Featured October 22, 2025 Half of Americans say the federal government shutdown is impacting their community Back to Blog The impact of the government shutdown on travel, business and benefits Date October 27, 2025 Authors Hanadi Jordan Tags Congress A recent survey by the Partnership for Public Service shows that Americans are starting to see the impact of the government shutdown on their communities as it enters its fourth week. The Partnership has been tracking the real-life consequences of the shutdown, and three areas stand out: air travel, business and financing, and public benefits, with funding for critical programs at risk, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees either working without pay or furloughed. Air travel Transportation Security Administration agents and air traffic controllers across the country are working without pay, causing frustration and stress. At California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport, the air traffic control tower was left unstaffed for six hours on Oct. 8, forcing pilots to communicate among themselves to avoid incidents when taxiing to and from the runway. Staffing issues have also created delays at airports in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and Newark. Some air traffic controllers are even taking up second jobs to make ends meet, making it more difficult for the Federal Aviation Administration to retain and hire talent to address chronic staffing shortages. If the shutdown continues into holiday season, flyers should expect further disruptions. The 2018-2019 shutdown stretched through Christmas and into late January, resulting in flight cancellations and delays as TSA and air traffic personnel struggled to sustain operations. Eventually, these disruptions pushed President Trump and leaders in Congress to end the shutdown. Finance, business and the economy Businesses that require federal licenses, like those that produce alcohol, are unable to receive them, and other businesses have been unable to launch because the Securities and Exchange Commission can no longer approve registrations. The pause in processing federal loans is also harming small businesses, farmers and low-income borrowers. October is a crucial month for these groups, as some are paying their taxes and others need to prepare their inventory and equipment for planting season. In addition, a lack of federal data from the Agriculture Department on production and global demand is hurting farmers who rely on that information to make decisions about where to market their crops and what to plant. Benefits programs The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, a federal program that provides low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children up to age 5 with nutritious foods, is at risk of running out of funding. While some states are stepping in to provide support, others like Mississippi have been forced to limit applications. More than 40 million Americans might also lose access to food assistance if the shutdown carries into November, with more than a dozen states warning of disruptions. Food banks across the country, already struggling due to prior funding cuts from the Trump administration, are seeing increased demand from federal workers and their families, further straining services. In addition, millions of low-income Americans who rely on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps families in need with heating and cooling costs, are bracing for heat rationing as winter approaches. And while the Social Security Administration is still carrying out some critical functions, field offices have been unable to provide benefit verification letters, which are critical to receiving housing and fuel assistance, support from nonprofits, and other forms of aid. Congress must step up These ill effects should serve as a dire warning for our leaders in Congress to immediately reopen the government and fix our broken appropriations process, which has far too long precluded agencies from developing critical services and long-term strategies to better serve the public. Partisan divisions over spending should never override our elected leaders’ core responsibility to keep the government functioning. With the Trump administration already using the shutdown as a cover to institute more drastic and harmful reductions in federal programming and personnel, now is the time to uphold this basic promise. Explore our Federal Harms Tracker: The Cost of the Shutdown for more stories describing the harm caused by the closure of vital government services. Hanadi Jordan supports the Partnership’s initiative to rebuild trust in government and make government more trustworthy.
