End of U.S. government shutdown highlights deep divisions within congress

The U.S. government resumed operations on Thursday, November 13, 2025, after a 43-day shutdown that disrupted a wide range of services—from air traffic to food assistance for low-income populations—and left one million federal employees unpaid.

According to Reuters, despite the resumption of government activity, the deep political disputes that led to the longest shutdown in U.S. history remain unresolved.

The budget package includes some safeguards against non-payment of funds by Republican President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly challenged Congress’s legal authority over money. However, it does not address the soon-to-expire healthcare subsidies that triggered the shutdown and pushed Senate Democrats to halt government operations.

The 43-day shutdown exposed divisions within the Democratic Party: on one side are liberals demanding that their leadership take all measures to counter Trump, while moderates feel that, as long as Republicans control both chambers of Congress, their options are limited.

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is facing calls to step down, despite having voted against the agreement to reopen the government.

Given that the agreement to end the shutdown is short-term—lasting only until January 30, 2026—the likelihood of another shutdown early next year remains high.

Americans largely blame both Republicans and Democrats for the shutdown. A joint Ipsos-Reuters poll released Wednesday shows that 50% of Americans blame Republicans, while 47% blame Democrats. It appears that neither party emerges as the clear winner in this inter-party dispute.

Another notable aspect of the shutdown is that it did not address the $38 trillion U.S. national debt, which continues to grow by approximately $1.8 trillion annually.

Democrats also received no guarantees regarding healthcare subsidies in the budget package; they were only promised that the Republican-controlled Senate would vote on the issue in the future.

While Democratic lawmakers defended the shutdown as a measure to protect Americans’ healthcare rights, Republicans described it as a pointless action causing unnecessary harm.

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick said: “This is complete madness; it is madness that we are now using a government shutdown as leverage for policy-making. This should never happen.”

Meanwhile, the shutdown prevented the release of many economic data, forcing investors and the Federal Reserve to assess the state of the world’s largest economy based on speculation.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett stated that unemployment data for October may never be released. At the same time, the shutdown has raised concerns among consumers ahead of the year-end holiday shopping season.

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the shutdown deferred approximately $50 billion in spending and reduced U.S. GDP by 1.5%.

According to the CBO, the U.S. economy will largely return to normal after the shutdown, but $14 billion of lost activity will not be recovered.

The U.S. Small Business Administration also reported that the shutdown delayed $5.3 billion in loans for 10,000 small businesses.