The longest government shutdown in modern U.S. history came to a close Wednesday night when President Trump signed a bill to fund the government through Jan. 30 — ending a 43-day-long impasse that had imperiled air travel and left thousands without paychecks.
The ordeal began in late September, after the GOP-led House passed a measure that would have kept the government running through Nov. 21. The bill failed to make it out of the Senate, though, as most Democrats pushed for an extension of expiring health insurance tax credits.
Senate Republicans were unable to garner the support they needed until Monday, when a group of Democrats crossed the aisle and voted to reopen the government until late January in exchange for a separate Senate vote on the health insurance credits. The House passed the bill two days later, also with some Democrats’ support, sending it to Mr. Trump’s desk.
Here’s a look at the government shutdown by the numbers:
14: Number of failed Senate votes on funding the government
Starting in mid-September, the Senate held 14 failed votes to advance the House-passed resolution to fund the government until late November — keeping the government closed for upward of a month with little movement.
The Senate has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats. Until last weekend, there were as many as 55 votes in favor of funding the government, five short of the 60 needed to move the bill forward.
The Senate requires only a simple majority of 51 votes to pass most legislation. But the Senate’s filibuster rule effectively requires nearly all legislation — including the House’s continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government — to reach a 60-vote threshold first. A single senator may delay a bill during debate by invoking a filibuster, which can only be ended if a supermajority of 60 senators votes to end debate.
Then, on Nov. 9, a deal to end the shutdown finally came together, with a group of seven Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats agreeing to advance a funding measure as part of a broader agreement. On a 15th vote, the measure finally advanced with 60 senators voting to end debate. The Senate passed the bill a day later, on Nov. 10.
52: Senate Republicans supporting resolution to fund the government and end the shutdown
1: Number of Senate Republicans who opposed the bill
GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is the lone Republican joining most Democratic senators in voting against advancing the resolution to fund the government. He said he opposes the measure because it adds to the nation’s rising debt.
3: Senate Democrats/independents who supported the original resolution to fund the government
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada repeatedly voted with Republicans in support of the measure, as did independent Sen. Angus King of Maine.
8: Senate Democrats/independents who voted to fund the government on Nov. 10
On Nov. 9, King and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the White House to end the shutdown.
The deal attached a trio of full-year funding bills to legislation that will reopen the government until Jan. 30, while restoring food aid at higher levels, and paving the way for a bipartisan appropriations process on other spending bills. And it reversed all government layoffs that occurred during the shutdown, while preventing them for a limited time going forward.
As part of the deal, Thune also agreed to hold a vote in December on the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Eight members of the Democratic caucus voted for the bill: Fetterman, Cortez Masto, King, Shaheen and Hassan, as well as Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Jackie Rosen of Nevada.
6: House Democrats who voted to end the shutdown
Six mostly moderate House Democrats voted in favor of the Senate-passed deal to end the shutdown when the House took up the bill on Nov. 12: Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Don Davis of North Carolina, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Tom Suozzi of New York.
All six represent swing districts, and Golden was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of the House GOP’s initial funding package in September.
2: House Republicans who voted against funding bill
During the Nov. 12 vote, Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida voted no.
42 million: The number of people who stood to be cut off from full food stamp benefits on Nov. 1
Roughly 42 million Americans rely on food stamps that arrive every month on their electronic benefit transfer cards, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the USDA said last month that funding for the benefits, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, had run out due to the shutdown.
A USDA official overseeing SNAP said in a court filing last week that benefits were expected to be reduced by 35% in November.
On Oct. 28, 25 states asked a federal judge in Massachusetts to order the Agriculture Department to provide benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for November, including by tapping into a contingency fund to ensure the assistance continues to flow to more than 25 million people living within their states’ borders.
A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the USDA to use that contingency fund, which the Trump administration appealed. On Nov. 9, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted a stay on behalf of the court, blocking the lower court’s order that the administration transfer some $4 billion from other food security programs to SNAP payments.
After the stay was issued, the USDA ordered states to “immediately undo any steps” that were taken to provide full SNAP benefits. On Monday, with Congress on the cusp of a deal, the stay was extended.
$9.2 billion: The cost of funding food stamps for November
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins estimated it would cost about $9.2 billion to keep SNAP benefits flowing through November. The Agriculture Department’s contingency fund has around $5 billion, which Rollins has argued the administration doesn’t have the legal ability to use.
Some lawmakers from both parties called for standalone legislation to fund SNAP.
At least 670,000: Government workers who have been furloughed since the shutdown began
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s analysis of daily Treasury statements and the center’s own workforce estimates, at least 670,000 federal employees are furloughed. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that compensation for furloughed workers is roughly $400 million per day.
About 730,000: Federal employees who worked without pay
Government workers who are determined to be essential are still working, albeit without pay, and there are about 730,000 of these employees, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Over 4,000: Federal workers the government disclosed it was trying to lay off during shutdown
On Oct. 28, a judge indefinitely barred the Trump administration from firing government employees due to the shutdown while a lawsuit challenging the effort makes its way through the courts.
In mid-October, the administration had already sent “reduction in force” layoff notices to more than 4,000 federal employees across seven agencies.
Here are the approximate numbers:
As part of the final bipartisan Senate deal, a provision was added that reversed any layoffs during the shutdown. The resolution also says that “no federal funds may be used” to conduct layoffs between now and Jan. 30.
$130 million: The private donation Trump says he’s used to help pay the military
President Trump says an unnamed “patriot” donated $130 million to fund troops’ paychecks, which are normally cut off during shutdowns. The New York Times reported that the donor is Timothy Mellon, a reclusive billionaire and scion to the Mellon family banking fortune.
That nine-figure check likely isn’t enough to cover the military’s entire payroll. There are around 1.3 million active-duty service members, so the donation comes out to roughly $100 per person.
At least $7 billion: The economic cost of the shutdown
The shutdown could temporarily cut the nation’s economic output by billions of dollars as unpaid federal workers curtail their spending and SNAP benefits are paused, leading to a 1-percentage-point GDP drop if the shutdown lasts four weeks and a 2-point dip if it drags on for eight weeks, the Congressional Budget Office said in an Oct. 29 estimate.
Much of that decline will be reversed after the government reopens and the spigot of federal spending turns back on — but not all of it. The GDP will face a sustained drop of $7 billion after a four-week shutdown, $11 billion after six weeks and $14 billion after eight weeks, the CBO says.
This story has been updated to correct the length of the longest previous shutdown; it was 35 days.
