{"id":2492485,"date":"2025-09-29T13:40:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-happens-during-a-government-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T13:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:40:39","slug":"what-happens-during-a-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-happens-during-a-government-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens during a government shutdown?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-happens-during-a-government-shutdown%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2492485&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article explains what happens during a U.S. government shutdown, which could occur if Congress fails to pass the necessary funding bills by the October 1 deadline.A government shutdown results in hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed without pay and many government services being closed or limited. While essential services such as Social Security, Medicare, the Postal Service, air traffic control, and law enforcement continue operating, others like national parks, veterans&#8217; services, health inspections, and immigration hearings are affected.<\/p>\n<p>The shutdown risk stems from political disagreements in Congress. Senate Republicans hold only a slim majority, so they need support from some Democrats to pass funding. This year, the dispute centers on Democrats&#8217; demands to extend Obamacare subsidies, which Republicans oppose linking to the funding bill. Negotiations and meetings between party leaders are ongoing but tense.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the White House has directed federal agencies to prepare plans for permanent layoffs if a shutdown occurs, intensifying partisan frustrations. The House has passed a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >short-term funding resolution including emergency funding<\/a> for government security, but the Senate has blocked it.The situation remains unresolved as the shutdown deadline approaches. <br \/> <!DOCTYPE html><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">What happens during a government shutdown?<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A looming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">government shutdown<\/a> could leave hundreds of thousands of federal employees without a paycheck and close many government services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A funding bill requires 60 votes to be adopted in the Senate. Senate Republicans only have a three-seat net majority, which means it cannot pass if only the 53 Republicans in the Senate vote for it &mdash; it must have at least seven Senate Democrats vote in its favor. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3819213\/democrats-risk-shutdown-blame-game-government-funding-hardball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indicated<\/a> he would vote in favor of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3828664\/jeffries-obamacare-tax-credit-demands-vote-cant-wait-after-shutdown\/\">Jeffries digs in on Obamacare tax credit demands, says vote can&#8217;t wait until after shutdown<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3828328\/kehoe-missouri-new-congressional-map-law-faces-legal-challenges\/\">Missouri governor signs congressional map into law but faces legal challenges<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3827105\/trump-tariff-troubles-democrats-tight-spot-farmer-relief\/\">Trump&rsquo;s tariff troubles put Democrats in tight spot over farmer relief<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1 if it is not funded.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-a-government-shutdown\">What is a government shutdown?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Congress is required to pass a series of 12 appropriations bills every year by Oct. 1 to fund the next fiscal year. The legislative body, however, has not passed any of the 12 bills ahead of that deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A handful of appropriations bills have passed the House and Senate separately, but none have gone to conference committee, which is where the chambers work out the differences in their bills. Therefore, none have become law.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Congress cannot pass a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-requests-47-1-billion-in-emergency-funding-for-covid-ukraine-monkeypox-and-more\/\" title=\"Biden Admin Requests .1 Billion in ... for COVID, Ukraine, Monkeypox, and More\">short-term funding measure<\/a> to continue funding the government at its current levels, in what is known as a &ldquo;continuing resolution,&rdquo; the government will shut down until an agreement is reached.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 1980, there have been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bipartisanpolicy.org\/explainer\/what-happens-if-the-government-shuts-down\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">14 shutdowns<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The longest government shutdown lasted five weeks during the Trump administration in 2018 amid disagreements over funding the president&rsquo;s border wall with Mexico.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government would experience a partial shutdown if Congress could only pass some but not all of the annual appropriations bills by Oct. 1.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-will-be-affected-by-a-shutdown\">What will be affected by a shutdown?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonessential government employees may be furloughed during a shutdown, as they are forced to take an unpaid leave of absence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some services will remain mostly as usual. Retirees will continue to see their Social Security checks during a shutdown. Medicare benefits will continue as normal, but some services may lag. Food benefits for nearly 42 million people through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will not be immediately disrupted, but payments could <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/frac.org\/blog\/how-will-government-shutdown-affect-snap-benefits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be affected<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">  later in the year, depending on how long the shutdown lasts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Postal Service will also continue normal operations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other essential services, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-passes-temporary-faa-extension-ahead-of-busy-holiday-travel-season\/\" title=\"... approves short-term FAA extension before busy holiday travel season\">including air traffic control<\/a>, law enforcement, and power grid maintenance, will continue their operations. Air traffic could be affected, however, if controllers stop coming to work because they aren&rsquo;t being paid for the duration of the shutdown, as occurred in the 2018-2019 shutdown.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Previous shutdowns have closed hundreds of national parks and museums, curtailed services for veterans, suspended health inspections, and pushed back immigration hearings.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-the-debate-in-congress-about-this-year\">What is the debate in Congress about this year?<\/h2>\n<p>Republicans and Democrats have blamed each other for the possible shutdown.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democratic leaders have advocated an extension of Obamacare subsidies, which expire at the end of the year. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) are not expected to budge because the GOP refused to include any Democratic requests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thune has said he is open to talking about extending the healthcare subsidies later in the year but has rejected tying them to a measure to keep the government open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very comfortable with the position that we have,&rdquo; Thune said on NBC News&rsquo;s <em>Meet the Press<\/em> on Sunday. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s to fund the government, finish the appropriations process, and deal with the issues the Democrats want to deal with after we keep the government open.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Monday at the White House, after previously canceling a negotiation meeting at Johnson&rsquo;s urging.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leaders in both parties ahead of Monday&rsquo;s meeting said they saw room to negotiate on their funding proposals, but they expressed skepticism about the other side compromising.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;We need a serious negotiation,&rdquo; Schumer said on <em>Meet the Press<\/em> on Sunday. &ldquo;Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that, and the other thing, we won&rsquo;t get anything done.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The White House budget office additionally released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3823714\/white-house-memo-reduction-in-force-government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">memorandum<\/a> that directed federal agencies to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3823714\/white-house-memo-reduction-in-force-government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prepare for permanent layoffs<\/a> if the government shuts down, which has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3825124\/democrats-decry-white-house-intimidation-omb-shutdown-layoffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">further angered Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The House, with its razor-thin GOP majority, passed a continuing resolution that included $88 million in emergency funding to increase security for all three branches of government.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3823714\/white-house-memo-reduction-in-force-government-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>FEDERAL AGENCIES TOLD TO PREPARE REDUCTION-IN-FORCE PLANS IF GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That measure failed in the Senate as Democrats blocked it. Thune said he would bring it for another vote before the chamber on Tuesday night, just before the shutdown deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disclosure: This article was updated to reflect the 2025 government shutdown negotiations. It was originally published on Dec. 2, 2021, and written by <\/span>Kate Scanlon<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government shutdown risks unpaid federal workers, closed services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4052,"featured_media":2492486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/capitol.webp?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[9168,32857,39629,5894,58694],"class_list":["post-2492485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-economy","tag-federal-government","tag-government-shutdown","tag-politics","tag-public-services"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/capitol.webp?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2492485"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492489,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492485\/revisions\/2492489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2492486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2492485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2492485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2492485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}