Largest federal worker union urges end to government shutdown
Daily News Article — Posted on October 30, 2025
(by Dan Mangan, CNBC) – The largest union representing federal workers on Monday called for Democrats in Congress to end the ongoing government shutdown by voting for the stopgap funding measure that Republicans have proposed.
[Note: federal law says furloughed workers receive back pay after a shutdown ends. Federal workers may also be eligible to receive unemployment benefits during the shutdown period but would need to repay those benefits after receiving back pay]. [Members of Congress and the President continue to receive paychecks during a government shutdown].“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, wrote.
“No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today,” said Kelley, whose union represents more than 800,000 federal and District of Columbia government workers.
“Because when the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren’t looking for partisan spin,” Kelley said. “They’re looking for the wages they earned. The fact that they’re being cheated out of it is a national disgrace.”
The shutdown began on Oct. 1, and has led to about 900,000 federal workers being furloughed.
Senate Democrats have largely resisted voting for the clean resolution, which would fund the government through Nov. 21, saying they want any funding measure to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Those subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of 2025, lower the cost of Obamacare health insurance plans for more than 20 million Americans.
In his statement, Kelley did not explicitly address the question of the ACA subsidies, but he seemed to refer to it, writing,
“Reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution that allows continued debate on larger issues.”
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Kelley wrote. “Unfortunately, shutdowns have become a recurring tactic in Washington.”
“But there is no ‘winning’ a government shutdown. They cost taxpayers billions, hurt small businesses, and erode confidence in government itself,” he said.
Read Everett Kelley’s statement in full at AFGE.org.
Published at CNBC on Oct 27. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.
Background
A continuing resolution (CR) is a type of stopgap measure Congress uses to temporarily fund the federal government when it has not passed all annual appropriations (spending) bills. CRs keep government agencies operational and prevent a shutdown by providing funding for a limited time, typically at the previous fiscal year's levels, to give lawmakers more time to negotiate and finalize a long-term budget.
CRs are often used when Congress is unable to reach an agreement on the annual budget before the fiscal year begins on October 1. They are considered a "stopgap solution" that buys time for political negotiations.
On average, from fiscal year 1998 to 2025, Congress enacted about five continuing resolutions per year. Some years have seen many more; for example, in fiscal year 2001, there were 21 CRs due to prolonged budget negotiations. (from Google AI overview)
How did the government shutdown start?
The government shutdown began on October 1 because the two parties failed to agree on passing appropriations legislation to fund the government past October 1.
Democrats have demanded that any funding legislation include extensions of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that President Biden implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and restore Medicaid cuts made under the Trump administration. They oppose passing short-term "clean" continuing resolutions without these provisions.
Republican leaders and Trump say that the government must first be funded (i.e., the shutdown ended) without policy conditions attached. Republicans say negotiating while the government is shut down sets a bad precedent and that policy disagreements should be resolved separately after reopening the government.
Why are Democrats blocking a continuing resolution?
The Republican-led House of Representatives passed a "clean" continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government temporarily without additional policy changes, but Senate Democrats opposed it because they want the CR to include a permanent extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits.
These enhanced tax credits were originally expanded as part of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and are currently set to expire at the end of 2025. They were introduced under Democratic President Joe Biden's 2021 "American Rescue Plan Act" to make health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans by increasing the size of the subsidies and expanding eligibility to cover more people, including middle-income households who previously did not qualify.
Democrats also oppose among other things, cuts made in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" that was signed into law in July to:
- Medicaid eligibility for able-bodied young adults ages 18 to 24, (who were a significant portion of the Medicaid expansion population under Obama's Affordable Care Act)
- Medicaid for "undocumented" immigrants
Why do Republicans oppose permanently extending the enhanced ACA tax credits?
The original ACA premium tax credits remain permanent, but they are smaller in amount and have more limited eligibility (for who qualifies for these tax credits) compared to the enhanced pandemic-era subsidies.
Republicans oppose permanently extending the enhanced pandemic-era ACA subsidies because the pandemic is over and people have returned to work. They say the subsidies were temporary relief measures for extraordinary times, not to become permanent entitlement expansions.
Republicans also argue that these tax credits primarily benefit insurance companies rather than directly addressing the underlying high costs of healthcare. They see the subsidies as a way to pay off insurers rather than reduce premiums or systemic costs.
(The CR must pass by 60 votes, not just a straight majority.)
(From Perplexity AI, Oct. 29)