3 Things Americans Should Know About The Government Shutdown

The federal government is scheduled to shut down at midnight tonight. Funding for the fiscal year 2025 runs out, and Congress is poised to once again pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating for part of fiscal year 2026.

The current state of play does not look good. The House of Representatives, led by conservatives, passed a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through November 21, 2025. However, the Senate needs 60 votes to pass a filibuster and move to a final vote on the measure, meaning that some Democrats would have to join all Republicans in supporting the measure. The Left is leveraging the threat of a government shutdown to undo spending cuts enacted earlier this year.

This time, the shutdown lies wholly at the feet of Democrats in Congress. They are attempting to stop conservatives from good governance and fiscal restraint.

Here are three things to know about this potential government shutdown.

1. This CR does not cut funding. This continuing resolution continues federal spending for FY 2026 at current FY 2025 levels, which, by the way, are 50% more than in 2019. As my colleague Kamryn Brunner explained, “Federal outlays are estimated to reach $7.02 trillion in 2025, a 58% increase over 2019 federal spending. Six years’ worth of spending increases have happened since 2019, including pandemic emergency spending, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, among others.” That’s an enormous increase in spending. American families’ incomes didn’t go up 50% over that time period. While the pandemic has long ended, added spending has not been ratcheted back down, but it should.
2. This is a “clean” CR that avoids contentious policy fights. The CR does not contain contentious policy or spending provisions or riders that are meant to force the opposing side to take public votes on issues they would rather not have on record. As Speaker Mike Johnson explained, “This CR is the same short-term funding extension that virtually all Democrats voted to pass 13 times during the Biden Administration.” So, what makes this CR different from the over a dozen times they voted for a clean CR in the past? 
3. This CR clears the way for a budget to be passed—finally. This CR allows for the appropriations bills already passed by all 12 House committees to work through the Senate. This means that Congress would finally pass a budget, and in that budget, Congress can make permanent reductions to federal agencies and programs, making much-needed cuts to federal spending. Congress is finally operating through regular order, and passing this clean CR gives them more time to do that.

What the Left Wants

Democrats are holding this continuing resolution hostage in an effort to restore spending cuts over this year for partisan and even radical agenda items. Their proposal would add an additional $1.5 trillion of spending to this four-week funding bill. They want to:

• Restore free health care for illegal immigrants that was ended by the recent tax cut package (One Big, Beautiful Bill Act).
• Restore $500 million in taxpayer funding to left-leaning news outlets.
• Restore billions in funding for DEI and climate projects in foreign countries through USAID.

These are policy fights that the Left lost when conservatives won last November. Now is not the time to make Americans needlessly suffer. As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said back on September 16, 2024:

If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer most. A government shutdown means seniors who rely on Social Security could be thrown into chaos as the Social Security Administration limits certain services, like benefit verifications or fixing errors in payments. Our veterans could see regional VA offices shut down and support services put on hold. Some of our military service members could be forced to work without pay. Families who benefit from WIC and other nutrition programs could see benefits halted. And a shutdown would shake the confidence of our economic recovery, something we can’t possibly afford at a time like this.

If the Left said we could not afford a shutdown last September, then why are they willing to let the government shut down now?