Nine months into 2025, members of Congress have endured a dozen starkly partisan confirmation fights, multiple grueling all-nighters to pass Republicans’ reconciliation bill, an ugly battle over clawing back billions in government funding and a spate of political assassinations that have many of them fearing for their safety.
And now they’re less than 24 hours from a government shutdown.
“Every day is like a dog year. It’s exhausting,” Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California Democrat, told NOTUS. “And I’m sure the American people are as exhausted as I am with theater and disingenuousness.”
“I think the level of acrimony and the violence has made people more wary of this work,” she added.
When NOTUS asked dozens of lawmakers returning to Congress on Monday how they were feeling, the most common response was a deep, weary sigh. Multiple senators, including Democrat Amy Klobuchar, laughed at the premise of the question. After all, it’s become almost a given on Capitol Hill that the vast majority of lawmakers are utterly miserable.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, had a single word to describe her mood: “Crappy.”
“I used to say that public service, when I was in the state senate, was a joy most days,” Rep. Emily Randall, a Washington state Democrat, told NOTUS. “I definitely don’t say that anymore. There are highs and lows, and the lows are really low.”
“I’m not 40 yet, but I feel very old,” she added.
The impending government shutdown has been a particularly trying affair. Republicans are attempting to extend current funding levels through Nov. 21. Democrats — seizing on a rare moment of leverage in the minority — are demanding that Republicans attach an extension for expiring Affordable Care Act tax subsidies, as well as language that would restrict Republicans from turning around and rescinding the congressionally approved funding.
Neither side has budged for weeks. The conversations on Capitol Hill have turned from whether a government shutdown will happen to how long it might last.
“I’m waiting for the fever to break,” said Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
A shutdown would mean thousands of federal workers are forced to stop working without a clear timeline on when they’ll receive their next paycheck. Plus, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, has threatened to capitalize on the shutdown by firing federal workers, sowing doubt that those furloughed workers will ever return to their jobs.
On Capitol Hill it also means late nights, cancelled plans, exhausted staff and answering to furious constituents. Although, not yet for House Republicans: Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled House votes ahead of the shutdown to pressure Senate Democrats into accepting a House-approved spending bill. But House Democrats returned to the Capitol on Monday evening for a caucus meeting — and to send the message that they’re on the job even if the rest of the House is at home.
“We’re not in session,” Rep. Wesley Bell, a Missouri Democrat, told NOTUS. “So I could be home in my own bed. But I’m here, and we’re here until the fight is won.”
A shutdown will tee up a nasty, partisan brawl over which party is to blame. And no matter which party is actually culpable, Republicans and Democrats alike are dreading that reality.
“This is not a food fight,” Sen. Jim Justice, a West Virginia Republican, told NOTUS. “We may think this is a food fight, but at the end of the rainbow there is a name of somebody, there is a family that this is affecting.”
But in many ways, lawmakers know a shutdown will resemble a food fight. It already has, with both parties pointing fingers across the aisle for what they see as an appropriations process in tatters. Republicans are outraged that Democrats won’t extend spending levels that were first approved during the Biden administration. And Democrats are incredulous that Republicans expect them to sign on to legislation that the Trump administration is eager to undercut with future rescissions.
“There’s just a mood of frustration,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, an Illinois Democrat, told NOTUS. “I also feel like sometimes, some folks may be feeling powerless, like, what can we do?”
What’s more, lawmakers told NOTUS that the animosity and sense of futility is getting worse. Democratic Rep. Gil Cisneros entered Congress in 2019 in the middle of a government shutdown. After a stint away from Congress serving in the Biden administration, he said that Capitol Hill is a tougher place to work at now.
“I thought it was pretty wild when I got elected in 2018,” he said. “I think this time around it’s even crazier.”
Some senior lawmakers have grown numb to the dysfunction. The Senate’s top appropriator, Susan Collins, has been through multiple shutdowns in her nearly three-decade tenure in the upper chamber.
“That’s what you expect as a public servant,” she told NOTUS. “And you just deal with issues as they come along.”
But some newer members of Congress fear the chaos has become a deterrent to fresh talent running for public office.
“I have to believe that we will get through this and that we can show a better way of governing,” Randall said. “But it feels like it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”