DAY 21: Mixed signals from Congress, and who’s watching the nukes?
- Agora
- Oct 21
- 3 min read
AGORA SHUTDOWN UPDATE
October 21, 2025
As the Senate fails for the 11th time to re-open the government, GOP leaders are trying new approaches, including bringing up legislation to immediately pay federal workers and introducing a longer continuing resolution to keep agencies open into next year. Talk of addressing Obamacare subsidies is also bubbling on Capitol Hill.
But the main contours of the impasse remain: Democrats are cool to the worker pay bill, arguing it gives the White House too much leeway in whom to pay. And congressional Republicans still insist that any Obamacare subsidy extension won’t come to the floor until the shutdown ends.
Meanwhile, federal agencies continue to feel the brunt of the shutdown, with big layoff plans revealed at Interior and unprecedented mass furloughs at the agency that protects the country’s nuclear stockpile.
Below is a roundup of the latest shutdown news.
CONGRESS
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are quietly ramping up talks within their senior ranks and with White House officials over how to structure and advance a potential extension of key Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies before the end of the year, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the conversations.
As the Senate continues to take failed votes to reopen the government, the chamber will soon shift to a new approach that would ensure on-time paychecks for feds working during the shutdown.
When House Republicans first passed a stopgap spending bill last month, it was written to give Congress a seven-week window to come to a long-term deal on government funding. With the government shutdown now running into a fourth week, that original Nov. 21 deadline is looming fast — and numerous Republicans acknowledged Monday a new, longer stopgap bill will be needed.
For most of this year, caseworkers in Rep. Suhas Subramanyam’s office have struggled to get through to federal agencies, as mass layoffs rippled through the Trump administration. His staff was starting to make inroads again with certain agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service, the Virginia Democrat said. Then, the shutdown came.
WHITE HOUSE
Top White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett on Monday predicted the government shutdown is “likely to end sometime this week.” But if that does not happen, the Trump administration may impose “stronger measures” to force Democrats to cooperate, Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
FEDERAL AGENCIES
The National Nuclear Security Administration furloughed 1,400 employees Monday as part of the federal shutdown, with NNSA doing budget “gymnastics” to keep contractors on-site at critical facilities.
The Interior Department on Monday revealed it was planning more than 2,000 layoffs that are now paused under a court order, with the scheduled cuts spread throughout its bureaus and offices.
As the partial government shutdown drags on, some Social Security Administration employees working without pay are being denied their requests for “episodic telework,” and instead facing “AWOL” notices, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
THE IMPACT
Recent analyses show that how Americans are impacted by the ongoing government shutdown could depend on their political affiliation and where they live. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit, reported on Oct. 17 that 48% of Americans agree the funding lapse has impacted people in their community. There was, however, a partisan gap with 69% of Democrats responding affirmatively compared with 38% of independents and 27% of Republicans.
What does a shutdown mean for government contractors, employees, grantees and the general public? Click here for more information.
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