One Week into the Federal Government Shutdown

The federal government has shut down, and that is bad news for Texas. As the Texas AFL-CIO notes, our state is home to the third-most federal workers in the country and the highest number of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) members. This shutdown will lock out hundreds of thousands of federal employees from doing their jobs while forcing hundreds of thousands more - like TSA officers or VA caregivers - to work without pay.

Let's be clear: We do not want this shutdown. Our members, our families, and our communities deserve stability. But we also cannot support a deal that slashes Medicaid and ends Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits that keep health care premiums affordable for millions of Americans.

How did we get here?

A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass or the president refuses to sign a spending bill to fund the federal government's operations. Government shutdowns are often resolved by Congress passing continuing resolutions, which provide short-term funding while negotiations for a long-term solution continue. President Donald Trump wants congressional Democrats to back a continuing resolution to fund the government with no strings about health care subsidies attached.

In this latest shutdown, both Republican and Democratic proposals that would have funded the government failed in the Senate during the eleventh hour, effectively shutting down the government at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

With this shutdown, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that approximately 750,000 federal employees will be furloughed each day. Those furloughed employees, as well as congressional staffers, will not receive paychecks, putting pressure on lawmakers and the White House to find an agreement to reopen the government.

More importantly, the White House is beginning to argue that these furloughed workers would not all be entitled to back pay, which has historically not been the case in previous shutdowns, leaving many questions unanswered until the government reopens its doors.

What's all this really about?

This shutdown comes on the heels of Trump's big, ugly bill that cut Medicaid coverage for millions. If Congress does not extend the ACA tax credits, an estimated 4.2 million Americans will lose their health insurance coverage, and another 20 million will face significant premium increases. Some Republicans are continuing to demand deep cuts to health care programs, with Vice President J.D. Vance falsely claiming that Democrats want to provide "free health care" to undocumented immigrants.

If Congress allows the enhanced premium tax credits (PTC) under the ACA to expire, millions will lose coverage, and remaining coverage will cost far more. Without these PTCs, an analysis conducted by the Urban Institute projects 4.8 million more people will be uninsured in 2026, a 21% increase in the uninsured population.

By 2026, people with lower incomes who buy insurance through the Marketplace could see their monthly premiums jump from about $169 to $919 if Congress lets the enhanced premium tax credits expire - a fourfold increase for families earning under roughly $40,000 a year for individuals or $80,000 for a family of four.

In rural areas, the pressure is worse. Hospitals in less populated areas already operate on razor-thin margins. With deep cuts from Medicaid changes and vanishing subsidies, many will be unable to stay open. One analysis projects that between 2025 and 2034, rural hospital revenue losses could total $87 billion. Some rural hospitals already are closing.

What can you do?

With Trump and Republican leaders in Congress still demanding health care cuts and premium increases, it is up to us to call on our elected representatives to protect the care that millions of us depend on. These initiatives will drive up costs for everyone and force health care facilities to close their doors.

That's not a solution - it's cruelty. And it's completely preventable. Write to your lawmakers and tell them to fund the government, fix the health care crisis, and put working people first.