Federal government enters partial shutdown

At 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on 1 October 2025, federal- government appropriations lapsed at the start of fiscal year 2026 after the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the House- passed continuing resolution (H.R. 5371) on 30 September 2025; the cloture vote fell short of the 60-vote threshold required under Senate Rule XXII.¹ House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and President Donald J. Trump have each cast the impasse in distinct terms; Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) conditioned Democratic cloture votes on an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits established by the American Rescue Plan Act and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act, which are scheduled to expire on 31 December 2025.²³⁴ As of the lapse, OMB estimated approximately 750,000 federal employees would be furloughed without pay and approximately 1.4 million employees in excepted roles under 31 U.S.C. § 1342 would be required to work without pay; the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-1, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 1341 note, guarantees retroactive pay to both groups upon the end of the lapse.⁵⁶ Activities funded outside annual appropriations — Social Security and Medicare benefit payments, U.S. Postal Service operations — continue unaffected; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was projected to continue through October from USDA contingency reserves, with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) facing a near-term funding-exhaustion risk.⁷

1. The Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)(A), prohibits federal officers and employees from making or authorising expenditures or obligations exceeding amounts available in appropriations; § 1342 provides a narrow exception authorising “voluntary services … for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” under which agencies designate excepted personnel through contingency plans prepared under OMB Circular A-11 § 124.⁸⁹¹⁰ The most recent prior funding lapse ran 35 days from 22 December 2018 to 25 January 2019 and was the longest funding lapse on record at that time.¹¹

2. Federal contractors are not federal employees within the meaning of Pub. L. 116-1; their compensation during a lapse depends on contract terms and, where the Federal Acquisition Regulation permits, on agency contract-modification authority under FAR Part 43.¹² Contractor staff working on cost-reimbursement contracts lose income for the duration of the lapse with no statutory remedy.

3. Excepted personnel continue work in safety-of-life and property-protection functions: Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration screeners, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, federal law enforcement and active-duty military personnel continue under § 1342 designations.¹³ The Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Trade Commission pause non-excepted activities (rulemaking, non-emergency enforcement) per each agency’s individual contingency plan; statutory deadlines that continue to run during the lapse (Tax Court filing deadlines under 26 U.S.C. § 7503; SEC § 10(b) limitations periods under 28 U.S.C. § 1658(b)) create asymmetric exposure for regulated parties.¹⁴¹⁵