October 17, 2025/Midnight
Erie, PA. – Federal workers were laid off Oct. 1 because the federal government shut down for the 15th time in U.S. history. As of now, the Federal government has been shut down for two weeks. The Senate returns to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to decide on the newly passed funding proposal from the House of Representatives.
The government relies on a federal budget being passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate every year. When there is a stalemate in Congress federal workers cannot get paid and several agencies’ research is suspended.
The budget is a set amount to provide money for federal departments, interest on the National debt, Veteran benefits, Social Security, and funding of federal workers for that year.
The federal budget expired on Sept. 30 at midnight. Since the shutdown, Congress has actively proposed and tried to pass a new budget. Reporters say there is no indication of progress towards a compromise.
Different partisan topics such as the Affordable Care Act are the reasons for the stalemate in Congress, of which republicans have majority rule in both chambers. But in the Senate, negotiations need to be made to come to an agreement over the budget.
House Speaker Mike Johnson warned yesterday that the nation is “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”
During President Trump’s first term, he broke the record for the longest government shut down. The shutdown lasted 34 days, starting on Dec. 22, 2018, through Jan. 25, 2019.
Government services are suspended, and 40% of the federal employees are on unpaid leave. Services deemed essential by the Trump Administration continue their work. According to BBC, The US Postal Service, in-hospital medical care workers, Social Security and Medicare, Border protection and law enforcement staff continue to work as normal.
Several agencies, like Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have laid off many workers which affects their ongoing research projects. In addition, services that provide food assistance have been cut down or closed.
Federal employees have mixed emotions over the shutdown. Some say this was a much-needed break from work. While most workers are still enraged about the cuts to the budget last year. According to NPR, workers are nervous that once the new budget is passed their funding will be reduced considerably compared to previous years. Federal families’ anxieties remained high during the past two weeks.
As of the writing of this article Americans are still awaiting the reopening of the federal government and federal workers are hoping they will come back from this break with their job still intact.
