As the federal government shutdown continues into November, both parties appear entrenched, although bipartisan conversations are taking place.
Here’s a breakdown of the key issues that are undergirding the impasse:
The Expiration of Heathcare Subsidies
Enhanced subsidies that help people in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace afford health insurance will expire on December 31. If Congress fails to extend these subsidies, millions of people across the country will see their healthcare premiums double or triple in price.
Many will look at the cost and decide they cannot afford healthcare insurance. When people don’t have health insurance, they don’t get preventative care, and illnesses and injuries that could be addressed early go untreated until it’s too late.
While the subsidies don’t expire until the end of the year, people began reviewing their premium costs and selecting their healthcare plans starting on November 1.
Once people decide they can’t afford health insurance, it becomes very hard to get them back, even if Congress extends the subsidies later. That is why there is an urgency to extend the enhanced ACA premium subsidies now.
Republicans say they won’t negotiate on the healthcare premiums until Democrats pass a clean bill that opens the government.
Democrats want assurances that the Republican majority would actually pass an extension of the healthcare premium subsidies. Republican leadership has not promised a vote, and the trust between the parties is very low. Moreover, the Republicans had the opportunity to extend these subsidies in the One Big Beautiful Bill but didn’t. The Republican caucus is divided about whether to extend the ACA healthcare subsidies at all.
Guardrails to Ensure the Administration Spends the Money Congress Appropriates
Another issue at the heart of the shutdown is Congress’ constitutional power to appropriate funds. The administration has been withholding funds, firing federal workers, and rescinding money for programs Congress specifically appropriated.
If the administration can undermine Congress’ spending decisions, the bipartisan appropriations process becomes meaningless.
Many in Congress want safeguards included in whatever spending bills pass to ensure the administration will implement those funding decisions. The administration has also used its rescissions power to cut funding on a partisan basis for programs Congress agreed to on a bipartisan basis. If the administration can repeatedly and regularly undermine Congress’ spending decisions in this way, the bipartisan appropriations process becomes meaningless.
SNAP and the Consequences of the Shutdown
The government shutdown itself is causing harm and disruptions for families and communities across the country. The impacts will grow the longer the shutdown continues. Despite bipartisan attempts to alleviate some of these harms, Republican leadership is refusing to pass any carveout measures, arguing that lessening the pain of the shutdown would allow it to run longer.
Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ran out on November 1, and without action, 42 million people will lose food assistance in this country. This is tragic, especially as we head into Thanksgiving. There is absolutely no reason this should happen.
The administration is choosing not to ensure that families receive the full benefits they need.
SNAP has always continued through government shutdowns. There is about $5 to 6 billion of funding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can — and is legally required to — use to keep benefits funded through November. That is the purpose of that contingency fund.
USDA also has the authority to transfer funding between nutrition programs, and it has a fund of more than $20 billion available to it.
In previous administrations, including the Trump administration in its first term USDA was prepared to use these contingency funds in the case of government shutdowns. Even as of a few weeks ago, that remained the case. However, the administration reversed course, consciously allowing children across the country to go hungry.
Thankfully, courts have now stepped in. Judges ruled that the administration must release the contingency funds, and that it has the ability to transfer other funds. So far, the administration is promising to comply with the order to release the contingency fund. But it is choosing not to ensure that families receive the full benefits they need by transferring other available funds.
What is the Way Out? And What Can You Do?
Pressure continues to build as the SNAP benefits, head start funding, and low-income home energy assistance dry up. Bipartisan conversations among senators are growing, and members of Congress are looking for an off-ramp. There is a path forward, but it’s difficult to find as leaders remain dug in and with such a lack of trust between the political parties.
You can help bring the temperature down. Urge your members of Congress to negotiate a compromise that will open the government, ensure healthcare subsidies continue, and set guardrails that assert Congress’ power of the purse in future appropriations decisions.
