The United States Has Entered a Government Shutdown: Here is What It Means

As of October 1, the United States Government has officially initiated a government shutdown. This occurred because Congress failed to reach a deal on funding for the next year. 

Every shutdown is different, but essential functions and departments will remain open. Government agencies filed contingency plans to continue operating during the shutdown. Usually, there are fewer employees and they will continue to work without pay. Each plan is accessible on the agencies’ sites.

However, these contingency plans mean that most federal actions will be paused or delayed. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,  (FDA,) will be limited in the inspections they can conduct but they will respond to any emergencies.  

Along with the FDA, the Defense Department, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security and others will stay open, but will not be able to provide their full services. The longer the United States government shutdown lasts, the more departments will be frozen until a compromise is reached. If the shutdown is longer than a couple of days, national parks will be closed and federal court hearings could be postponed.

An example of an essential function is social security. It will be available to senior citizens, people with disabilities and other Americans. The unemployed will also receive their payments as long as state agencies have the funding to process them. 

The last government shutdown occurred in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term, which lasted for 35 days. The Congress could not agree on what to do for the funding of the Mexico-U.S. wall. The agreement came to not include the wall and Trump declared a national emergency to fund it. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Regan and Jimmy Carter have also experienced a shutdown. 

More information is available here