A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass appropriations bills or a continuing resolution before existing funding expires, forcing federal agencies without appropriations to halt non-emergency operations. Roughly 2 million federal civilian employees stop receiving paychecks during a lapse, though roughly 700,000 to 800,000 are typically ordered to work without pay or stay home, per shutdown contingency plans agencies file with the Office of Management and Budget. The longest lapse, 35 days from December 2018 into January 2019, per Congressional Research Service records. LMH News publishes information, not legal advice.
The term "shutdown" oversimplifies. The federal budget splits into discretionary spending, which Congress votes on annually and which shutdowns freeze, and mandatory spending, which runs on formulas in standing law. Most of the money the government spends never pauses at all.
What keeps running during a shutdown?
Programs with standing statutory funding continue: Social Security checks go out, Medicare pays claims, and federal retirement benefits are unaffected, because their funding does not depend on annual appropriations, per the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's shutdown tracker. Services classified as essential under agency contingency plans also continue — air traffic control, border enforcement, and hospital care within the Veterans Health Administration among them, though staff work without pay during the lapse.
The postal system is separate: the US Postal Service funds itself through postage, not appropriations, so mail delivery continues in every shutdown.
What actually stops?
Whatever each agency's plan designates non-essential. In past lapses that has meant national park closures or sharply reduced access, halted food safety inspections at the FDA, small-business loan processing at the SBA, and delayed processing of new Social Security card applications, per agency contingency documents from the 2018-19 lapse. Federal contractors, who outnumber direct employees in many agencies, generally do not receive back pay, unlike federal employees, whom Congress has made whole after every recent lapse.
What is a continuing resolution?
A continuing resolution, or CR, is a law that temporarily extends the previous year's funding levels, usually to a fixed date, giving negotiators time to finish full-year bills. Most recent fiscal years have begun under one — fiscal 2024 opened on the fourth CR of that cycle. Critics across both parties note the cost of governing by CR: new programs cannot start, defense procurement slips, and agencies plan in short increments. Defenders note it keeps the government open while divided Congresses negotiate, and both parties have used it when in control.
Where do the two parties stand?
Positions track control of the chambers and the White House, and both parties have held both shutdown-avoidance and shutdown-threat postures in the past decade. Republicans have generally argued for pairing any extension with spending cuts or policy riders, pointing to deficits the CBO projects persistently above 5 percent of GDP. Democrats have generally argued for clean extensions that hold spending flat, saying policy fights belong in full-year negotiations, not under deadline pressure. Each side's position has shifted with leverage; the 2018-19 lapse began over a border-wall dispute with a Republican White House, while later threats centered on spending levels under a Democratic one.
What happens when a shutdown ends?
Congress passes appropriations or another CR, the President signs it, and agencies reopen under their restart plans. Federal employees receive back pay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which made that guarantee statutory. Costs linger: the 2018-19 lapse reduced that quarter's GDP growth, per CBO's January 2019 estimate, and agency watchdogs documented backlogs that took months to clear.
What the record establishes is a funding mechanism that stops less than the word suggests and costs more than the pause implies. What it cannot establish is when the next lapse comes — that depends on votes not yet taken.
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