Longest Federal Shutdown in History Ends, with Implications for Kansas Families

KAC Policy Advisors | November 18, 2025

The longest government shutdown in history ended last Wednesday evening after 43 days of Congress stonewalling a plan that would fund the federal government. They finally negotiated a deal to reopen and fund government agencies through January 30, 2026. The deal also funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and WIC through September 30, 2026.

Unfortunately, the budget plan did not include an extension of the enhanced premium tax credits for insurance obtained through the health care marketplace. As part of the deal to end the shutdown, Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate promised a vote on extending these enhanced tax credits by mid-December, but a vote has not been promised in the U.S. House.

If Congress fails to extend these premium tax credits before they expire on December 31, 2025, premiums will skyrocket for many enrolled in coverage, including for 200,000 Kansans who access health coverage through the marketplace.

Here’s a snapshot of what the end of this latest shutdown means for key programs that impact the health and well-being of kids and families.

SNAP and WIC

SNAP

As the shutdown approached the one-month mark and November drew near, the loss of SNAP benefits was at the forefront of the conversation. While funding for SNAP was fully available during the month of October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) claimed that the funding would lapse on November 1 and advised state agencies to withhold benefits to recipients.

There is overwhelming evidence and two court rulings suggesting that funds for the program were available for November through a contingency fund, and the USDA was making a deliberate choice to restrict the funding. Regardless, more than 40 million Americans, including nearly 188,000 Kansans, did not receive their SNAP benefits on November 1.

The result was devastating insight into what happens when families’ food budgets are stripped away. Within the first few days of November, food pantries were reporting longer lines than they could ever remember and some even ran out of food.

Between November 1 and the time the shutdown ended on November 12, two lawsuits were filed against the USDA to require the agency to use contingency funds to continue funding SNAP benefits. Despite the courts ruling against the USDA, the federal agency failed to comply with providing all the money needed to fully fund SNAP for November, and put out confusing, contradictory guidance to states. The agency even demanded the eight states (including Kansas) that had issued full SNAP benefits claw back those funds.

With the shutdown ending a few days later and the plan including fully funding SNAP through September 2026, the immediate food crisis has ended. However, that doesn’t mean families enrolled in SNAP won’t continue to be impacted. We will continue to see fallout resulting from the USDA’s refusal to release SNAP funds in a few ways.

• It’s likely that many folks who temporarily lost their food benefits had to pull from other parts of their budget to fill the gap. This may result in further harm in the form of late fees, utility disconnections, vehicle repossession, and eviction.
  
  
• SNAP has always been reliable; once someone has been approved, they could predictably expect the food assistance funds to hit every month on the same day, but that trust has now been eroded. Some SNAP-eligible families may choose to struggle or rely on food pantries instead of participating in a seemingly unreliable program.
  
  
• Within the next few years, states will be penalized for having high SNAP payment error rates, and most states are working diligently to reduce their error rates. The confusion caused by the USDA could result in an increase in payment error rates. For example, will Kansas be penalized for paying full benefits instead of recalculating the benefit amount to 50% or 65%? Based on the cost-sharing provision passed in H.R. 1 passed by Congress this summer, the tiniest increase in payment error rates could cost the state of Kansas $21 million.

While it’s a relief that Kansans have received their SNAP benefits for November, we remain concerned about food insecurity increasing in the coming months and years.

WIC

Throughout the shutdown, the federal government sent contingency funds to states to keep the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (known as WIC) running for a few weeks at a time. As the shutdown deal fully funded USDA operations, WIC is now fully funded through September 2026.

Families relying on WIC can again count on this assistance continuing. However, Congress should pass legislation to authorize WIC payments during future shutdowns instead of placing this critically important program at the mercy of temporary funding measures.

Education

Head Start

During the shutdown, the two Head Start programs in Kansas that expected to receive grant awards on November 1 continued to provide services to children by using their contingency plans to avoid disruption to families’ lives. However, it’s still unclear when those two programs can expect to receive their funds now that the shutdown has ended.

Additionally, Kansas Head Start is concerned about the timely notification of the grant award for one program with a December 1 funding date to avoid unnecessary disruptions.

Even further, many Head Start programs in Kansas could be impacted by the backlog accumulated during six weeks of the shutdown combined with previous closures and reassignments in regional offices earlier in the year. The reorganization of the Office of Head Start within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services a few months ago moved staff contacts from the Kansas City office to Denver, and communications could continue to be disrupted.

Child and Adult Care Food Program

During the shutdown, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) determined it had funds in place to pay the reimbursements through the December claims, which are set to be paid in January. Participants in the program were encouraged to continue to submit claims as usual and should not have felt a disruption in the program. It is anticipated the program will continue to operate as it has without a backlog.

K-12 Special Education

There is still uncertainty about how things will progress in the K-12 arena as we learn whether the staff recently laid off within the U.S. Department of Education will keep their positions. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) lost 137 staffers, and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) lost 121 in the reduction in force that happened in October. Although these staff members have been brought back to work, the order protecting their positions expires January 30, 2026.

Both offices are mandated by federal law and provide supports and protection for students with disabilities. OSERS oversees state compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and OCR investigates complaints when families feel their child has been denied special education services or has faced discrimination in their school. Severe cuts to staffing impact how these offices can respond to their responsibilities.

Health

Health Programs

Under the continuing resolution, federal health agencies are funded at 2025 levels through January 30, 2026, including staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Hundreds of staff who were laid off from these agencies during the shutdown will regain their jobs as part of the shutdown deal. The plan also funds community health centers and Medicare services providing telehealth.

That means that the policy work for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) restarts and disease surveillance work broadly continues, which is particularly important as concerns are growing internationally that the flu season could be worse than previous years. The CDC finally posted its first respiratory surveillance data in nearly two months, but it is too early to tell yet what the U.S. flu season will look like.

ACA Enhanced Premium Tax Credits

Amidst the shutdown, open enrollment for the health insurance marketplace started November 1 and families could finally see just how much their premiums would increase without the enhanced premium tax credits. Many accessing coverage through the marketplace are self-employed, including farmers and small business owners. Impacted Kansans began to share stories in recent weeks (via the Kansas Reflector and The Beacon).

The premium increases vary depending on income and chosen plan, but across the board, premiums for 2026 are already significantly higher than 2025. If Congress lets the enhanced premium tax credits expire on December 31, 2025, the premium increases will become cost-prohibitive for many, who might choose to go uninsured. KFF has developed a calculator for people to see the differences between 2025 and 2026 plans, as well as with and without the enhanced premium tax credits.

New research shows that an estimated 73,000 Kansans may no longer enroll in marketplace coverage in 2026 without these enhanced premium tax credits, with many becoming uninsured. If this becomes reality, hospitals will face revenue losses and increases in uncompensated care, and rural hospitals could be disproportionately impacted.

Some members of Congress are discussing different plans to extend these enhanced premium tax credits by at least one year. However, over recent weeks, some have proposed alternative plans to eliminate these tax credits completely and replace them with direct payments, higher deductibles, or even junk insurance plan options (which often don’t include maternity and cancer care coverage).

With open enrollment ending December 15, time is quickly running out for Congress to make federal marketplace coverage more affordable in 2026.

Economic Impacts

The end of the government shutdown brings much-needed relief to millions of federal workers, including 26,000 here in Kansas, many of whom have been working without pay for six weeks. Despite threats from the federal government to withhold back pay for these workers, the Senate deal to reopen the government guarantees this pay, as well as the recall of all furloughed workers.

Additionally, the resolution prohibits additional job cuts through January 30, 2026. These protections will likely come as welcome developments to federal workers anxious about their job security in the wake of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts, other federal layoffs, and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Had the shutdown continued for much longer, the economic pain would have become increasingly noticeable. As the confusion around SNAP benefit payments (and the approximately $8 billion in economic activity they provide) threatened grocery store sales, travel was beginning to be heavily impacted, and federal contractors were going unpaid. A continuation of these conditions would likely have resulted in substantial layoffs in the affected industries.

It's possible those layoffs have already begun, but the shutdown has limited visibility into the health of the U.S. economy. With the shutdown ending, we are set to get a flood of data in the coming weeks, including the September and October jobs reports. These should offer some clarity on the health of the labor market. However, there could be a gap in some data for the month of October, especially anything collected in the monthly household survey, which is used to determine the unemployment and labor force participation rates.

Given that federal spending accounts for nearly one-fourth of U.S. GDP, the reopening of the government is a welcome development for the economy. However, it’s important that we don’t lose sight of the spike in health insurance premiums at the center of the shutdown. Families are still struggling under the pressure of higher costs, and with the government reopened, elected officials must take action to improve the lives of the people who live here.

What’s Next

The end of the shutdown is good news for millions – especially for federal employees and those who rely on SNAP, WIC, and Head Start – but we continue to monitor federal activity with deep concern.

While the government is funded through at least January 30, Congress has been very slow in its work. If Congress doesn’t reach a new deal by that date, the United States will enter another government shutdown, and crucial program funding could again be at risk.

For now, the end of the shutdown is enough to keep many struggling families afloat. But if Congress does not address significant increases to health insurance costs on the marketplace exchange, families living paycheck to paycheck will need a plan to wade through the coming health care crisis.

If you’d like more information, read greater detail here and here on what the deal to end the shutdown includes (and doesn’t include).

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