The last U.S. federal government shutdown began on October 1, 2025, and ended on November 12, 2025.

Key facts

  • The shutdown started at 12:00 a.m. EDT on October 1, 2025, after Congress failed to pass funding legislation.
  • It lasted 43 days, making it the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
  • The government fully reopened on November 12, 2025, when President Donald Trump signed a funding bill passed by both chambers of Congress.

What caused the 2025 shutdown?

  • The main dispute was over extending expanded Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that were set to expire in November 2025.
  • Senate Democrats opposed Republican appropriations bills that did not include this ACA subsidy extension, leading to a lapse in federal funding.

Why it mattered

  • Being the longest shutdown in U.S. history, it disrupted federal services and furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers for over six weeks.
  • The shutdown ended only after a compromise where Congress agreed to fund the government and address the ACA subsidy issue in a later vote.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.