Kent Nishimura/Getty Images; iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
The US is once again on the brink of a government shutdown following intense pressure from President-elect Donald Trump and his newly created DOGE commission.
It would mean federal workers are temporarily out of work, and Americans could experience slowdowns at airport security and customer service delays for programs like Social Security. During the last government shutdown under Trump, national parks shuttered, and flights were delayed or rerouted due to limited transportation staffing.
The possibility of a shutdown starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday comes after the House of Representatives seemed poised this week to approve a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through March. However, following intense criticism on social media from Trump and the leaders of his new Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, House Republicans scrapped the bill.
They took issue with the range of items in the bill that they said were not relevant to government funding, including pandemic preparedness and a pay raise for lawmakers.
Ramaswamy posted on X on Wednesday morning that the bill is "full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways & pork barrel politics."
Trump and his vice-president-elect, JD Vance, released a joint statement on Wednesday saying the resolution would "give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas," and Musk also wrote on X on Wednesday that a government shutdown is "infinitely better than passing a horrible bill."
Now, Congress must find a new funding solution in just over 24 hours. It leaves Americans on the brink of a government shutdown, which hasn't happened since 2018. Here's what that could mean.
Every federal agency is required to prepare for a government shutdown by creating contingency plans to submit to the Office of Management and Budget. Each agency outlines how it will structure its workforce in a shutdown, and particularly, how many workers it will furlough — and for how long.
This means that federal workers will likely be impacted at the outset, with many finding themselves temporarily out of work. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more severe the consequences for Americans will be, but if federal workers are furloughed, agencies will be strained to carry out their usual daily functions.
For example, the Social Security Administration's latest contingency plan said it expects to furlough 8,103 of its 59,000 employees at the start of a shutdown. This means that while Social Security payments would still continue to reach Americans, customer service would be limited for beneficiaries dealing with payment issues.
During a government shutdown, active-duty military service members would remain on duty but may go unpaid until funding is restored. The latest contingency plan from the Education Department in 2023 stated that it would have to pause most of its grantmaking activities during a shutdown, including its review of grant applications from local school districts.
The Department of Transportation's contingency plan in 2024 said that while facility service inspections and air traffic controller training would cease, essential services like air travel would continue. The Department of Homeland Security's most recent contingency plan said that the Transportation Security Administration would furlough over 2,000 workers, likely resulting in longer wait times for travelers at the airport.
The United States Postal Service, however, would not be impacted by a shutdown because it's an independent agency, and its operations would continue.
Additionally, a 2023 brief from the progressive think tank Center for American Progress said that a number of federal programs "immediately cease" during federal shutdowns, including the processing of new small business loan applications, workplace safety inspections, NASA research programs, and federal loans to farmers.
The collapse of the previous deal means the clock is ticking for both parties to come to an agreement on avoiding a government shutdown before the weekend.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized the recent government shutdown threats in a Wednesday statement.
"Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families who are gathering to meet with their loved ones and endanger the basic services Americans from veterans to Social Security recipients rely on," she said. "A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word."
