The government shutdown is taking a huge toll as air traffic controllers lose pay and SNAP benefits dry up
WASHINGTON – The pain of the US government shutdown is expected to intensify this week as a full month of funding is about to expire with no solution in sight.
A series of deadlines in the coming days could have negative consequences for ordinary Americans, cutting food aid to low-income Americans, increasing health insurance premiums for millions of Obamacare beneficiaries, and depriving air traffic controllers, TSA agents and other federal employees of their paychecks.
Here are four ways the pain is about to hit Americans:
Food aid will be cut
SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, are set to expire on November 1 without congressional action, affecting an estimated 40 million low-income Americans across red and blue states.
New York, Texas, and Florida each have about 3 million SNAP recipients, According to KFFa nonpartisan research group.
“This is the biggest pressure point we’ve seen in 28 days,” said Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, whose home state of Alabama has about 750,000 SNAP recipients. “I think Democrats are getting a little hard-headed right now. It’s their voters — a lot of them — in some of these inner cities that are going to need SNAP to survive… and they’re getting a lot of calls.”
“A lot of people need to go back to work — a lot of young people who are enrolled in SNAP who should be working,” Tuberville added.
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Sen. John Boozman, R-Arkansas, chairman of the Agriculture Committee that oversees SNAP, said millions of American families will be harmed if the government does not reopen by Nov. 1.
“It’s going to make their lives more difficult,” said Bozeman, co-chair of the Hunger Caucus. “And you know, the bottom line is we need to stop holding these people hostage.” “We have a clean CR. Senator Schumer needs to open up the government — this is the solution to the problem.”
However, Sen. Bernie Sanders, R-Vermont, scoffed at the suggestion that SNAP benefits are a partisan pressure point.
“Are starving children going to put pressure on members of Congress? Well, that’s a good moral position,” he said, while emphasizing that the Agriculture Department has a $5 billion “emergency fund specifically for exactly this purpose,” which he said it was obligated to use to maintain SNAP benefits.
Democratic leaders in 25 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the USDA, arguing that. They have asked a federal judge to force the USDA to continue the SNAP program as long as it has emergency funding. Some states are allocating their emergency funds to provide support for SNAP during the shutdown as well.
Aside from SNAP, it is unknown whether the Trump administration will be able to find replacement funding for the important nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), after Trump this month tapped $300 million in tariff revenues to keep WIC running.
And as of Nov. 1, Head Start — and the thousands of preschoolers who depend on it — may be in limbo as money for the popular program that provides free learning, health screenings and meals for young children from low-income families runs out.
High health care costs
Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, begins Nov. 1, a month before subsidies that have helped keep premium costs low expire. Insurers have set higher rates for 2026 if these subsidies are not renewed, with some Americans seeing their premiums double or triple for next year.
If Congress moves soon to extend the money, reversing the sticker shock for enrollees will be complicated, but insurers could find ways to lower bills for them next year. However, the parties do not appear to be close to reaching a solution.
The central Democratic demand during the shutdown fight was to extend these funds, which cost about $35 billion annually, and to cap premiums for “benchmark” plans on the ACA exchanges at 8.5% of enrollee income.
Many Republicans say the money, initially passed in 2021 as part of COVID relief, should expire.
Democrats remind them that many of their voters in red states will face very high bonuses if the tax breaks end.
“the Majority of the benefits “It will go to people who live in states that Trump won,” said Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J. “I’m not thinking about this in terms of blue voters or red voters; I’m just trying to help as many people as I can. The Trump administration has shown such profound disregard, even for the people who voted for it.”
Kim said the White House treats programs like the ACA and SNAP as a “political chip” rather than a lifeline for Americans.
There are also concerns that some people will go uninsured rather than pay higher premium costs, increasing pressure on the U.S. health care system.
Air traffic controllers and TSA agents are missing out on their full paychecks
Federal workers are being furloughed or forced to work without pay for the duration of the shutdown. Tuesday was the first time during this shutdown that some “exceptional” workers, such as TSA agents and air traffic controllers tasked with keeping the skies safe, lost their full paychecks.
Previously, they were receiving partial salaries, but this time their pay slip showed $0.00.
“I’m very concerned about the air traffic controllers,” said Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, chair of the Appropriations Committee, which writes federal funding bills. “I had two flights this Sunday and last Sunday that were avoided at the last minute. One actually landed and then took off. In all the years I’ve served in the Senate, this has never happened before.”
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which spanned 34 days in late 2018 and early 2019, ended after air traffic controllers and TSA agents began calling in sick, severely threatening air travel. One of the biggest travel holidays of the year, Thanksgiving, is coming up in just a few weeks.
Even fiscal conservatives who have fought to cut government spending said not paying air traffic controllers could have serious consequences when it comes to public safety.
“I fly twice a week. I want my air traffic controller to be happy, well-fed, not anxious, not stressed,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the only Republican to vote against the GOP bill to reopen the government. “So I support paying our soldiers, paying our air traffic controllers, paying our employees — anyone who works should get paid.”
Troop pay is in constant flux
Two weeks ago, the White House alleviated a major pain point of the shutdown by shifting money to ensure active-duty military personnel would not miss out on pay. Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to find the money needed to pay troops. The Pentagon reallocated billions of dollars from research and development programs to serve members’ pay.
Moreover, a private donor, from New York Times He was later identified as billionaire Timothy Mellon, and contributed $130 million to help pay the troops. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly $6.5 billion the Pentagon needs to fund Friday’s payrolls.
The Trump administration is now desperately looking for other sources of funding to tap.
The White House has figured out a way to pay military members this weekend, Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. But there are far from any guarantees. What will happen next month is unclear.
“We believe we can continue to pay the troops on Friday,” Vance said after meeting with Senate Republicans over lunch.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said not being able to pay troops would be “horrible,” and noted that it has become increasingly difficult for the administration to locate other funds.
“They can only do this for so long before the funding pools run out,” Cramer said Tuesday. “I think the White House is doing everything a White House should do, and they should insist Democrats press the easy button and vote to reopen the government.”