U.S. Partial Shutdown Disrupts Healthcare, Jobs Data

The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 1 after the Senate failed to pass a short-term spending measure amid a standoff over Democrats’ demand to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and Republicans’ insistence on a “clean” stopgap. Approximately 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed daily, with agencies suspending nonessential operations — including closures of staffed federal parks — while essential functions such as counterterrorism and visa processing continue. Healthcare delivery has been immediately affected: CMS’s hospital-at-home waiver expired and telehealth reimbursement extensions could lapse, forcing some programs to return patients to hospitals and disrupting virtual care. The lapse will also delay economic reporting — the Bureau of Labor Statistics said it will not issue September jobs data during the shutdown — and the White House withdrew its nominee to lead the BLS, heightening uncertainty for the Federal Reserve and investors. Both parties traded aggressive messaging as the impasse hardened, including a White House countdown, a HUD webpage attacking Democrats, and a social-media deepfake targeting Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.