seem to be budging. Who would’ve guessed that Middle East peace might be an easier lift than reopening the government?
Below is a roundup of the latest shutdown news.
CONGRESS
A partial government shutdown is entering its third week as there appears to be little urgency among lawmakers on Capitol Hill to do much of anything to end it.
A menu of options is starting to emerge around what a compromise might look like for extending a suite of Affordable Care Act tax credits, which have become a focal point in the current government funding standoff.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., slammed the expiring Obamacare subsidies at the center of the government funding standoff as a “boondoggle” as the shutdown approaches the two-week mark with no end in sight.
WHITE HOUSE
The Trump administration began issuing significant layoffs on Friday, the White House budget director said, following through on a threat to inflict pain on the federal workforce as a consequence of the government shutdown. “The RIFs have begun,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in a post on X Friday afternoon.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has directed the Defense Department to use “all available funds” to ensure U.S. troops are paid Wednesday despite the government shutdown, a short-term fix that will not apply to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
Employees who help regulate hazardous waste. Inspectors who check the quality of federal housing. An office that makes sure students with disabilities get the help they need. These are among the targets of the Trump administration’s latest round of federal layoffs.
While most civilian federal employees are expected to get their paychecks sometime in the next couple days, they’ll only take home the pay they earned up until the shutdown began. Regardless of whether they are excepted or furloughed, federal employees will not be paid for any days worked between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4 — the final few days of the most recent two-week pay period.
The Trump administration on Saturday raced to rescind layoffs of hundreds of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who were mistakenly fired on Friday night in what appeared to be a substantial procedural lapse.
Airports in more than a half-dozen U.S. markets have declined to display a video in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem blames congressional Democrats for the government shutdown and any related travel delays, citing the political nature of its content, according to local authorities.
What does a shutdown mean for government contractors, employees, grantees and the general public? Click here for more information.
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