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Government shutdown updates: Judge lays out path for SNAP benefits

The administration could use $5 billion in emergency funds and tariff revenue.

Last Updated: November 2, 2025, 3:21 PM EST

Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain at a stalemate on finding a government funding solution to end what is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

The Senate on Thursday adjourned until Monday afternoon, which will mark the 34th day of the government shutdown. 

Meanwhile, a federal judge has laid out a path for the administration to fund SNAP benefits, which ran out on Saturday, saying the administration could tap more than $5 billion in emergency funds, as well as a much larger pot of tariff revenue collected by the Agriculture Department to fund the program.

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
Oct 29, 2025, 4:32 PM EDT

House staffers will miss 1st paycheck of shutdown

House staffers received a notice on Wednesday stating that they will not receive their next paycheck scheduled for Friday, the first missed paycheck of the government shutdown, according to a notice obtained by ABC News.

"Due to the lapse in appropriations, the October 2025 monthly pay disbursement scheduled for a pay date of Friday, October 31, will be delayed until after funding is enacted," the notice states.

The U.S. flag is flies atop of the US Capitol on day 28 of the government shutdown, Oct. 28, 2025, in Washington.
Mariam Zuhaib/AP

Health and life insurance coverage will not be interrupted for House staffers, according to a separate memo from the House Chief Administrative Officer to staffers.

Meanwhile, House lawmakers do receive their paychecks during the shutdown -- though several have requested their pay be withheld.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller

Oct 29, 2025, 4:30 PM EDT

Jeffries, Johnson talked shutdown this week but failed to break impasse

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that he and Speaker Mike Johnson had a discussion earlier this week on the shutdown, but after each party leader characterized the other as "irredeemable," it's clear the two did not have a productive conversation.

"They're irredeemable on a whole host of issues. They certainly are irredeemable, these Republican extremists, when it comes to actually standing up for the American people," Jeffries said. "Republicans have done this, and they now refuse to even sit down and address the health care crisis that they have inflicted on the American people."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a press conference to discuss how the ongoing government shutdown is affecting SNAP food aid benefits and healthcare, on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 28, 2025.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters

Earlier Wednesday, Johnson had said that both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Jeffries were "irredeemable" -- as Republicans continue to troll Democrats over the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York.

Jeffries confirmed that the topic of the call was the shutdown, but expressed doubt that the top congressional leaders will break the impasse. Instead, he predicted it'll be rank-and-file members who strike a bipartisan compromise.

"It was a brief conversation. I reiterated our position as it relates to a willingness to sit down to find a bipartisan path forward, that we want to continue to support our hard working federal employees, who they've been victimizing since Jan. 20, that we need to reopen the government, and we need to do it now, but we also need to address the Republican healthcare crisis," Jeffries said as he read out the call with Johnson. "Our position as Democrats has been clear. We're not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to cut the health care the American people."

-ABC News' John Parkinson

Oct 29, 2025, 12:20 PM EDT

Johnson diminishes House's role in shutdown, 'It doesn't matter what we do'

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned Wednesday that the impacts of the government shutdown this week are "getting really tough for the American people" and placed the onus squarely on Democrats.

"You've got families and children that rely upon SNAP benefits that are going to go hungry here at the end of the week," he said at a news conference.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, October 29, 2025.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Johnson downplayed pushback from Republicans who want the House to return to session amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke up on a private GOP conference call Tuesday and urged leadership to bring the House back as well as articulate a plan to address the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits.

"By our count, there are about three or four members of the House Republican conference who have only mildly questioned working in the districts as opposed to being here on the floor," Johnson said.

The speaker bluntly stated that bringing the House back in session would be a "futile exercise" when asked about the need to pass another bill to fund the government as the Nov. 21 date approaches.

"If I brought the House back and we passed another CR, it would meet the exact same fate from Chuck Schumer," Johnson said. "He would mock it. They would spike it, and they would try to blame it on us. So, what is the point?"

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, October 29, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Johnson added that "it doesn't matter what we do in the House," diminishing the chamber's role in the shutdown.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller

Oct 29, 2025, 12:06 PM EDT

Shutdown will cost at least $7B, but negative effects could be reversed: CBO

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown will delay federal spending and have a negative effect on the economy that will mostly, but not entirely, reverse once the shutdown ends.

The report, issued Wednesday, found that the shutdown will reduce annualized real GDP growth. After the shutdown, real GDP will be temporarily higher than it would have been otherwise, the report said.

The U.S. Capitol rises above the U.S. Capitol Grounds, which are strewn with fall leaves, weeks into the continuing U.S. government shutdown, in Washington, October 27, 2025.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters

Although most of the decline in real GDP will be recovered eventually, the CBO estimates the shutdown will cost between $7 billion and $14 billion.

The CBO estimates that the output lost because furloughed employees worked fewer weeks during the shutdown would not be recovered.

By the end of 2026, the reduction in hours worked by furloughed federal employees would result in a cumulative loss of real GDP of $7 billion in the four-week shutdown scenario, $11 billion in the six-week scenario, and $14 billion in the eight-week scenario, according to the report.

-ABC News' Zunaira Zaki

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