At 35 days, the government shutdown has now tied the record for longest in history

The fact that some senators aren’t even shocked is a testament to the current political environment.

“I wouldn’t use the word surprised,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “This disappoints me.”

Although Congress has shown no signs of agreement, some senators indicated Monday that progress is being made behind the scenes.

The painful consequences of the closure are now becoming clearer. Hundreds of thousands of federal civilian workers are not getting paid, forcing many to turn to local food banks to feed their families. Meanwhile, flight delays are worsening across the country due to understaffing of air traffic controllers and TSA agents. And 42 million Americans who rely on federal food benefits through SNAP will only receive about half of their monthly benefit in November.

“The stories this weekend were shameful and sickening,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a speech Monday. “People are overwhelming food banks, handing out groceries in place of Halloween candy, with teachers paying out of pocket to give extra food to their students. Across America, terrible scenes have been seen of people worried about not being able to feed their families and even themselves.”

But party leaders on both sides of the aisle don’t appear to be acting with urgency as the shutdown nears the five-week mark. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will hold a vote on the same funding bill passed by the House to reopen the government for the 14th time. Democrats, who are demanding that Trump negotiate with them over the expiration of health care tax credits before agreeing to open the government, are expected to once again reject this bill.

“I think it’s pretty clear, and I think tomorrow’s results might bear this out, that the American people want us to fight for them,” Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said of Election Day.

Murphy, who had just returned from Miami, where he spoke to voters about rising health care costs, continued: “The shutdowns hurt, but the pain that I just heard in Florida will be worse than anything that happens with the shutdown, because when these premiums go up 100 to 200 percent, these people’s lives are ruined.” People are going to die. »

Senators see progress

Yet green shoots of hope are growing at the Capitol. A small, bipartisan group of senators continues to discuss ways to break the impasse, including a meeting Monday after they return to Washington.

“Progress is being made,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.

Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, chair of the Appropriations Committee that drafts federal funding bills, agreed — without going into detail.

“I think we’ve made progress,” she told reporters. “Over the weekend, staff worked very hard. Members worked very hard. I personally spoke to members of the House and Senate about the path forward. Democrats are introducing their specific language for the first time, and it feels better this week. Now, who knows? It could all fall apart again, and I don’t mean there’s a deal.”

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a veteran of several shutdown battles who is retiring after more than four decades in Congress, said he, too, feels a sense of optimism that this shutdown will end soon.

“After being here for ages, as I have been, you kind of feel the ebb and flow of this place, and I feel like people are tired of this shutdown and everything that comes with it. But we’re still stuck with this premise of what we’re going to do when it comes to health care costs.”

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Thune, who along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has blamed stubborn Democrats for the prolonged shutdown, said Monday he thinks both parties are “getting closer to an off-ramp here.”

He declined to go into detail, but largely highlighted bipartisan negotiations to pass the fiscal 2026 appropriations bills, as well as his promise to give Democrats a vote on renewing expiring Obamacare subsidies after voting to open the government.

“This is unlike any other government shutdown in terms of how Democrats [are] “They have to be willing to take that as an answer,” Thune said. “They have to be willing to take yes for an answer.”

Relieve painful points

Part of the reason is that some of the more serious problems seen in a typical shutdown have been mitigated — either by Trump himself or by the courts.

Twice in recent weeks, the president has ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to find other ways to pay the troops, first by tapping a Pentagon research and development fund and then using that R&D fund and other funds.

The administration is also setting aside $450 million in customs revenue to continue funding a nutrition program for low-income women, infants and children, known as WIC.

With the government shut down, the Trump administration announced it would end federal funding for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, starting Saturday, the first of the month.

But a federal judge ruled that the Agriculture Department must use emergency funds to continue SNAP benefits, and on Monday administration officials said they would send partial SNAP benefits to states for November. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called that insufficient.

“It is extraordinary that Donald Trump, his administration, and the corrupt Republicans on Capitol Hill willfully and intentionally deny SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans who are at risk of going hungry,” Jeffries told reporters.

GOP divisions over new palliative

Congress has already spent most of the time allotted in the stopgap bill passed by the House, which would have funded the government through November 21. Lawmakers will need to extend that deadline, given the lack of progress on legislation to fund the government for the entire fiscal year, which runs through September 2026.

Republicans are divided on how long the next short-term funding bill will last.

Collins told NBC News she preferred to set the deadline for Dec. 19, which would put pressure on Congress to reach a deal before Christmas.

But several other Republicans rejected the idea.

“I don’t think we’ll finish in December,” said Kennedy, who also serves on the Appropriations Committee. “Senator Collins is certainly entitled to her opinion, and I understand her point of view. But I don’t think she will prevail.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., supported the Jan. 15 deadline that would avoid a holiday race to reach a deal and instead push the issue until 2026.

“I don’t want another Christmas omnibus,” Scott said. “That’s what keeps happening every year. The only way to make sure we don’t get it is to overshoot, to get there, to get to January 15th.”