What Is a Government Shutdown?

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A United States government shutdown is a temporary but significant disruption of federal operations that occurs when a “funding gap” emerges.

This happens when Congress and the President fail to pass the necessary legislation to fund government agencies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year.

As a result, the federal government must cease all functions deemed “nonessential,” leading to the closure of national parks, the suspension of many public services, and the furloughing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees.

This has tangible and often costly consequences for the national economy, the federal workforce, and the daily lives of American citizens who rely on government services.

Why Shutdowns Happen

The modern federal budget process has become characterized by routine crisis, where an orderly, deliberative procedure has largely been replaced by a cycle of high-stakes brinkmanship. This evolution has made government shutdowns a recurring feature of American politics rather than a rare systemic failure.

The legislative mechanisms intended to fund the government are now frequently used as leverage points in political battles, turning the annual budget cycle into a predictable source of conflict. Each deadline for a Continuing Resolution or a major spending bill becomes a potential battleground where political factions can threaten a shutdown to force policy concessions they could not otherwise achieve through standard legislative means.

The Constitutional ‘Power of the Purse’

The foundation of the entire federal funding process – and the ultimate source of potential conflict – lies within the U.S. Constitution. Article I grants Congress the exclusive “power of the purse,” meaning it holds the sole authority to approve any money spent by the federal government.

This fundamental principle of separation of powers ensures that the executive branch, led by the President, cannot spend money without the consent of the legislative branch. While the President proposes a budget and can veto spending bills, it is Congress that must ultimately pass legislation to authorize and appropriate funds for all federal departments and agencies.

This division of power necessitates cooperation and agreement between the two branches to keep the government running.

The Annual Budget Process: From Proposal to Law

In theory, the federal government is funded through a structured and predictable annual process. The government’s fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year. The process is meant to unfold along a set timeline:

President’s Budget Request: The cycle typically begins when the President submits a comprehensive budget proposal to Congress, usually by the first Monday in February. This document outlines the executive branch’s spending priorities and needs for the upcoming fiscal year.

Congressional Appropriations: Following the presidential request, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees get to work. The task is to draft, debate, and pass 12 separate appropriations bills. Each bill corresponds to a different sector of the government, such as Defense, Agriculture, Interior, and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

Passage and Signature: For the government to be fully funded, all 12 of these appropriations bills must be passed in identical form by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Once a bill clears both chambers, it is sent to the President, who can sign it into law or veto it.

However, this orderly process has become exceedingly rare. In recent decades, Congress has almost never passed all 12 individual bills on time. Instead, lawmakers often combine multiple appropriations bills into massive pieces of legislation known as “minibuses” (a few bills together) or an “omnibus” (all remaining bills in one package).

The Stopgap Solution: Continuing Resolutions

When the October 1 deadline approaches and the regular appropriations bills have not been enacted, Congress typically turns to a stopgap measure known as a Continuing Resolution, or CR.

A CR is a form of temporary, short-term funding legislation that prevents a government shutdown by allowing agencies to continue operating, usually at the same funding levels as the previous fiscal year.

CRs are designed to buy more time for lawmakers to negotiate a final, full-year funding agreement. Congress may pass several CRs in a single fiscal year, extending funding for days, weeks, or months at a time.

While a “clean” CR simply extends current funding, these bills can also become vehicles for political fights, containing specific funding adjustments (“anomalies”) or controversial “policy riders” that dictate how money can or cannot be used. Since 1990, every government shutdown has ultimately been resolved by the passage of either a CR or a final appropriations package.

How Disagreement Leads to a ‘Funding Gap’

A government shutdown is triggered when a “funding gap” occurs – a period during which no new appropriations bills or a CR have been signed into law to authorize federal spending. This legislative impasse arises when the House, the Senate, and the President cannot agree on the terms of the government funding legislation.

These disagreements can stem from various sources:

Overall Spending Levels: One party may demand deep spending cuts while the other seeks to maintain or increase funding for social programs or defense.

Specific Program Funding: A dispute may center on a single, high-profile issue, such as funding for a border wall, which was the cause of the 2018-2019 shutdown.

Policy Riders: One side may attempt to attach unrelated policy provisions to a must-pass spending bill, such as measures to defund a specific law like the Affordable Care Act, which was at the heart of the 2013 shutdown.

When such a deadlock prevents a funding bill from reaching the President’s desk by the deadline, legal authority to spend money expires, and a shutdown commences.

A shutdown can be “full,” affecting all agencies funded by annual appropriations, or “partial.” A partial shutdown occurs when some of the 12 appropriations bills have been successfully passed and signed, while others have not. In this scenario, only the unfunded departments and agencies are required to shut down.

The Legal Trigger: The Antideficiency Act

The modern government shutdown is not a constitutional requirement or a political tradition, but rather a relatively recent phenomenon born from a specific, strict legal interpretation of a 19th-century law. This interpretation transformed what was once an administrative inconvenience into a full-blown operational crisis.

The Antideficiency Act has been on the books since the late 1800s. For nearly a century, funding gaps would occur periodically without triggering widespread shutdowns; federal agencies simply continued their operations with the expectation that Congress would eventually approve the necessary funds.

The paradigm shifted dramatically in 1980 and 1981, when two legal opinions from Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti established a new, binding precedent. He interpreted the Act’s prohibition on spending money without an appropriation to mean that agencies were legally obligated to cease all nonessential operations during a funding gap.

This reinterpretation, which has been adhered to by subsequent administrations, gave the Antideficiency Act its modern teeth and created the shutdown mechanism as we know it today. It effectively weaponized funding gaps, turning them from procedural delays into disruptive events with widespread public and economic consequences.

The Law Itself: Prohibiting Spending Without Funds

The Antideficiency Act (codified at 31 U.S.C. §§ 1341 et seq.) is a cornerstone of U.S. fiscal law. Its primary purpose is to enforce Congress’s constitutional power of the purse. The Act makes it illegal for federal agencies or their employees to:

• Spend or enter into contracts for amounts that exceed the funds appropriated by Congress.
• Involve the government in any contract or obligation to pay money before an appropriation for that purpose has been made.
• Accept voluntary services or employ personnel beyond what is authorized by law.

This last prohibition is critical; it is the reason “nonessential” federal employees cannot simply volunteer to work during a shutdown to keep services running. The law is enforced with serious penalties; officials who violate the Antideficiency Act can face administrative discipline, including suspension or removal from office, and even criminal charges involving fines or imprisonment.

The Civiletti Opinions: The Birth of the Modern Shutdown

For most of its history, the Antideficiency Act was not interpreted to require a complete halt of government activity during a funding gap. Agencies would often continue to operate at reduced levels, assuming that Congress would eventually provide retroactive funding.

This changed in 1980 and 1981. At the request of President Jimmy Carter, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti issued two landmark legal opinions that fundamentally reinterpreted the law.

Civiletti concluded that in the absence of an appropriation, the Antideficiency Act required an agency to suspend its operations and terminate all functions not explicitly authorized by law to continue. He argued that continuing to operate on the mere assumption of future funding was a violation of the Act.

These opinions, which subsequent administrations have upheld, established the legal framework that now compels the executive branch to initiate a shutdown when a funding gap occurs.

The ‘Emergencies’ Exception: Protecting Life and Property

The Antideficiency Act is not absolute. It contains a critical exception that allows the government to continue functions that are essential for “emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.” This “life and property” exception is the legal basis that allows certain federal employees, known as “excepted” personnel, to continue working during a shutdown.

The Office of Management and Budget provides guidance to all executive branch agencies on how to prepare for a potential shutdown. Each agency must develop and maintain a detailed contingency plan that identifies which of its activities and employees meet the narrow criteria for the emergency exception.

These plans outline which services will continue, which will cease, and how many employees will be furloughed versus how many will be “excepted.”

The Human Cost: Impact on Federal Workers and Military Personnel

The system of furloughing federal workers during a shutdown and then providing them with back pay creates a deeply paradoxical situation. On one hand, taxpayers ultimately pay billions of dollars for weeks of lost productivity from a workforce that was legally barred from doing its job.

On the other hand, the government simultaneously suffers a long-term “brain drain” of its most valuable employees, degrading its future capacity to serve the public.

The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 now guarantees that all furloughed federal workers receive their salaries retroactively after a shutdown ends. The 2018-2019 shutdown alone resulted in an estimated $3.7 billion in back pay for work that was never performed. This is a direct and quantifiable financial loss to the Treasury.

However, a more insidious and lasting cost is the damage inflicted on the workforce itself. Research has shown that federal employees exposed to a shutdown furlough experience a 31% increase in voluntary turnover in the months that follow.

This exodus is not random. The employees most likely to leave are younger, highly motivated individuals with strong opportunities in the private sector, and experienced, senior managers who choose to retire rather than endure another period of uncertainty.

This targeted loss of talent leads to a measurable decline in agency performance long after the shutdown is over, with one study noting an increase in accounting mistakes and faulty payments in affected agencies. The shutdown thus delivers a double blow: an immediate financial loss for no work, followed by a permanent degradation of the government’s most critical asset – its human capital.

Furloughed vs. Excepted: A Tale of Two Workforces

During a shutdown, the federal workforce is split into two main categories, each facing a different set of challenges:

Furloughed Employees: A “furlough” is a mandatory, temporary, unpaid leave of absence. Employees designated as “nonessential” are placed on furlough. They are legally prohibited from performing any official duties, which includes working from the office or home, checking work email, or even using government-issued devices like laptops and cell phones.

Excepted Employees: These are employees whose roles are deemed essential under the Antideficiency Act’s “life and property” exception. This group includes air traffic controllers, active-duty military, federal law enforcement agents, TSA officers, and certain healthcare professionals. Excepted employees are legally required to report for duty and perform their jobs as usual, but they do so without receiving their regular paychecks until the shutdown ends.

During the record-long 2018-2019 partial shutdown, approximately 380,000 federal employees were furloughed, while another 420,000 were deemed “excepted” and required to work without pay.

Pay, Benefits, and Financial Hardship

The passage of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 provided a crucial protection for federal workers by guaranteeing that all furloughed and excepted employees will receive full retroactive pay for the shutdown period once funding is restored.

Despite this guarantee of eventual back pay, the immediate lack of income during a shutdown causes significant financial hardship. Many federal employees, like most Americans, live paycheck-to-paycheck, and missing even one pay cycle can create a crisis.

This financial strain forces families to delay mortgage and car payments, run up credit card debt, and risk loan defaults. Furloughed federal employees may be eligible to apply for state unemployment benefits to help bridge the gap, but eligibility rules vary by state, and any unemployment compensation received typically must be repaid to the state once the employee receives their federal back pay.

Impact on Active-Duty Military and Contractors

Active-duty military personnel are considered essential to national security and are required to continue their duties during a shutdown. However, their pay is subject to the appropriations process. If the Department of Defense funding bill is one of the bills that has lapsed, service members will continue to work but will not receive their paychecks on time.

This was a major concern during several shutdown threats, though in the 2018-2019 partial shutdown, the Defense Department was already funded. However, the U.S. Coast Guard, which is funded under the Department of Homeland Security, was not, and approximately 42,000 of its members were forced to work without pay.

The impact on private government contractors is often more severe. These individuals and companies work on projects for the federal government but are not direct federal employees. When an agency shuts down, work on their contracts often stops.

Unlike federal workers, contractors are generally not eligible for back pay for the lost work, which can lead to immediate layoffs and devastating financial losses for small and large businesses alike.

The Ripple Effect: Morale, Retention, and Performance

The consequences of a shutdown extend far beyond the immediate financial strain. The uncertainty and feeling of being treated as political pawns are deeply demoralizing for the federal workforce.

As noted, this disillusionment drives talented people away from public service. The loss of younger, innovative employees and experienced, senior managers creates a “brain drain” that damages institutional knowledge and the long-term capacity of government agencies to perform their missions effectively.

This degradation of the workforce is one of the most significant but least visible costs of a government shutdown.

The Public Impact: Which Government Services Are Affected

Public understanding of a shutdown’s impact is often clouded by the overly simplistic “essential versus nonessential” dichotomy. The reality is a complex patchwork of effects where the core payments for major benefit programs, which are funded through mandatory spending, often continue to flow.

However, the administrative services needed to access, manage, and support those benefits, which are funded by discretionary annual appropriations, can grind to a halt.

For instance, Social Security and Medicare benefit checks are sent out because their funding is authorized long term and is not subject to the annual budget fight. Yet, the Social Security Administration offices that process new applications, issue replacement cards, and verify benefits for loans are forced to furlough most of their staff, leaving new applicants and those with administrative issues in limbo.

Similarly, while the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a mandatory program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture can run out of the administrative authority to distribute the benefits after about 30 days of a shutdown.

Furthermore, grocery stores cannot renew the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) licenses required to accept SNAP payments, potentially cutting off access even if benefits are issued.

This reveals the crucial distinction that the public needs to understand: the money for a benefit may be secure, but the people, systems, and licenses needed to run the program are not.

Which Services Continue and Which Stop

The Economic Fallout: Counting the Billions

The economic cost of a government shutdown extends far beyond the federal budget, representing a multi-layered impact that includes a permanent loss of national economic output, a significant disruption to the private sector, and the inefficient use of taxpayer money to pay for work that was never performed.

The most concrete data on this damage comes from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Its analysis of the 35-day partial shutdown of 2018-2019 estimated a total reduction in economic output (GDP) of $11 billion.

Critically, the CBO concluded that $3 billion of that economic activity was permanently lost – it was never recovered after the government reopened. This permanent loss represents business activity that was irrevocably cancelled, not just delayed.

Even these figures do not capture the full picture. The CBO itself acknowledges that its estimates do not incorporate the indirect negative effects, such as the chilling impact on private-sector investment and hiring decisions that result from businesses being unable to obtain federal permits, access government loans, or rely on federal data for planning.

Finally, there is the direct and unambiguous cost to taxpayers for zero productivity: the last three major shutdowns cost the Treasury nearly $4 billion, the vast majority of which was for back pay to furloughed workers who were legally prevented from working.

In essence, the economy shrinks permanently, the private sector is hampered by uncertainty and delay, and taxpayers foot the bill for the resulting inefficiency.

The Hit to National GDP

The Congressional Budget Office provides the most authoritative estimates of a shutdown’s macroeconomic impact. For the 35-day partial shutdown that ended in January 2019, the CBO found:

• Real GDP was reduced by $3 billion in the final quarter of 2018 and by $8 billion in the first quarter of 2019, for a total impact of $11 billion.
• Of this amount, an estimated $3 billion in real GDP was permanently lost. This permanent loss stems from cancelled purchases, lost business for private-sector entities that service the government or its employees, and unrecoverable fees from things like national park admissions.
• The shutdown reduced the projected level of real GDP in the first quarter of 2019 by 0.2%.

During the 2013 shutdown, the financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s estimated that the 16-day ordeal had shaved at least 0.6% off annualized fourth-quarter GDP growth, costing the economy $24 billion.

The Cost to Taxpayers and Government Inefficiency

Shutdowns are profoundly inefficient and result in direct costs to taxpayers for zero gain. A bipartisan report from a Senate subcommittee calculated that the last three major shutdowns cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion. This figure is composed of two main parts:

• $3.7 billion in back pay to furloughed federal employees for hours they were legally forbidden to work.
• Nearly $340 million in extra administrative costs, such as processing shutdown and startup procedures, paying late fees on government contracts, and losing revenue from fees and services.

Furthermore, the immense amount of staff time and resources that federal agencies must dedicate to planning for, executing, and recovering from a shutdown is a massive diversion of effort away from their core public service missions.

The Ripple Effect on the Private Sector

The economic damage of a shutdown radiates outward, significantly harming private businesses and local economies across the country.

Federal Contractors: The federal government spends an average of $13 billion per week on contracts with private businesses, nearly $3 billion of which goes to small businesses. A shutdown halts this flow of funds, forcing contractors to stop work and often lay off their employees, who, unlike federal workers, typically do not receive back pay.

Tourism and Local Economies: The closure of national parks, monuments, and museums has a devastating effect on surrounding communities. The 16-day shutdown in 2013 resulted in an estimated $500 million in lost visitor spending for gateway communities near national parks.

Finance and Commerce: The entire economy feels the effects when key government functions pause. Delays in processing new loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) can halt commercial activity and real estate transactions for weeks.

Loss of Critical Data: Businesses across many sectors, from agriculture to finance, rely on timely data released by the federal government to make critical business decisions. A shutdown halts the flow of data on employment trends, trade flows, and agricultural output, creating uncertainty that hampers private-sector planning.

A Brief History of Political Gridlock

The history of government shutdowns reveals a clear and troubling trend of escalating weaponization. What began as brief, infrequent procedural hiccups has evolved into prolonged, targeted battles over specific and often deeply ideological policy items. This progression mirrors the deepening political polarization in the United States.

Early shutdowns in the 1980s were typically short and centered on broad disagreements over budget totals. The 1995-1996 shutdowns marked a significant escalation, lasting 21 days due to a fundamental clash between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich over the size and role of government, specifically concerning cuts to Medicare and education.

The 2013 shutdown was even more targeted, focusing on a concerted effort to defund a single piece of legislation: the Affordable Care Act. The record-breaking 35-day shutdown of 2018-2019 was narrower still, centered almost entirely on a single presidential demand for funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

This historical trajectory demonstrates that the shutdown has been transformed from a rare consequence of procedural failure into a go-to tactical weapon for achieving specific policy goals that cannot be passed through the normal legislative process.

Before 1980: Funding Gaps Without Shutdowns

Prior to 1980, funding gaps between appropriations bills were not uncommon, but they did not trigger the widespread cessation of government functions seen today. Federal agencies would typically continue essential operations while minimizing other activities, operating under the assumption that Congress would eventually provide the necessary funding, a practice known as “minimizing all nonessential operations and obligations.”

The modern shutdown era began only after the 1980 and 1981 legal opinions from Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, which mandated a near-total halt of unfunded operations.

Landmark Shutdowns: A Timeline of Conflict

While there have been over 20 funding gaps since 1976, several stand out for their length, political intensity, and impact.

The 1995-1996 Shutdowns: This period saw two shutdowns, the second of which lasted 21 days, then a record. The conflict was a defining moment of the Clinton presidency, pitting Democratic President Bill Clinton against a newly empowered Republican-controlled Congress led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The core of the dispute was the Republican budget, which proposed significant cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, education, and environmental protection. Clinton vetoed the legislation, leading to the impasse. The shutdown ended after the White House and congressional leaders reached a compromise on a seven-year balanced budget plan with more modest spending cuts.

The 2013 Shutdown: This 16-day shutdown occurred during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. It was driven by a faction of conservative Republicans in the House, led by Senator Ted Cruz, who sought to use the must-pass funding bill as leverage to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obama’s signature healthcare law.

The Democratic-controlled Senate and President Obama refused to negotiate on the ACA, insisting on a “clean” funding bill. The standoff ended only when the country neared a separate crisis over the debt ceiling, forcing lawmakers to pass a bill that reopened the government and raised the debt limit.

The 2018-2019 Shutdown: Lasting 35 days, this became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The conflict was centered on Republican President Donald Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in federal funds to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

After Democrats took control of the House in January 2019, they passed funding bills to reopen the government without the wall funding, but the Republican-controlled Senate, at Trump’s insistence, would not take them up. The shutdown finally ended when mounting pressure, including significant disruptions to air travel caused by air traffic controller absences, led Trump to agree to a short-term CR to reopen the government for three weeks to allow for negotiations.

Major Government Shutdowns

Shutdown vs. Debt Ceiling: Understanding the Critical Difference

Public confusion between a government shutdown and a debt ceiling crisis is dangerously widespread and often minimizes the truly catastrophic nature of a potential U.S. debt default. Clarifying this distinction is vital.

A government shutdown is a disruption of future government services caused by a failure to pass a new budget. While damaging and costly, the nation has experienced and recovered from shutdowns multiple times.

A debt ceiling crisis, however, is about the government’s inability to borrow money to pay for financial obligations it has already incurred – including interest on existing U.S. debt, Social Security payments to seniors, and salaries for military personnel.

A failure to raise the debt limit would lead to a default on U.S. obligations, an event with consequences that are not merely disruptive but potentially apocalyptic for the global financial system.

A Simple Analogy: Your Household Budget

To make the distinction clear, consider a household budget:

Government Shutdown: This is like your family sitting down to argue about next month’s budget. You cannot agree on how much to allocate for groceries, gas, or entertainment. Until you reach an agreement, you stop all nonessential spending. The situation is disruptive and painful, but you are not defaulting on your existing mortgage or car payments.

Debt Ceiling Crisis: This is like having the mortgage and credit card bills for last month’s spending sitting on your table, but you refuse to take out a loan or use your available credit line to pay them. The spending has already happened. Refusing to pay these bills leads to default, foreclosure, and ruins your credit rating for years to come.

Shutdown: A Lapse in Appropriations

A government shutdown is fundamentally about a lapse in appropriations. It is a failure by Congress and the President to authorize future spending for the operational costs of government agencies. The consequences, while severe, are disruptive rather than catastrophic. They are largely domestic, temporary (though with some permanent economic loss), and have never led to a default on the nation’s debt.

Debt Ceiling: A Limit on Borrowing

The debt ceiling is a legal limit set by Congress on the total amount of money the U.S. government can borrow to meet its existing legal obligations. It is crucial to understand that raising the debt ceiling does not authorize any new spending. It simply allows the U.S. Treasury to borrow the money needed to pay for spending that Congress has already approved in past laws.

If Congress fails to raise the debt limit, the Treasury would eventually run out of cash and be unable to pay all of the nation’s bills. This would force the U.S. to default on its obligations for the first time in history.

According to economic experts, such an event would likely trigger a global financial crisis, cause the stock market to plummet, eliminate millions of American jobs, and permanently damage the nation’s creditworthiness and the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s primary reserve currency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I still get my Social Security, Medicare, or VA benefits?

Yes, benefit payments for Social Security, Medicare, and most VA programs will continue to be sent. These programs are funded through “mandatory spending,” which is not subject to the annual appropriations process that causes shutdowns.

However, you should expect major disruptions in customer service. Agency functions like processing new benefit applications, answering phone calls, issuing replacement Social Security cards, or handling benefit verification will be severely limited or stopped entirely due to staff furloughs.

Do I Still Have to Pay My Taxes? Will I Get My Refund?

Yes, you are still legally required to file and pay your taxes by the deadline, even during a shutdown. The IRS may continue to process electronically filed returns and accept payments.

However, you should expect significant delays in receiving any tax refunds you are owed. Other IRS services, such as taxpayer assistance hotlines, audit processing, and handling of paper returns, will be severely curtailed or paused.

Will the Post Office Still Deliver Mail?

Yes. The U.S. Postal Service will continue to operate as normal. The USPS is an independent agency that is funded primarily by the sale of its own postage and products, not by annual appropriations from Congress, so it is not affected by a government shutdown.

Are Airports Open? Will My Flight Be Affected?

Yes, airports will remain open, and flights will continue to operate. Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers are considered “excepted” employees and are required to work.

However, because they must work without receiving their paychecks, past shutdowns have seen an increase in unscheduled absences. This can lead to longer security lines at TSA checkpoints and, in some cases, flight delays due to air traffic control staffing shortages.

It is wise to check with your airline for any delays and to arrive at the airport earlier than usual. For the latest travel advisories, visit the TSA website.

Can I Still Get a Passport?

For the most part, yes. Passport and visa services are primarily funded by the fees paid by applicants, so they are not directly dependent on annual appropriations and can continue to operate.

However, there are two potential issues. First, if a passport acceptance facility is located inside a federal building that is closed due to the shutdown, it will be inaccessible. Second, a very long shutdown could eventually lead to delays in processing times.

For the most current information, visit the Department of State’s passport news page.

Are National Parks and Smithsonian Museums Open?

Generally, no. The vast majority of National Park Service sites, including visitor centers, campgrounds, and restrooms, will be closed to the public. All Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., and New York will also close.

In some past shutdowns, open-air parks and monuments have remained physically accessible, but without any staff, services, or emergency response, which can lead to unsafe conditions and environmental damage.

Always check the National Park Service website for the status of specific parks before visiting.

What Happens to My Snap or Wic Benefits?

These crucial nutrition assistance programs are at high risk, especially during a prolonged shutdown. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) often runs out of funding very quickly.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), while a mandatory program, relies on administrative funds that can be exhausted. The USDA generally has contingency funds to continue paying SNAP benefits for about 30 days into a shutdown, but beyond that, payments could be halted.

Will My Student Aid or Pell Grant Be Affected?

Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans, are typically “forward funded,” which means the money for the academic year was appropriated in a prior year’s budget. Therefore, the disbursement of these funds should continue as scheduled.

However, the Department of Education will have to furlough most of its staff, which could cause significant delays in the processing of new applications (like the FAFSA) or in resolving any issues with existing aid.

Do Members of Congress Get Paid During a Shutdown?

Yes. The pay for Members of Congress is established by a law that is not subject to the annual appropriations process. Therefore, they continue to receive their salaries during a shutdown.

Some individual members may publicly announce that they are donating or refusing their salary for the duration of the shutdown. Most congressional staff, however, are subject to the shutdown and can be furloughed without pay, though they are guaranteed back pay once the shutdown ends.

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