Previously Published in The Messenger
By Matt Meduri
For the first time since 2018, the federal government has shut down.
On October 1, Congress failed to pass appropriations for the 2026 fiscal year. Primary causes of the consternation on Capitol Hill stem from healthcare subsidies, foreign aid recissions, and federal spending.
The shutdown is the eleventh in U.S. history and the third under President Donald Trump (R-FL), with the first two during his first term.
The Messenger sat down with Congressman Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) to discuss the scene on the Hill.
A Lapse in Orthodoxy
LaLota says that the shutdown was a product of “Democrats violating their own religion of keeping the government open”, as well as “fear” within Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to quell the shift within his party towards a more extreme platform.
“Democrats have historically been relied upon to keep the government open,” LaLota told The Messenger. “Thirteen times under the Biden Administration, the parties worked together to keep the funding going. Democrats have deviated from that path because, broadly, they haven’t been winning on any of their policies under the Trump Administration. They lost on the Big, Beautiful Bill, taxes, spending, and various policies. It’s clear to me that they’re using this round of funding to pick a fight with President Trump.”
Three Democratic Senators joined the Republicans to end debate and pass a stopgap – Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Angus King (I-ME), although reports have stated that their intentions were to avoid a shutdown, which would give Trump “more leverage.”
“In any other time in our nation’s history, Democrats have said that funding the government is essential,” said LaLota. “However, this time around, some Democrats are contorting their language and approach to satisfy their politics. In a shutdown, the president has much broader authority on what he spends the remaining dollars on and whether he fires or furloughs federal employees.”
A Battle Over Subsidies
A big contributor to the tensions on the Hill is that of healthcare subsidies, particularly for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – or Obamacare. Pandemic-related subsidies were already slated to expire.
“It’s not like Republicans cut funding; they were naturally expiring. The Democrats are picking a fight over extending the subsidies that they themselves had slated to end in 2025,” said LaLota. “On September 19, House Republicans passed the stopgap as a funding mechanism while we’re having fights over broader tax-and-spend policies. But Democrats, thus far, have rejected that stopgap status quo funding, with no partisan riders, no gimmicks, no poison pills – merely a status quo funding of our gov that 99% of House Republicans voted for and 99% of Democrats voted against.”
However, LaLota says that Democrats have made pushing healthcare for illegal immigrants a priority in their fight this year.
“On Page 57 of their $1.5 trillion wish list, Democrats included almost $200 billion to go to healthcare subsidies for illegal immigrants,” said LaLota. “Nobody has to take my word for it; it’s prominently displayed in that initiative.”
LaLota adds that the country’s healthcare system “needs reform”, but that the promises of Obamacare have not panned out
In terms of services, 31,000 federal employees on Long Island will be affected.
“The longer this shutdown goes on, the worse it will get, especially for those who rely on federal services,” said LaLota, adding that some 3,000 scientists and engineers at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) and air traffic controllers for Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) will be affected.
“The air traffic controllers, each and collectively, told me that it wouldn’t only become painful for their paychecks, but ordinary Americans who rely on air travel,” said LaLota. “With respect to BNL, the nation’s progress that we’re trying to keep on our economic and military adversary, China, is stalled.”
Schumer’s ‘Fear’
Regarding the political ramifications of this, LaLota believes that Democrats the longer the shutdown continues, the more blame Americans will lie at the feet of the Democrats.
“I think the politics are terrible for Democrats, because the longer this shutdown goes, the more harmful it becomes. The more Americans will assign the blame to Democrats. Our Republicans are looking for a funding bill that keeps the status quo, something the parties have agreed on for decades,” said LaLota. “I voted for eight status quo funding bills under President Joe Biden (D-DE), despite my strong objections to his border policies. I voted for them because I understood the pain that would be caused to the general public for a legislative win. For years, every reasonable Republican and Democrat agreed to not shut down the government in order to achieve a policy win. It used to be a bipartisan understanding, but Democrats are rejecting their core philosophy.”
In the U.S. House, only one Democrat, Congressman Jared Golden (D, ME-02), sided with Republicans to keep the government funded. Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D, WA-03) missed the vote by “seconds”, according to LaLota, but stated her intent to vote for the resolution.
LaLota adds that Schumer and his base fear a Senate primary from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY-14), colloquially referred to as AOC, as well as a takeover of their party that was once considered the party of the American working-class. AOC has been seen as a rising star in her party since her notable upset in the primary of Congressman Joe Crowley (D) in 2018. At the time, Crowley had been a high-ranking Democrat, defeated for his party’s nomination by AOC, then a political novice.
Schumer is up for re-election in 2028.
“It’s all about Assemblyman Zoharan Mamdani (D-Astoria) and AOC. The old generation of Democrats, like the Schumers, are scared as hell of the AOCs and Mamdanis,” said LaLota of the current intraparty sparring over the Democrats’ political future. “They’re doing their best to get their socialist tendencies. If you look at NYC, Mamdani wasn’t ‘supposed’ to win that primary, but did, and is likely to win the mayorship. For forty-year politicians like Schumer, that’s scary, and Chuck is trying to become more like Mamdani.”
How Other Long Island Reps. Voted
Fellow Long Island Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) voted in favor of the continuing resolution, in a statement calling it a “clean, short-term funding extension to keep the federal government open and operational.”
“During this shutdown, my team will continue to assist constituents, and our phone lines will remain open. Certain services and response times from federal agencies may slow or cease. We will continue to seek guidance from federal agencies about what services remain available as the situation develops,” said Garbarino in the statement.
Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) voted against the resolution.
“‘My way or the highway’ is no way to run a government in a democracy,” said Suozzi in a statement. “Negotiating is how you keep a government open, not stonewalling the other side.”
Suozzi called on Republicans and Democrats to “sit down” and “hammer out a deal” to “reopen the government as soon as possible” and “extend expiring healthcare premium tax credits to stop double-digit increases in health insurance premiums come November.”
Congresswoman Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) branded the deadlock as a “GOP Shutdown” in a statement.
“First, Republicans threw our health care system into crisis with their Big Bad Bill that will make health care more expensive for millions of Americans,” said Gillen in a statement. “Next, they refused to even negotiate at all to craft a bipartisan spending bill and chose to let tax credits that allow thousands of Long Island families to afford health care expire. The health care cuts being currently pushed by the Majority will mean higher costs for Long Island families already struggling with groceries, rent and child care. This shutdown could have been prevented and Americans would have benefitted if House Republicans governed responsibly.”
The Messenger reached out to Senator Schumer’s office for comment, but received no response.