Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown starting Oct. 1, 2023, by passing a continuing resolution bill late on Sept. 30. With how significant it is, the term “government shutdown” has appeared in almost every major news organization’s headlines recently, but not everybody knows exactly what a government shutdown means.
Simply put, a government shutdown is when Congress can’t agree on how to spend the money they have jurisdiction over. When no spending bill is passed, all federal services that are deemed nonessential have to close, and federal employees that are classified as essential have to work without pay. After the shutdown ends, they would receive retroactive payment.
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, some services that would be affected, though not completely shut down, include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), air travel, Social Security and Medicare, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Environmental and Food Inspection, and Health and Human Services. National parks and federally funded museums would also be affected, although the state of operation could vary depending upon support from the state and the use of other funds. In addition, about 784,000 federal employees would be furloughed, or temporarily dismissed, and another 653,000 would work without pay, according to the Washington Post.
Because government shutdowns have widespread negative effects on all people, they are generally avoided.
“It impacts every person in America,” government teacher Nathan Schmitt said. “There is not a single person that it doesn’t touch or affect in some way, and none of them are positive.” One of the ways it impacts people is by damaging their trust in the government.
“Ultimately, there is a loss of confidence,” Schmitt said. “One of the things that we expect our government to do, and this is for both parties, is to be the adults in the room and keep the government running. It’s a huge breach of faith when the government does have to go under a shutdown.”
Although Congress tries to approve spending bills, they can’t always agree in time for the start of the next fiscal year. According to the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan government research organization, the United States government has shut down four times where federal operations were affected for more than one business day. These shutdowns happened in 1995, 1995-96, 2013 and 2018-19.
One of the ways Congress avoids a government shutdown is by passing a continuing resolution, which extends the previous fiscal year’s budget terms in order to give Congress more time to agree on the new budget. These happen much more frequently than shutdowns.
According to the United States Government Accountability Office, “There have been 47 [continuing resolutions] between [fiscal year] 2010-2022. These ranged from 1 to 176 days.” The current continuing resolution, which was adopted Sept. 30, will keep government agencies open until Nov. 17. It will give Congress more time to agree on a budget, but if they don’t, then a shutdown could be in the future. What the effects of the shutdown turn out to be, however, could vary.
“[How bad government shutdowns are] depends upon multiple things: how long it lasts, what are the concessions and what are the compromises that go into it, but no matter how you slice it, it’s drastic,” Schmitt said. With the recent shutdown that took place in 2018-19, Schmitt recognized the increased public awareness of government shutdowns. This is positive because if no budget is agreed upon in November, it is crucial that people are aware of how services they depend on might be affected. “It is so important that you are educated and that you are open-minded and you continue to exercise your voice,” Schmitt said.