Government Shutdown Update: Friday, October 17, 2025

It is Day 17 of the government shutdown, making this the third-longest shutdown in United States history.

Both the Senate and House are out of session today. The House will continue to recess throughout next week, marking one month since the chamber has been in session. The Senate returns Monday evening for a continuing resolution (CR) vote, and several hearings are scheduled to take place.

Going into the Weekend

Republicans and Democrats remain at odds on shutdown negotiations, with neither party willing to make concessions. House and Senate leadership continue to assert their respective priorities.

An estimated 100,000 people are expected at the Washington, D.C. No Kings protest this weekend. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has encouraged Americans to attend the events, stating he will also be participating in a protest. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated that “not a single person is going to be standing in their way of their right to exercise, assemble, and protest peacefully.”

Furloughs Hit Again

Furloughs are now planned at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) within the Department of Energy. The program continued operating at normal capacity at the beginning of the shutdown but has now run out of any holdover funding. Eighty percent, or 1,400, of NNSA employees have been furloughed. The program maintains and modernizes warheads, oversees Navy nuclear propulsion, and manages nonproliferation programs. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) said, “These are not employees that you want to go home. They’re managing and handling a very important strategic asset for us. They need to be at work and being paid.” This latest furlough has been cited as one of many impending national security consequences of the shutdown.

Tensions Over Power of the Purse

While GOP members continue to express support for paying military service members, there are remaining concerns about the White House’s reprogramming of funding, which has occurred without Congressional input or approval. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has joined Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in voicing concern over the matter.
Today, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought paused $11 billion in Army Corps of Engineers projects in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore.

Further Shutdown Impacts

As the shutdown continues with no end in sight, its impact is increasingly being experienced at both the state and local levels.

• The strain of suspended federal operations is impacting state and local governments. With appropriations stalled, agencies have paused or revised grant disbursements, triggering immediate fiscal pressure on programs that rely on federal support, including housing, transportation, and public health services.


• Localities are scrambling to maintain essential services, with some initiating contingency planning to keep programs afloat while federal dollars are paused. One example is Massachusetts, which is already confronting a $650 million budget shortfall due to federal tax law changes embedded in recent reconciliation legislation. That strain has now been compounded by the shutdown’s disruption of economic data streams and federal reimbursements.


• Governors and municipal leaders are weighing emergency measures, including dipping into reserves, revising revenue forecasts, and exploring legislative decoupling from federal tax provisions. The longer the shutdown persists, the more acute the operational and economic risks become for local governments.


• Across states and industries, federal contractors, especially small and mid-sized firms, are suspending work and laying off staff due to halted agency funding, with cascading effects on innovation and service delivery. This slowing down of work is expected to negatively affect the construction supply chain and could erode trust in the federal government as a reliable contracting partner.

Past updates can be found on the DLA Piper website here.

If you have any questions or would like to coordinate an individual conversation about the shutdown’s effects or about the Government Affairs & Public Policy practice, please contact practice chair Karina Lynch at karina.lynch@us.dlapiper.com.