US judiciary says courts can sustain operations through October 17 in shutdown [View all]

Source: Reuters

October 1, 2025 3:57 PM EDT Updated 11 hours ago


Oct 1 (Reuters) - The federal judiciary on Wednesday said courts nationwide could sustain paid operations through October 17 after Congress failed to pass spending legislation in time to avert a government shutdown.

Judge Robert Conrad, who heads the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, in a memo to judges nationally provided a date that was two weeks longer than what it had estimated last week.

It had earlier projected it would run out of money after Friday. By contrast, during the last government shutdown in 2019 during Trump's first term in office, the federal judiciary remained operational for the full five weeks.

It was able to do so by relying on fees and balances not tied to Congress authorizing new spending. But the judiciary says tight budgets in recent years have reduced the availability of the funding needed to sustain paid operations if Congress does not act.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judiciary-says-courts-can-sustain-operations-through-october-17-shutdown-2025-10-01/