How is the government shutdown affecting America?

On Oct. 1, the federal government of the US shut down because Congress could not agree on a bill regarding funding for the 2026 fiscal year. The Republican party proposed a short-term funding bill that did not include the extension of enhanced tax credits which will expire at the end of 2025. Tax credits accessibility for the Affordable Care Act which over 24 million people use to buy health insurance according to NPR. The bill passed through the House of Representatives but did not make it through the House of Senates because of a lack of votes as a result of Democrats in the Senate who refused to vote.

One of the three Democrats that voted for the bill included senator of Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, said in an NPR interview, “I know it was important to avoid a costly shutdown that would harm Nevadans. And I honestly didn’t think it would be appropriate to hand more power to this reckless administration. I think it’s important for us to really work in a bipartisan way to solve problems, including addressing this looming health care crisis that we have. I see it in Nevada when I’m home. And we should be working together to solve those problems. We don’t need to shut down the government to do that.”

Later that day, the White House released an article which said, “President Trump and Republicans have been clear: Republicans will not be held hostage by this unserious, shameful political gamesmanship by Democrats. This shutdown is 100% on Democrats, whose radical agenda is poisoning our politics and punishing our people.” 

The shut down has resulted in a loss of funding for certain services and programs and salaries for federal workers. The changes of the shutdown can be found on NBC News.

Ventura residents may experience a delay in responsiveness from services provided by federal agencies and local federal employees may see interruptions in their pay and benefits.

“I feel like it will affect some people but not me. But I’m aware this will have a precedent and effect in the future,” said Adrian Cortez ‘27.

City manager Bill Ayub said, “At the City of Ventura, we rely on various federal agencies for support on items ranging from criminal background checks to support with disaster response and recovery to the provision of funding for various social needs and capital projects. Currently, we are seeing delays in the flow of promised grant and loan dollars. Should the federal government shutdown drag on, the local impact will likely broaden and become more acute.”

Ventura County district one supervisor Matt Lavere said, “The government shutdown is definitely threatening County operations. My biggest concern has to do with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits…SNAP funding has been threatened to be cut off as a result of the government shutdown. The cuts haven’t happened yet, but we have been informed they may be cut off starting in November.”

According to LaVere, SNAP is funded by the Department of Agriculture and run by Ventura County’s Human Services Agency that provides food benefits to low-income families to 100,000 people in Ventura County. “This causes me great concern given how many individuals/families will be impacted, and knowing how important these benefits are in terms of keeping people fed,” said LaVere.

“School funding going down more is my main concern,” said Cortez. While K-12 schools are often funded into the next fiscal year by the state according to the CA Department of Education, it could be affected if the shutdown continues.

According to BBC, over one million federal employees are either on leave or working with no pay. On Oct. 24, federal workers such as the 658,000 civilian employees from Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs will miss their first paycheck since the shutdown as stated by Axios.

Oz Henry ‘27 said, “There’s kind of a possibility that it will stay shut down, and there’s a lot of people I know who will be strongly affected by the shutdown…Some loved ones are going to stop being paid and I’m worried about that.”

According to NBC, vice president JD Vance said, ““We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues. We don’t like that. We don’t necessarily want to do it…But we’re going to do what we have to keep the American people’s essential services continuing to run.” 

LaVere said, “In response to these potential cuts, the County has been actively working to communicate our concerns to our federal representatives. And we have been working with our federal lobbyists to communicate our concerns to the US Dept of Agriculture. These cuts, if they happen, will have significant impacts to many in Ventura County and we are doing everything we can to make sure such funding stays in place.”