DAY 28: Cracks in the wall?
- Agora
- Oct 28
- 3 min read
AGORA SHUTDOWN UPDATE
October 28, 2025
For nearly a month, Democrats in Congress have presented a mostly united front, holding out on approving a continuing resolution to re-open the government unless GOP leadership extends Obamacare subsidies slated to end in December.
But that unity is being tested, as the largest federal employees’ union on Monday called for Congress to re-open the government, with or without a deal on the insurance subsidies. No additional Democrats have broken ranks, but the move suggests that the looming crisis facing unpaid federal workers, SNAP recipients, Head Start programs and a host of other federal funding could cause some Senators to bend.
With the House out of session and President Trump in Asia, Republicans are feeling less pressure to negotiate – but they are not immune to the growing harm the shutdown is causing, either, as evidenced by GOP proposals to pay workers and keep SNAP flowing. In the end, how this resolves may come down to whichever party is more ruthless in pursuing their goals.
CONGRESS
A demand Monday by the main union representing federal employees to end the partial government shutdown exposes a central trade-off for Democrats on Capitol Hill — fighting to extend health care subsidies to millions of Americans has left more than 1 million federal workers without pay.
The Senate on Tuesday will vote on the House-passed GOP funding bill to reopen the federal government, as the shutdown hits the four-week mark.
Democrats on the House Education and Workforce Committee expressed opposition Monday not just to layoffs that have occurred since the start of the government shutdown but also the Trump administration’s apparent lack of transparency about which federal employees are being laid off.
Ten GOP senators have signed on to back Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) bill to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as the government shutdown threatens a program lapse in November.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
Background investigations for many government positions, including those that require a security clearance, are continuing to be processed through the government shutdown. But the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency — which conducts approximately 95% of background investigations across government — has paused some normal operations. And those who closely watch the security clearance space are starting to see delays in processing as the shutdown drags on.
FEDERAL WORKFORCE
Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), the lead Senate Republican negotiator on a bill to pay key federal workers during the shutdown, says he has offered Democrats a proposal to pay all federal workers — essential and furloughed federal employees — while federal departments and agencies are shuttered.
THE IMPACT
For Hannah Mann, a mother of three who lives in Merchantville, N.J., the government shutdown is not an abstract political fight. Her family relies on federal food subsidies for groceries, including specialty formula for her newborn, who was born five weeks early, as well as a program that helps alleviate the cost of utility bills for low-income Americans. Those initiatives could run out of federal funding in days.
Tens of thousands of children from low-income families could lose access to education, meals and health care if federal Head Start cash doesn’t resume by Nov. 1 — just as the funding drought stokes fears of lasting damage to the program.
What does a shutdown mean for government contractors, employees, grantees and the general public? Click here for more information.
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