The shutdown pain is set to spiral.

After four weeks when the real-world impacts of the budget impasse have been relatively limited, a series of deadlines governing a range of programs will converge at the turn of the month to send the effects of the shutdown well beyond the Beltway.

The D-Day moment, which hits this weekend, is poised to wallop groups as varied as military troops, patients on ObamaCare, kids in Head Start, and low-income families on food stamps.

The combination will affect tens of millions of people, sending shockwaves into every congressional district and heightening the pressure on Congress to come together and secure the elusive deal to end the deadlock.

Some of those impacts are already tangible.

Last Friday, most federal employees missed their first full paycheck of the shutdown, after getting only a partial check two weeks earlier. And on Tuesday, air traffic controllers — essential employees who must report to work — followed suit, forcing some to seek second jobs and raising concerns about travel delays heading into the holidays.

The coming days, though, are expected to be even worse.

The administration shifted funds to pay out October benefits for a federal nutrition program for young mothers and kids, known as WIC. But that emergency funding is set to run out near the end of the month. And a huge fight is brewing over the fate of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food aid to millions of low-income people.

Congress has put more than $5 billion into a contingency fund designed to cover SNAP benefits during emergencies. But the administration says the fund is reserved for unforeseen events like natural disasters. The current shutdown doesn’t qualify, Trump officials charge, because it was caused by Democrats.

“Contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits,” according to

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