In a Monday conversation hosted by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, former U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a senior fellow at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs, dissected the causes and symptoms of the ongoing federal government shutdown with Eric Patashnik, the center’s director and a professor of public policy and political science.
Manning, who represented North Carolina’s sixth congressional district from 2021 until 2025, explained that the shutdown began after the Republican-controlled Senate failed to pass a government funding bill by an Oct. 1 deadline. Now, more than a month later, the shutdown is the second-longest government shutdown in American history and Senate Republicans remain five votes short of the 60 required to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded.
The gridlock in Washington, D.C. largely stems from debates over Senate Republicans’ proposed bill, which, according to Manning, would allow “critically important” policies like the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance premium subsidies to expire.
One month into the shutdown, Manning warned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s funds for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are “running out.”