After 43 days of uncertainty, the US Senate finally passed a bill on Monday, November 10, ending the longest government shutdown in American history. However, the effects of the shutdown are still being felt by millions of Americans and have sparked major political debates over government responsibility.
One of the most significant impacts of the shutdown was on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP. This program provides low- income families with necessary funds to purchase food. On November 5, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the maximum SNAP allotments would be reduced by 35% during the month of November, affecting over 40 million Americans who rely on the program.
Many states were outraged and came together to fight this crisis. On October 28, New Jersey Attorney General Mathew Platkin and 22 other attorneys, along with the governors of Kentucky, Kansas, and Pennsylvania sued the USDA for unlawful suspension of SNAP.
According to NJBIZ, Platkin said, “New Jersey families are being used as political pawns by the Trump Administration, which is illegally suspending SNAP and the critical assistance it provides to residents who are struggling with food insecurity.”
In addition to that, healthcare access has been disrupted due to the major arguments on what to do with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits. This program makes health insurance more affordable and provides subsidies for lower to middle class Americans, but it is set to expire by the end of 2025 unless the government extends it. This argument was a central reason for the shutdown since Congress could not agree on whether to extend the act or not.
Additionally, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extends major tax cuts for higher earning citizens, has cut about $3.4 trillion from health programs such as ACA, as stated by TIME. These events have been the centers of many major arguments during the time of the shutdown.
Millions of Americans were losing access to important necessities, and politicians scrambled to find a solution while debating the issue of responsibility.
On one side, Democrats blamed the Trump administration. Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Trump of using hungry kids as bargaining chips, and in an interview on The Weekly Show, former Vice President Kamala Harris expressed her shock at Trump’s building of a ballroom amid the shutdown: “Are you kidding me? This guy wants to create a ballroom for his rich friends while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that babies are going to starve when the SNAP benefits end in just hours from now.”
Meanwhile, Republicans blamed Democrats because the group refused to cooperate with Republican policies, causing the shutdown to continue. The US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins made an X post saying, “Because of the Democrat shutdown, there are not enough funds to provide SNAP for 40 million Americans come Nov 1. Democrats are putting free healthcare for illegal aliens and their political agenda ahead of food security for American families.”
This country seems to be getting more divided, and the 2025 shutdown is proof of that. However, it was more than a political standoff between parties. From reduced SNAP benefits to interrupted healthcare access, it had directly affected the lives of millions of Americans—primarily targeting the most vulnerable of them.
Fortunately, many problems that arose during the shutdown are expected to be resolved soon. According to TIME, workers who haven’t been paid in a month due to the shutdown will now get financial relief, and the SNAP benefits will receive a full year funding. However, Congress has yet to settle the crisis of ACA leaving over 22 million Americans who depend on it unsure of their future healthcare access and at risk of facing unaffordable costs.
