Just at the tail end of Sept. 2025, the bill that funds the fiscal year for the US government was unable to pass, leading to the longest government shutdown in American history.

In the governing system in the United States, the senate needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in order for a bill to be passed. The 53 Republicans from the Senate voted to approve the new bill for government funding, not quite enough for its passing. However, the democrats in the senate refused to pass the bill without a clause that reduced healthcare costs.

Earlier in the year, republicans were fighting to eliminate government aid in providing payment for healthcare to US citizens. The democrat party was against this, and wanted to keep these government subsidies for everyone. So, once the next bill came to the senate, the democrats all refused to pass it, believing that the acts the republicans were making for American healthcare were unfair.

Since there were not enough votes, the bill couldn’t be passed to be voted on, and the government’s lack of funding caused a total shutdown for 43 days. Flights around the country were grounded due to air traffic employees working with no pay, national parks were unattended and hundreds of federal employees worked without compensation. One of the biggest repercussions from the shutdown, however, was the lack of funding in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

SNAP is a type of food stamp, which is a type of funding for the government that pays for food for the families in the United States with the lowest income. When the bill couldn’t pass, thousands of underprivileged citizens couldn’t afford the food they needed. Once this consequence arose, the democrats decided to vote in favor of the funding. Although their demands were not met, the decision to sign off on the bill was to avoid prolonging the shutdown so SNAP food stamps could continue. Subsequently, the government shutdown finally ended.

Nonetheless, the bill for funding that was approved was only fitting until it expires in about two months. Once January comes and it’s time to vote for more government funding, only time will tell what decision comes from the senate.