Government Shutdown Update: Thursday, October 23, 2025

There was no vote on the continuing resolution (CR) today, and the Senate is in recess until next Monday.

The Senate voted on Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) Shutdown Fairness Act (S. 3012) today. The bill failed by a vote of 55-44. Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) voted alongside Republicans in support of the bill. Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) did not vote. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced the True Shutdown Fairness Act as an alternative bill to pay federal workers and prevent the Administration from enacting reductions-in-force (RIFs) during the shutdown. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) proposed an alternative bill that would pay all federal workers and federal contractors for what they would have earned between October 1 and the bill's enactment.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill (S. 3031) that would ensure that air traffic controllers are paid during the government shutdown. The bill would provide the Federal Aviation Administration with funds to pay air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration, and other workers at the agency. These workers are set to miss their first full paycheck on October 28. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) has indicated that he will not bring the House back in to vote to pay air traffic controllers. He stated that paying essential employees would “take the pressure off [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer to get his job done and open the government again.”

President Trump has remained relatively removed from shutdown negotiations, and many members of Congress believe that no resolution can be reached until he gets involved. The President is scheduled to leave for a diplomatic trip to Asia at the end of this week, which would likely put off any potential for him to get involved until November.

ACA Negotiations

During an interview today, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Brett Guthrie (R-KY) said that any ACA subsidy extension would “absolutely” need to address the issue of auto-enrollment. As the ACA currently stands, individuals who enroll in these plans are automatically re-enrolled in the following years. Republicans are concerned that this process creates “phantom” enrollees, or an enrollee who is not using their plan. This has been a top-of-mind issue for Republicans, given that the ACA is taxpayer-funded. Democrats are concerned that ending auto-enrollment would result in people losing their health care coverage due to missing the enrollment window. This issue could be a potential inflection point for negotiations on ACA subsidies.

Understanding the Continuing Resolutions

Continuing resolutions are temporary funding measures that continue funding at the current level for a specified period of time. Occasionally, there are minor adjustments made, but a true CR is a straight extension of current funding levels. This ensures the government remains open and operating when appropriations bills have not been passed on time. Typically, the purpose of a CR is to allow extra time for an agreement to be reached on full-year appropriations. Once agreement is reached on top-line budget numbers, it usually takes a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks to produce a final spending package.

The CR (H.R. 5371) that the House passed, and that Majority Leader Thune continues to bring to a vote in the Senate, has funding levels consistent with FY24 funding, as modified by the rescissions package. The CR, when proposed in September, was meant to last until November 21. As that date approaches, Congress must consider drafting a new CR that extends to a later date.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) is still looking to continue the appropriations process by passing a minibus. The minibus could consist of attaching the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill to the Department of Defense appropriations bill, along with the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill. Other Republicans have expressed interest in conferencing with the House to pass the Military Construction-Veterans’ Affairs appropriations bill to get it passed on to the President. Passing a minibus would provide full funding for certain factions of the government such that the CR becomes less of an issue because bipartisan funding bills would have passed.

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.