Longest US government shutdown ends after 43 days

On the evening of 12 November 2025 President Donald J. Trump signed the continuing resolution ending the 43-day federal- government shutdown that began at 12:01 a.m. EDT on 1 October 2025 — the longest funding lapse in US history, surpassing the prior 35-day record of 22 December 2018 to 25 January 2019.¹² The Senate invoked cloture on the House-originated substitute amendment to H.R. 5371 by 60-40 on 9 November 2025, with eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus joining 52 Republicans to break the filibuster: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).³ Final Senate passage of the substitute amendment was 60-40 on 10 November 2025; the House concurred in the Senate amendment by 222-209 on 12 November 2025.⁴⁵ The agreement defers an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits (which expire 31 December 2025 under § 36B of the Internal Revenue Code, as extended by the Inflation Reduction Act); Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) committed to a standalone Senate vote on extension in December 2025.⁶⁷ The package provides full-year FY2026 appropriations for three of the twelve regular appropriations bills — Military Construction- Veterans Affairs; Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies; and the Legislative Branch — and funds the remaining nine bills’ agencies at FY2025 levels under a continuing resolution through 30 January 2026.⁸

1. Retroactive pay for federal employees furloughed or required to work during the lapse is guaranteed by the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-1, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 1341 note, “at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends.”⁹ Federal contractors are not federal employees within the meaning of Pub. L. 116-1; their compensation depends on contract terms and on agency contract-modification authority under FAR Part 43.¹⁰

2. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — both partially funded outside annual appropriations through contingency reserves — receive backfill under the package. SNAP funding during the lapse was the subject of district-court orders in Pennsylvania v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-01__ (D. Mass.) and parallel actions, directing the USDA to distribute contingency funds.¹¹ The Federal Aviation Administration imposed ground-delay programs at multiple major airports in the final week of the shutdown owing to reduced air traffic controller staffing.¹²

3. The continuing-resolution expiration on 30 January 2026 exposes the remaining nine appropriations bills to a repeat funding cliff in the second quarter of FY2026; the Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary estimate placed the shutdown’s permanent reduction to real GDP at approximately $7 billion, with an additional $11 billion in deferred activity that will be recovered in subsequent quarters.¹³