On Oct. 1, 2025, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to extend funding through Sept. 30, 2025. Due to the filibuster rule, the Republican Senate needed 60 votes, but it holds only a marginal majority of 53 seats to Democrats’ 47; the two independent senators, Bernie Sanders and Angus King, both tend to vote with the Democratic party.
Therefore, when the CR received only 51 votes due to a dispute between Democrats who wanted to reverse cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare and Republicans who sought to slash those funds, their refusal to compromise led to the longest shutdown in U.S. history, lasting, as of this writing, 44 days beginning on October 1st.
This shutdown was prolonged primarily because both sides entrenched their positions, with Republicans refusing to eliminate the filibuster rule, claiming it would allow majorities to circumvent compromise with minority-party interests.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a press conference, “Families are wondering, they can’t afford the new healthcare insurance bills. How do I provide healthcare for my children? What if I have to switch hospitals or doctors? What if everything is cut off? What an agonizing decision that republicans are forcing the American people to make? The open enrollment isn’t like past years, it’s a five-alarm healthcare emergency, and for the first time, millions of families, as you know, will see their premiums double overnight.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “I still don’t exactly know what it is they [Democrats] want. We’ve accommodated a lot of their questions and concerns. They want to have a discussion about healthcare, and we’ve offered that up a long time ago. We’ve talked repeatedly about having a normal appropriations process where we put a bill on the floor, open it up to the amendment process.”
Consequently, SNAP ran out of money on Nov. 1, 2025, and the Trump administration initially refused to distribute emergency funds, hoping to compel Democrats to pass a CR without concessions. However, a federal court intervened, ruling he had to distribute those funds. The Trump administration appealed it to the Supreme Court and won.
On Nov. 10, 2025, the Senate convened. Eight democrats defected: Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Sen. Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sen. Angus King of Maine, Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Sen. Jon Fetterman of Pennsylvania, passing the CR onto the House to end the shutdown. As part of the deal to end the shutdown, Senate Republicans committed to opening the amendment process to a floor vote in December, meaning the healthcare debate is still not over. However, House Republicans have not made the commitment mentioned above. Therefore, due to these defections, the Senate Democrats failed to achieve their objectives regarding the Obamacare subsidies.
Afterwards, the House of Representatives voted 222-209 to end the shutdown, and the trump administration ratified it, ending the shutdown on Nov. 13, 2025, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
