DAY 38: As trust dries up, flights get cancelled and SNAP benefits disappear
- Agora
- Nov 7
- 3 min read
AGORA SHUTDOWN UPDATE
November 7, 2025
The shutdown word of the day is “trust.” As in, a complete lack of trust between the two parties is making ending the shutdown close to impossible.
While Senate GOP leaders have offered Democrats a deal to hold a vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies in exchange for re-opening the government, Democrats don’t trust that the House or President Trump will go along with it. Some Democrats, emboldened by the election results, don’t trust their more centrist colleagues to hold the line on their demands. And Republicans in the Senate are having trust issues of their own with the White House, where Trump continues to push them to end the filibuster.
Beyond the Beltway, the infighting is becoming quite relevant to people’s lives, as SNAP benefits dry up and flights are cancelled. As the parties double down on pressuring each other to cave, the question is when pressure from the public overwhelms the partisans.
On that regard, polling showing that Republicans are getting more of the blame for the shutdown might cause more cracks in their façade. But ultimately, neither party is coming out of this unscathed. The real trust gap is not between Rs and Ds, but between the citizens and their elected representatives.
CONGRESS
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is dangling another carrot for Democrats. They still aren’t ready to bite.
Democratic support for a potential deal to reopen the government has crumbled because of deep mistrust among Senate Democrats over whether they can trust President Trump to act in good faith to extend health insurance subsidies or to stop firing federal workers.
A deal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies is looking more uncertain as Senate Republicans push to make headway Friday on ending the longest-ever government shutdown.
Congress is considering a proposal to reverse some federal employee layoffs as part of a deal to reopen government, lawmakers said on Thursday, as negotiations continue to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
WHITE HOUSE
President Trump and congressional Republicans calculated at the start of the government shutdown that they would avoid negotiations with Democrats, let the public pressure build and then watch them fold. More than a month in, that strategy appears to have been a miscalculation.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
Democrats in Congress are pressing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to restore oversight staff who were furloughed at the start of the government shutdown.
FEDERAL WORKFORCE
A Federal News Network “pulse poll” taken over a 36-hour period earlier this week shows two-thirds of the 730 respondents say they believe more of their co-workers will call out sick more often if the lapse in appropriations continues deeper into November.
THE IMPACT
More than 1,000 flights across the country were canceled as of Friday morning, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airlines look to deal with staffing shortages exacerbated by the ongoing government shutdown.
For the 42 million people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the country’s largest anti-hunger program, it has been a chaotic, nerve-racking week.
What does a shutdown mean for government contractors, employees, grantees and the general public? Click here for more information.
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