On Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, at 12:01 a.m., the federal government in Washington, D.C. officially entered a partial shutdown, meaning that all “nonessential” federal agencies and programs are temporarily suspended or reduced.
The shutdown happened over a budget dispute in Congress, where representatives failed to pass and approve a new funding bill before the fiscal-year deadline. This conflict came from major disagreements between Democratic and Republican political parties about federal spending, healthcare funding, and budget cuts to many governmental programs.
Leading up to the shutdown, weeks of intense negotiations and debates took place within the legislative branch. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, pushed for new funding bills at the expense of significant cuts from social and healthcare programs, sparking debate between parties. The proposals aimed to cut back on federal spending for programs such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which helps lower-income Americans afford health care, and to tighten Medicaid eligibility, with supporters claiming the cuts were needed to reduce the national deficit. On the other hand, Democrats refused to approve any spending plan that cut federal spending for programs that support affordable healthcare. Some democratic members of Congress fought to extend the ACA subsidies that were originally expanded during the Biden Administration but were met with immediate pushback from the Republican Party. With both sides in a political standstill over funding and spending cuts right before the fiscal-year deadline on Tuesday Sept. 30, 2025, the government had no option but to shut down.
Berkeley High School freshman Orion Germick reacted to the news of the shutdown, saying, “I’m really surprised it got to this point and actually happened. You always hear about disagreements with the government, but I didn’t think it would actually lead to a full shutdown. It’s kind of shocking that things could get so bad that the government basically just stops working entirely.”
The shutdown also put many jobs at risk. Many federal employees are currently working without pay. Government systems such as national parks, certain passport offices, and museums have been shut down, putting hundreds of thousands of jobs in question. Only essential programs like traffic and air control, border patrol, and Social Security have stayed open out of necessity, but many employees are working long hours and not being paid due to the shutdown.
BHS junior Guinevere Hooley is especially upset by this news due to her personal connections with federally funded jobs. “This is extremely horrible. My dad works for the government, but thankfully, he has one of the jobs that still is getting funding,” she said, “A bunch of people aren’t as lucky. I know how devastating it must be for them and their families … lots of people have lost their jobs and are now facing economic instability, and working without getting paid, which is so unfair.”
This is not the first time the government has faced a shutdown, the most recent taking place six years ago under the first Trump administration. The shutdown occurred in 2019, lasting nearly 35 days, the longest in American political history, and was caused by disputes over border wall funding and immigration control. The shutdown left nearly 800,000 federal employees without pay.
Hooley believes this will affect the public’s view of the government. “When the government can’t even stay open, it definitely makes people question whether the people who are running the country can actually get things done. And honestly, once that trust is gone, it’s hard to get it back,” Hooley said.
Politicians are expected to return to Capitol Hill within the next few weeks to attempt to pass a short-term deal regarding reopening the government. However, with both political sides largely unwilling to compromise over major spending issues or cooperate under bipartisanship, it’s unclear how long the shutdown will last.