What Did Georgia’s Senators Do in October During The Government Shutdown?

Note: Since 2023, GPB’s recurring reporting series has followed your federal tax dollars back to the state of Georgia through the activities of its U.S. senators. Neither Sen. Jon Ossoff nor Sen. Raphael Warnock is up for reelection this year — the former will run again in 2026 and the latter in 2028.

The federal government entered shutdown on Oct. 1, 2025. This month, Georgia’s U.S. Sens Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock worked on combating rising health insurance costs, ensuring service members are paid as the shutdown continues and passing legislation in the Senate to protect children from trafficking. 

Food assistance

On Oct. 27, Ossoff and Warnock called for U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in November.

Unless Congress ends the shutdown, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is suspending all November 2025 benefit allotments.
According to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, in Georgia, about 1.4 million people receive SNAP benefits, including more than 640,000 children. Recipients make up about 12% of Georgia’s population, with 78% of those at or below the poverty line, according to Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

“We were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for November,” Ossoff, Warnock, and the group wrote.“Americans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries, and they cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance.”

In the Senate on Oct. 30, Warnock questioned USDA Inspector General nominee John Walk about the current looming food crisis.

Health insurance costs

On Oct. 1, Sen. Warnock highlighted news from constituents about the cost of health insurance options increasing between 2025 and 2026, with some cases showing differences of nearly $20,000 a year. 

Open enrollment for health care access plans begins Nov. 1.

According to a press release, on Oct. 1, “Georgians who purchase their health care through the state-based online health care marketplace, Georgia Access, were, for the first time, able to see the new cost of their health care premiums for 2026.”

“I cannot, in good conscience, support a budget that will allow health insurance premiums to double for more than 1.2 million Georgians,”  Warnock said in a statement. “If they want my vote on their budget, they need to put forward a bill that funds health care.”

Protecting children

On Oct. 10, the U.S. Senate passed Ossoff and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s bipartisan legislation to improve coordination between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to prevent child trafficking.

According to a press release, the Senate passed the Preventing Child Trafficking Act of 2025 as part of this year’s NDAA.

In 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report stating that improving collaboration between the agencies within the departments would “enable the offices to overcome challenges specific to children and meet the distinct needs of child trafficking survivors,” per the report.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation notes that Georgia is a hotspot for human trafficking due to its international airport. This year, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported that more than 370 girls are trafficked in Georgia every month.

“Child trafficking in Georgia and nationwide is a crisis,” Ossoff said in a statement. “That’s why I worked alongside Senator Grassley to pass our bipartisan bill to strengthen Federal protections for vulnerable children and increase support for victims of trafficking.”

No Kings rally

On Oct. 18, Warnock joined thousands of Georgians outside the Atlanta Civic Center for the “No Kings” rally and spoke to the crowd, encouraging them to “stand up for democracy,” per a press release.

“You cannot outsource democracy to anybody,” he said. “You cannot outsource citizenship. It is all of us. That’s why they’re trying to divide us, because when all of us stand together and raise our voices, we win,” Warnock said.

The senator also spoke out about federal cuts to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and declared that health care needs to be more affordable.

Amid the government shutdown, Warnock and other senators continue to try to reach a funding deal to reopen the government.

As GPB’s Sarah Kallis reported, Warnock said the funding solution should include Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy extensions, despite Republicans’ push for a funding solution that does not renew ACA subsidy funding.  

“They are putting forward a false choice: either open the government or lower people’s health care costs,” Warnock said to reporters at the rally. “I think that’s a false choice. We have to lower people’s health care. Health care cannot wait.”

CDC firings

On Oct. 21, Ossoff and the rest of Georgia’s Democratic congressional delegation called on  U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to answer for the recent firings and re-hirings of employees at the CDC.

According to a press release, about 1,800 Health and Human Services employees received “reduction in force” notices earlier this month. Nearly half of the recently fired employees were fired by mistake, and the CDC moved to rehire them. 

“The CDC is now in disarray and its workforce deeply demoralized,” the group wrote to Kennedy. “That means the United States and the American people are less safe from deadly disease. Your reckless demolition of an essential public health agency appears motivated to a significant extent by personal animus and a failure to grasp basic facts about its work. That is unacceptable for the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”

National Scenic Trail

On Oct. 21, Warnock advanced the bipartisan Benton MacKaye National Scenic Trail Feasibility Study Act of 2025, a step toward designating the Benton MacKaye Trail, which runs from Georgia to Tennessee and North Carolina, as a National Scenic Trail (NST) within the National Trails System. 

According to a press release, the legislation “would authorize a mandatory study of the trail as a first step towards receiving an NST designation.” Upon the study’s completion, Congress may add the trail to the National Trails System.

Warnock and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) led the legislation in Congress, while Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) serve as cosponsors.

“This bipartisan legislation is a key step towards strengthening Georgia’s forests and green spaces, creating a bridge to connect communities, and investing in our rural economies,” Warnock said in a statement. “By preserving our natural landscapes, we can ensure future generations of Georgians can enjoy all our state has to offer.”

Service members’ pay

On Oct. 23, Ossoff issued a statement after voting for U.S. service members are paid during the government shutdown.

“Military service members, TSA workers, and air traffic controllers are among those who simply must come to work, and they should be paid for that work,” Ossoff wrote in his statement.

Warnock also voted “yes” on the Shutdown Fairness Act. He and Ossoff were among the only Democrats to vote for the GOP-sponsored plan, which did not pass.

According to a press release, the legislation would have “provided permanent funding to federal agencies provided permanent funding to federal agencies to pay the salaries and benefits of employees and contractors who are required to work during a government shutdown.”

“This vote reflects my commitment to the people who work hard every day to keep us safe and keep our country moving,” Warnock wrote in a statement. “It’s critical these hardworking public servants get the pay they are owed. … It’s not complicated, Congress can and must reopen the government, get paychecks out to all federal workers, and fund health care.”

This story comes to The Georgia Sun through a reporting partnership with GPB a non-profit newsroom focused on reporting in Georgia.