Government Shutdowns - a Short History
In the final Fina Mendoza Mystery Let Kids Vote! Fina's congressman father tells her there's going to be a government shutdown.
I pictured in my head someone hammering plywood boards over the windows and doors of the Capitol. "The government's going out of business?" I asked.
"Not exactly. Technically, the government's running out of money," said Papa. "Congress was supposed to pass a funding bill to pay for government expenses for the next year."
"Isn't that your job?" I asked.
Who's in Charge of the Money?
The U.S. Constitution requires Congress to appropriate the funds needed to pay for the activities of all three branches of the federal government.
This year, lawmakers failed to do so by the September 30th deadline, so the U.S. Government effectively shut its doors on October 1st.
It's not the first time this has happened.
Was Congress Always This Late?
Politicians have been fighting about money since the days when Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson battled over the establishment of a national bank.
But the current battle over funding the government can be traced to a feud between President Richard Nixon and Congress. Nixon wanted to curb federal spending, so he "impounded" - or refused to spend - the money already appropriated by Congress.
Earlier presidents had done it, but in smaller amounts. Nixon impounded bilions of dollars, often targeting programs he didn't like.
Lawmakers asserted their Constitutional right by passing the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, putting the spending power back in the hands of Congress.
How It's Supposed to Work
Under the rules of the Congressional Budget Act, the president is supposed to submit a budget proposal by the first Monday in February. It's often late. Meanwhile, Congress starts work on its own spending proposal, due the same day taxes are due: April 15th. Congress has been late 45 of the past 51 years, including this year.
Once a budget resolution is adopted, Congress gets to work on separate bills that fund various parts of the federal government. The deadline for passage is October 1st, the start of the new fiscal year.
But that hasn’t happened since 1996.
These days, rather than work on individual spending bills, Congress prefers omnibus bills, packing nearly everything into one big bill. If Congress can't agree, lawmakers push back the deadline by passing temporary measures called continuing resolutions, or CRs, to keep the government running. If Congress can't get enough votes to pass the CR - which is what happened this year - there's no money to fund the federal government, so it shuts down.
THE BUDGET BATTLE COVERS ONLY ABOUT A THIRD OF TOTAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING
There are federal statutes that require payments for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and unemployment payouts - about 60% of all federal spending. The budget bills that Congress argues about cover "discretionary" spending on things like National Parks, NASA, farm subsidies, and disaster relief.
Oh, and 13% of federal spending covers interest on the national debt.
How Many Shutdowns? How Much Does it Cost?
There have been six government shutdowns since 1995. One lasted two days. The longest lasted 34 days - from December 21, 2018 to January 25th, 2019. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that particular shutdown cut the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by $11 billion.
That battle was over funding the border wall. This one is over extending Covid era health insurance tax credits.