The federal government shutdown continues on Wednesday, Oct. 22, marking the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The current shutdown started just after midnight on Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass a new budget, marking the fourth shutdown so far during Donald Trump’s two terms as president.
Over the past five decades, every president besides George W. Bush and Joe Biden has had at least one shutdown of at least a few days. Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama all experienced shutdowns lasting more than two weeks during their tenures. Here’s what to know.
Day 22 of 2025 government shutdown on Wednesday, Oct. 22 marks second-longest
The ongoing shutdown is now the second-longest government shutdown as of Wednesday, Oct. 22, surpassing the 1995-1996 shutdown, which was triggered by a budgetary standoff between House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton. It lasted 21 days from Dec. 16, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996.
Day 36 on Wednesday, Nov. 5, would mark longest shutdown in U.S. history
If the government remains shut down until Nov. 5, it will mark the longest-ever shutdown in U.S. history.
So far, the longest ever shutdown, lasting 35 days, occurred during Trump’s first term and was the third shutdown under his tenure. It started on Dec. 22, 2018, after Trump demanded $5.7 billion to build a wall along the United States-Mexico border and continued until Jan. 25, 2019, during which Democrats refused to negotiate on border wall funding until the government reopened, USA TODAY previously reported.
That standoff stretched for 35 days, leading to the furlough of more than 350,000 federal workers and forcing 400,000 others to work without pay. Some food-safety inspections were temporarily suspended, trash piled up in national parks, federal landmarks and museums closed, and some airports shuttered checkpoints due to fewer Transportation Security Administration officers to screen passengers.
The shutdown ended only after Trump backed a bipartisan bill that contained none of the border wall funding he had demanded.
Government shutdown 2025: How many federal workers in Kentucky would be affected by a government shutdown? Find out.
Contributing: USA TODAY Network reporters Zac Anderson, Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, Sudiksha Kochi, Terry Moseley, Zachary Schermele, Sarah D. Wire and Saman Shafiq.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Government shutdown 2025: Oct. 22 marks second-longest in U.S. history
