Government shutdown becoming longest in US history as Democrats dig in on Obamacare

The 2025 government shutdown is hours away from breaking a record to be the longest-ever in history.

The prior record was held by the 2018-2019 government shutdown during President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump signed legislation ending that shutdown in the 9 p.m. hour on the 35th day.

Tuesday marks the 35th day of the current fiscal standoff. And with no deal reached yet between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, it’s all but certain that the dispute will bleed into day 36.

The previous shutdown occurred over a disagreement on funding Trump’s border wall. But this time, it’s Democrats’ priorities being caught in the middle.

SENATE RETURNS TO WORK AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN NEARS LONGEST IN US HISTORY OVER OBAMACARE FIGHT

Republicans have for weeks pushed a short-term extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels called a continuing resolution (CR), aimed at giving lawmakers until Nov. 21 to strike a deal on FY2026 spending.

The measure is largely free of unrelated policy riders, save for an added $88 million aimed at enhanced security funding for lawmakers, the White House, and the Supreme Court. 

But Democrats have said they will reject any federal funding bill that does not also extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The enhanced subsidies were a COVID-19 pandemic-era measure that a majority of Republicans have said is no longer needed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have said they are open to discussing a reformed version of those subsidies, but rejected pairing the two issues together.

The House passed the CR on Sept. 19. Johnson has kept his chamber out of session since then in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats to agree to the GOP bill — though they have rejected it 13 times since then.

Senate Republicans have looked for different markers throughout the shutdown as possible exit points for Senate Democrats, like the nationwide “No Kings” protests, federal workers missing paychecks, the opening of open enrollment across the country on Nov. 1, and now the upcoming record-setting later Tuesday night. 

Sen. Mike Rounds, R- S.D., noted that both the elections on Tuesday, and the record-breaking push “as a protest against the president,” could factor into how much longer Senate Democrats continue to drag the shutdown out. 

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“Here’s the reality, they’re at about 25% approval rating right now, and as one of their colleagues told me, the only way they can really go up is to show their base that they’re fighting with the president, and that’s what they’re doing right now,” Rounds said. 

“So once they get to the point where they think they made their point, then I think there’s a possibility of actually getting something done,” he continued. 

There has been more optimism in the upper chamber over the last several days than the entire shutdown so far, as more and more bipartisan conversations are cropping up. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., believed that lawmakers were close to an off-ramp, but there still hasn’t been a concrete move made toward ending the shutdown yet. 

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., still want a solid deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, and want Trump to get more involved. That desire, despite the optimism, will likely see the House-passed CR fail for a 14th time Tuesday morning. 

When asked if breaking the record would add more weight to lawmakers’ ending the shutdown, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., believed it would take an outside force. 

“I don’t see what it is,” he said. “It’ll take some type of an outside inflection point, or the best negotiator in the world to come in.” 

Meanwhile, funding for critical government programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC), as well as national flood insurance are running critically low on funds — potentially ensnaring millions of Americans.