The Government’s Open. What Comes Next?
The longest government shutdown in American history ended this week, but the fallout questions remain as Americans in D.C. and beyond navigate the path ahead.
Congress has yet to address healthcare costs as millions of Americans grapple with rising premiums. Though the shutdown deal offers some relief for government employees who were furloughed and laid off, federal workers will be returning to agencies under an administration that continues to devalue their work. And while the government is now funded through the end of January on a continuing resolution (CR), lawmakers must take on the difficult task of passing nine more appropriations bills or pass yet another CR before February to avert another government shutdown.
Federal employees return to work with plans to receive back pay
With the government open again, furloughed federal employees returned to work as early as Thursday morning. However, federal employees are expected to return to significant backlogs of work, meaning that things will be far from "back to normal" in D.C.
Despite pushback from the Trump administration over whether federal workers are entitled to back pay, the Senate deal reaffirmed this requirement. Some federal employees will start receiving back pay as soon as Saturday, with the Trump administration aiming to pay all furloughed workers by Nov. 19.
Another key component of the shutdown deal is reversing the reductions-in-force that have been implemented since October 1st and freezing all reductions in force through the end of January. This reversal comes after the Trump administration laid off over 4,000 employees during the shutdown. As a result, agencies are now in the process of rescinding layoff notices sent to employees last month. Though Trump has said he’ll abide by the deal, the freeze on RIFs only lasts through the end of January, meaning the Trump administration could resume its campaign to slash the federal workforce in 2026, absent language extending that agreement.
Americans expected to navigate lingering effects of the shutdown
The end of the shutdown concludes the Trump administration’s efforts to avoid paying out SNAP benefits, with the Department of Agriculture promising that most states will receive full funds within 24 hours of the bill’s signing. However, the unprecedented lapse in funding for the critical food aid program raises questions about its future. Americans are left uncertain about whether the social safety net program will still be available in similar situations in the future.
Low-income Americans will also have questions over LIHEAP, an energy assistance program that serves nearly six million US households. Since it typically takes the federal government four weeks to calculate state-by-state funding awards, recipients may not receive their funds until December or January. Moreover, the LIHEAP program is suffering from a severe staffing shortage as a result of layoffs carried out earlier this year.
Additionally, the 20 Head Start programs that temporarily closed during the shutdown could take up to two weeks to reopen, meaning disadvantaged families may still be stranded without critical early-childhood programming.
Another shutdown consequence will be delayed jobs data, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Wednesday that the October jobs report may never be released. A jobs report hasn’t been delayed by a shutdown since 2013, when the government released it a few weeks late. However, this time around, the Labor Department did not collect or release economic data during the shutdown, leaving economists on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve in the dark on key economic indicators.
Finally, air traffic disruptions will continue for the next few days, though flight operations are improving on a path back to normal. Over 1,000 flights were cancelled Thursday as the Transportation Department maintained a 6 percent reduction on flights instead of a projected increase to 10 percent
Congress passes three appropriations bills…nine more to go
This week’s CR has ended the shutdown for now, but the clock is already ticking toward Jan. 30, 2026. Though the CR includes a “minibus” of full-year funding bills for the Legislative Branch, Department of Agriculture, FDA, VA, and more, Congress needs to pass nine more funding bills through the bipartisan appropriations process.
To do so, however, Congress will have to revisit old tensions — OMB Director Russ Vought and the White House repeatedly lamented the concept of bipartisan appropriations throughout the summer, and used partisan rescissions and illegal impoundments to skirt the funding requirements.
Moving forward, lawmakers will have their work cut out for them as they look to rally hardline conservative House Republicans alongside a bipartisan group of Senate appropriators to agree on funding levels for the other bills, which touch on more contentious topics. In particular, Republicans are split on how deep to slash the federal budget, and House and Senate leaders have yet to agree on topline numbers for FY26 spending.
Five bills — Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, and Transportation-HUD — have already been passed by the appropriations committees in both the House and the Senate, though at different funding levels. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said senators would be “off to the races” on a second package of appropriations bills, which could include any combination of those five measures. The Senate has yet to touch the four remaining funding bills, which cover more controversial topics. Debates over those four bills — Energy and Water Development, Financial Services, Homeland Security, and State-Foreign Operations — are sure to prove more difficult.
January seems far away, but with recesses for Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon, lawmakers will only be in D.C. for a small share of that time. The House is scheduled to be in session for only 16 more days in 2025, adding a sense of urgency to avoid another shutdown showdown in early 2026.
