One way to end the impasse would be for Democrats to drop the debt ceiling measure from the funding legislation. Then it would need to be passed swiftly by both chambers of Congress to avert a shutdown. The last government shutdown ended after 35 days in January when several air traffic controllers, who had been working without pay, reportedly called in sick, leading to flight delays and helping to break a political impasse over funding legislation. Hoagland said the disruption to public health agencies in the middle of a pandemic might keep a shutdown brief.
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More from Reuters. Sign up for our newsletter Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox. Every year, Congress must pass and the President must sign budget legislation for the next fiscal year, consisting of 12 appropriations bills, one for each Appropriations subcommittee.
Congress has not yet enacted any of the 12 bills for FY that make up the discretionary spending budget. Essential services continue to function, as do mandatory spending programs. Each federal agency develops its own shutdown plan, following guidance released in previous shutdowns and coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget OMB. The plan identifies which government activities may not continue until appropriations are restored, requiring furloughs and the halting of many agency activities.
Essential services — many of which are related to public safety — continue to operate, with payments covering any obligations incurred only when appropriations are enacted. In prior shutdowns, border protection, in-hospital medical care, air traffic control, law enforcement, and power grid maintenance have been among the services classified as essential, while some legislative and judicial staff have also been largely protected.
Mandatory spending not subject to annual appropriations, such as for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, also continues. Other examples of activities that continue are those funded by permanent user fees that are not subject to appropriations, such as immigration services funded by visa fees.
Although many programs are exempt, the public is still likely to feel the impact of a shutdown in a number of ways. For example, in a full shutdown:. OMB maintains a list of the various contingency plans federal agencies will follow during a shutdown. Most have been updated within the past three years, but some have not been updated since a shutdown threat in late A full shutdown would be more extensive than the partial shutdown that started in December when Congress had enacted 5 of the 12 appropriations bills.
A full shutdown would likely be similar to recent ones in and early when approximately , out of 2. In , most of the , civilian employees at the Department of Defense were summoned back to work within a week.
Furloughed employees are not allowed to work and do not receive paychecks but are guaranteed back pay due to legislation passed in January Federal contractors have historically not received back pay. At the beginning of the partial shutdown, an estimated , employees were furloughed, a smaller number than usual since large federal employers such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense were already funded.
Another , employees reported to work but did not receive pay until the shutdown ended. As the shutdown continued, departments and agencies such as the IRS and State Department recalled an increasing number of employees. Whereas discretionary spending must be appropriated every year, mandatory spending is authorized either for multi-year periods or permanently. Thus, mandatory spending generally continues during a shutdown. However, some services associated with mandatory programs may be diminished if there is a discretionary component to their funding.
For instance, during the shutdowns and the shutdown, Social Security checks continued to go out. However, staff who handled new enrollments and other services, such as changing addresses or handling requests for new Social Security cards, were initially furloughed in Is this different?
What's going on and should we all be worried? A shutdown of the federal government means that all non-essential functions of government are frozen. This will affect everything from social security to air travel to national park access. Federal agencies are dependent on funding being approved by Congress to allow the president to sign budget legislation for the fiscal year ahead. If they can't approve funding because of political differences - and America is so bitterly divided at the moment then those agencies are forced to shut down.
This means that workers can't go to work and are not paid. Essential services like air traffic control and the national grid will, of course, continue to operate. But other associated services won't, meaning that across many areas of society there will be a significant impact. A full shutdown could affect about , of just over two million federal workers.
At airports, queues would be much longer; for the hungry, "food stamps" would not be issued; mortgage and small business loans would be delayed, and so on. Because it's happened before, numerous times. Since the mids, there have been 20 shutdowns or funding gaps for Americans to contend with.
In , the government shut down for nearly a month when the Clinton administration and the Republican-led congress failed to agree on the level of government spending. During the government shutdown of , more than parks, national monuments and other sites were closed. However, during the shutdown, many remained open, just with no visitor services or maintenance. The longest government shutdown in history, which lasted for 35 days, occurred between and An estimated , federal workers and 1.
Current federal funding got caught in the middle of a political showdown in Congress—and lawmakers cut it close with passing a continuing resolution. But it happened. On top of the political drama, the country is still grappling with a deadly, highly contagious virus. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said now would be a terrible time for a government shutdown.
Previously, I covered personal finance at other national web publications including Bankrate and The Penny Hoarder. When I'm not digging up the best ways to manage your money, I'm out traveling the world. Follow me on Twitter at keywordkelly. Select Region. United States. United Kingdom. Kelly Anne Smith. Forbes Advisor Staff.
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