WASHINGTON D.C.—At 35 days and counting, the current government shutdown now ties the record for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Both Democrats and Republicans are placing the blame across the aisles claiming the opposite side is responsible for federal workers not being paid and millions of Americans left without food assistance, heat, and other services. As members of Congress—senators and representatives—continue to duke it out, they will continue to receive their full salaries ($174,000/year or $476.71/day) during the ongoing 2025 federal government shutdown.
The Republican-majority House and Senate require 60 votes to pass a budget bill to fund the government—Republicans have 53 votes in the Senate, the Democratic Caucus has 47, requiring negotiations across the aisles. This filibuster has been criticized by President Trump recently who called for its removal. If the filibuster were to be removed it would allow Republicans to pass legislation without Democrat support.
On Monday, November 3, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delivered a press conference where he blamed the Democrat party for the shutdown, as well as spreading “false information” and “gaslighting.”
First, Speaker Johnson dismissed the Democrat’s “claim that Republicans have closed the government” stating that the Republican party has voted to reopen the government 14 times.
“Back in September 19, in the House, Republicans voted to open the government. A clean, continuing resolution, to keep everything in operation. Every Democrat in the House, except one, voted to close the government,” said Johnson. “By contrast, the Republicans in the House, and the Senate, voted to keep the lights on, to pay service members and our troops, border control agents, TSA, air traffic controllers, all federal workers, that federal nutrition programs and SNAP benefits continue to go to the American families in need.”
Despite blaming Republicans for federal workers not being paid during the shutdown, Speaker Johnson allowed Republicans to take a six-week, paid, “district work period,” which Democrats have criticized as being a “paid vacation.”
President Donald J Trump opted to not continue funding SNAP programs through the month of November because “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits,” even though past administrations have used SNAP contingency funds to cover regular benefits during government shutdowns. However, on October 31, two federal judges (Judge Indira Talwani and Judge of Massachusetts and Judge John J. McConnell, Jr) ruled that not only can the government legally use contingency funds to continue funding SNAP, it must. President Trump has since announced that he will comply with the judge’s orders.
Congresswoman Suzane DelBene (D-WA01) claimed Trump’s refusal to tap into SNAP’s contingency funds was intentional “to punish Americans and individual states, primarily those that he perceives as not supporting him.”
“He [Trump] cut off more than $1 billion for energy and manufacturing projects in the Pacific Northwest. He illegally fired more than 4,000 federal workers who protect us from disease outbreaks, process our tax returns and support students with disabilities. Withholding food assistance funds is just the latest example and one that will impact people in every state across the country. It’s hard to see this as anything but intentionally causing harm,” said DelBene.
In the President’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ he calls for nearly $200 billion in SNAP benefit cuts – the largest cut in the program’s history.
Speaker Johnson called Democrats’ claims that the Republican party is responsible for the government shutdown the “biggest gaslighting in American history,” and criticized the media for running with it. He also dismissed the Democratic party’s claims that “Republicans are being unreasonable,” adding that the Republican party has refused to accept the Democrats “outrageous demands.”
House and Senate Republicans opted to pass a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) to continue negotiations between both chambers, but Democrats have rejected this bill even though the CR is “almost identical” to a similar CR Republicans brought forth in March, said Johnson. On top of that, Johnson noted Monday, Democrats asked for an additional $1.5 trillion in spending in exchange for the passing of the CR to reopen the government. Spendings which Johnson said would support healthcare for undocumented immigrants and “far left” programs overseas at the expense of the taxpayer.
The Democrats aren’t necessarily asking for an additional $1.5 trillion in spending though, despite Johnson’s claims. The Democratic party’s demands are to continue Affordable Care Act subsidies and other spending priorities that have been contentious across aisles such as restoring funding to PBS and NPR (both of which Johnson called “far left media outlets”) as well as extending healthcare initiatives to rural areas. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget these spendings would amount to an additional $1.5 trillion to the national debt in the next decade but it is not an outright spending bill as Johnson implied.
Democrats have also denied Johnson’s claims that their terms are to provide health coverage to undocumented immigrants and to fund “far left programs.” Undocumented immigrants are already ineligible to apply for federal programs like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, and Medicare and Democratic leaders have continuously said they are not trying to change this law.
Regarding the Republican-backed CR, Democrats have said they rejected this resolution because it would throw 15 million Americans off the healthcare they already have due to massive cuts to Medicaid (10 million) and Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies (5 million).
While Johnson claimed the Republicans have attempted to reopen the government 14 times, and it was the Democrats who are keeping the government shutdown, Republican lawmakers are not conceding their stance with Democrats regarding ACA subsidies. In fact, on Sunday, President Trump said he will “not be extorted” by Democrats and refused to negotiate with them until the federal government reopened.
“For the first time in modern history the Republicans are not negotiating. What they are saying is their way or the highway. They refuse to sit down and talk,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).
Congressman Michael Baumgartner (R-WA05) called on Democrat lawmakers to “do the right thing and join Republicans in reopening the government,” during a virtual meeting held on Sunday, October 2.
“This is not a game. I’ve seen real people suffering,” said Rep. Baumgartner adding that he visited Second Harvest food bank last Friday and learned their food distribution was up 50% with people stocking up in preparation for losing SNAP benefits.
But back in March, the Trump administration cancelled $1.5 billion in funding for schools and food banks making it harder to purchase food from local farmers and suppliers.
Another of the Democrat’s demands is to repeal the Republican-backed Rural Health Transformation Program which was signed into law on July 4 with the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ This program would provide $50 billion in grants to rural health facilities over five years which Democrats are calling a “drop in the bucket” compared to massive Medicaid cuts in the overall legislation.
Speaker Johnson rejected the Democrat’s claims that they are fighting for affordable healthcare, blaming the Democrat lawmakers for skyrocketing healthcare insurance premiums by 60% with the passing of the Affordable Care Act.
According to an analysis conducted by The Leonard D. Schaeffer Initiative for Innovation in Health Policy, which is a partnership between the Center for Health Policy at Brookings and the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, average premiums in the individual market actually dropped significantly since the ACA’s implementation. While Speaker Johnson was right in that healthcare premiums raised with the ACA, according to this analysis the premiums were still at a lower rate than they would be if the ACA had not been passed and a lower net cost to the majority of those insured.
When ACA became law on March 23, 2010, the federal government established premium tax credits (PTCs) to subsidize the ACA for eligible individuals (originally 100-400% of federal poverty level) to offset marketplace premiums. The income cap was removed and subsidy amounts increased with the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on March 11, 2021. These ARPA enhancements were extended for three additional years (ending December 31, 2025) with the passage by the Democrat-sponsored Inflation Reduction Act which was signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 16, 2022.
Speaker Johnson concluded his presser Monday by saying the Democrats are acting out of “fear,” especially ahead of large elections such as the New York Mayor race – the nation’s largest city – of which he called candidate Zohran Mamdan a communist. Mamdani identifies as a Democratic Socialist.
“Schumer and Jeffries fear political retribution from the far-left activists in their party more than they fear the consequences of keeping the government closed for weeks on end,” said Johnson. “It is extremism on the left which is the direct cause of American suffering right now.”
The federal shutdown has significantly affected Washington state residents. Approximately 79,532 federal workers reside in the state with many having not received pay since October 1. As of October 23, over 1,600 filed unemployment claims with the state Employment Security Department (ESD). These workers will receive back pay when the shutdown ends.
The nearly 930,000 Washington residents who receive SNAP benefits exhausted federal reserves on October 31. No new benefits issued starting November 1, families are left without grocery funds and may have to resort to utilizing Food Banks.
All five national parks (Olympic, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, etc.) and national forests/wildlife refuges are closed to visitors, with furloughed staff halting maintenance, research, and patrols.
Washington state’s 29 federally recognized tribes rely heavily on federal funds for health, housing, and utilities. The federal shutdown has halted new grants, affecting programs like Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP, $2.69 million in FY2025) and child welfare. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the former chair and longest serving member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, released on Monday a one-pager detailing harms facing tribal communities due to the government shutdown.
Governor Bob Ferguson on October 28, directed $2.2 million per week from state funds to the Department of Agriculture for grants to food banks, starting November 3, 2025, to offset the lapse in federal SNAP benefits and support over 900,000 recipients.
“Washingtonians are stepping up during this difficult time. I encourage everyone to keep supporting local food banks and pantries if you’re able,” wrote Gov. Ferguson on X. “The Republican-controlled Congress needs to get the government working and restore full SNAP benefits.”
Author: Kienan Briscoe
