Government shutdowns in the United States

Government shutdowns in the United States are periods in which federal, state, or local governments halt their operations. These shutdowns generally occur due to budgetary conflicts between branches of government, and may range in duration and severity. Shutdowns began in 1974 and have occurred in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Background

All countries have some form of government. Most governments are far more than just leaders dispensing laws. Modern governments are enormous networks of offices, agencies, and departments. These bodies work together to oversee countless functions that affect the lives of all citizens in some way or another. Without an active and functioning government, many aspects of society would become seriously disordered.

The US government is one of the world’s largest and most complex organizations. It operates on federal, state, and local levels to oversee the activities of millions of citizens. As such, the government requires large amounts of funding, mainly gathered through taxation. Government leaders often disagree on how this funding should be used, however. Debates about money have caused serious disruptions of the US government, including complete governmental shutdowns.

The roots of the government shutdown can be traced to the US Constitution. This founding document purposely created a large government with three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. To ensure that no single branch would become too powerful, thus risking tyranny, the writers of the Constitution created the system of separation of powers. Under this provision, the branches of government would all have their own powers and responsibilities. Furthermore, these powers and responsibilities would be enmeshed, forcing the branches to work together and build agreement cooperation before they could carry out their plans.

The separation of powers gives the US Congress the “power of the purse”—meaning control of government funding. Congress is made of two separate houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congressional decisions, or bills, about funding begin in the House of Representatives and then proceed to the Senate for approval. After that, if the bill is accepted, it moves along to the president of the United States, who can either sign (accept) or veto (reject) the bill.

When disagreements arise between the houses of Congress, or between Congress and the president, important funding bills can be stalled. Serious disagreements cause a delay of funding to the entire government, leading to a shutdown.

Overview

In the United States, government shutdowns most often occur when Congress and/or the president cannot agree upon funding allocation in a timely manner. Without the necessary and expected funding, various parts of the government may close until leaders can agree on the needed spending plans. Although federal government shutdowns are the most newsworthy and impactful on the nation as a whole, shutdowns may also take place at the local and state levels of government for similar reasons.

Although government shutdowns are based on ideas from the founding documents of the late 1700s, they only began occurring after the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Since then, serious congressional budgetary conflicts have arisen on the federal level a number of times. The first several of these did not result in large-scale governmental shutdowns, however. Shutdowns only began in 1981 after Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti opined that “funding gaps” in Congress should result in the halting of government functions. These shutdowns have varied from partial to complete in scale.

The effects of government shutdowns can be serious and wide-reaching, although they vary greatly depending on the scale and duration of the shutdown. Thus far, some governmental services are excluded from shutdowns because they are seen as essential for the country’s immediate needs and safety. These include functions such as power generation and distribution and factors that directly contribute to national security and defense.

For all non-essential functions, however, shutdowns may mean a halt to work. Many thousands of government workers may be sent home, frequently without their salary or any other compensation. Shutdowns may lead to employee furloughs, leaves of absence during which they cannot legally perform any job duties or check official accounts. In some shutdowns, the affected employees may only work directly within the government bureaucracy. In other cases, they may extend to a wide range of government employees such as national park rangers, school teachers, and waste management personnel.

Even brief government shutdowns can have large economic effects, potentially removing billions of dollars from the economy due to lost time and productivity. However, experts disagree on the exact extent of losses due to a shutdown. Many of these losses are unaccounted for because no employees were recording them. In other cases, the losses appear gradually in coming days, weeks, or months, even long after the shutdown has ended.

The first “funding gap” causing a shutdown-type situation occurred in September and October 1976, during the administration of President Gerald Ford. A Ford veto over a congressional bill to fund the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare (later divided into the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services) led to a conflict over funding that delayed monetary allocation to the whole federal government.

The administration of President Jimmy Carter saw five “funding gaps” between September 1977 and October 1979, most of which had to do with public funding for abortions. The eight subsequent shutdowns occurred during President Ronald Reagan’s administration, between November 1981 and December 1987. These shutdowns concerned matters including scheduling constraints, funding for missile programs, and foreign aid.

The fifteenth government shutdown occurred in October 1990 during the President George H. W. Bush administration over the president’s desire to reduce the government deficit. Two shutdowns occurred during the presidency of Bill Clinton, in 1995 and 1996, based on concerns over the deficit and disagreements about Medicare funding. President Barack Obama’s administration saw a shutdown in October 2013, and President Donald Trump’s administration had two brief shutdowns in January and February 2018, and another longer one beginning in December 2018. The topics of contention in these shutdowns involved border security, medical funding, immigration policy, and numerous governmental spending procedures. In September 2023, a looming shutdown during the administration of President Joe Biden was postponed when Congress passed a funding bill that put off the shutdown until mid-November of that year.

Bibliography

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