WASHINGTON – The U.S. government will shut down this weekend unless Congress comes up with a plan and takes quick action.
Federal funding is set to expire when the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. Saturday, and Republicans in Congress are back to the drawing board after billionaire Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump blew up their original bill and a backup plan fell through Thursday evening.
As Congress debates a way forward, government operations that people rely on and the paychecks for millions of federal workers are at stake.
Here’s what you need to know about what a government shutdown is and how it could affect you:
What is a government shutdown?
The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, meaning almost all government funding decisions happen on Capitol Hill. Each year, Congress must pass spending bills by October 1, the start of a new budget year, or the government will run out of money to continue functioning.
If Congress fails to take action before that date, the House and Senate can also pass legislation, called a continuing resolution, to keep the government fully operational for a short period of time. In September, Congress did just that, setting a new deadline of December 20.
Now Congress must take action before Friday or funding will be lost. Then all non-essential government functions must stop.
How did Congress get to this point?
Here’s how the government spending process is designed to work: The appropriations committees in both chambers must pass a dozen spending bills each year that affect various federal agencies. Then the bills must pass both the full House and Senate before heading to the president’s desk for signature.
That rarely happens in modern conferences. As is now the norm, Congress ran out of time to complete the process in September and passed a short-term funding extension.
Although Congress had known about the December 20 deadline since the fall, it only this week came up with a deal to avoid a shutdown.
On Tuesday evening, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced the deal, which was struck between top Republicans and Democrats in Congress. It would have extended government funding until March 14 and provided economic support to farmers and aid to areas hit by hurricanes. It also included a small pay increase for members of Congress, of up to 3.8%, for the first time in more than a decade.
Before the House could even vote on it, Musk began posting negatively about the bill to his more than 200 million followers on his platform X. Trump and a string of far-right members of Congress also opposed the plan. called it a giveaway to Democrats and criticized some policy provisions, such as Congress’s raises.
Trump also added a last-minute demand: that Congress take up legislation to address the debt ceiling. The country is not expected to reach its borrowing limit until sometime next year, but on Thursday Trump told NBC News he wants Congress to abolish the debt ceiling completely.
House Republicans tried to pass a second bill to address Trump’s concerns, but failed, with nearly every Democrat and 38 Republicans voting against it. Now they will have to figure out a new path as the clock ticks closer to the deadline.
When would a shutdown start? How long can someone keep it up?
Absent last-minute action from Congress, a shutdown would begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, so the effects wouldn’t be immediately felt until Monday.
It’s hard to predict how long a shutdown could last, but if it does happen, it could be a while given the divisions on Capitol Hill and the upcoming holidays. The Republicans have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, while the Democrats control the Senate. That will change on January 3, when Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress, and then Trump will be inaugurated on January 20.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X that she would support shutting down the government until Inauguration Day.
What parts of the government would a shutdown affect?
During a shutdown, the federal government would be unable to pay its millions of employees, including military and reservists, just before the holidays.
Hundreds of thousands of government workers could be laid off, meaning they would temporarily stop going to work. During a 2013 shutdown, about 850,000 employees were furloughed. But even those who must continue to perform essential duties would not be paid for the duration of a shutdown.
Federal workers would be paid retroactively when the government reopened, which wasn’t always guaranteed until Congress passed a law after a 2019 shutdown.
Some functions of the government would remain, including military and public safety, such as air traffic control and the Transportation Security Administration. Each federal agency draws up a “contingency plan” for how to act during a shutdown and which employees will be “exempt” from furlough.
For example, the Defense Department would require active military personnel to continue reporting for duty, and inpatient and emergency outpatient care at Pentagon medical treatment facilities would continue during a shutdown, a defense official told NBC News.
Military retirement benefits would still be paid out because they come from a separate trust fund and not from congressional appropriations, but they could be delayed by a lack of staff to process them, the official said.
President Joe Biden and members of Congress would all continue to work and be paid as required by law.
Would a closure affect benefits and payments such as social security?
The Social Security checks sent to 73 million people in the United States each month would continue during a shutdown because they are considered “mandatory” spending and are not funded through the dozens of appropriations bills Congress would have to pass each year.
Other examples of mandatory spending that would remain include payments from Medicare, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and veterans’ benefits.
How long did the longest government shutdown last?
Congress has allowed funding to lapse several times over the past four decades, leading to two dozen shutdowns that lasted at least one full day.
The longest shutdown was also the most recent: the government was closed for 34 full days from December 21, 2018 to January 25, 2019.
During that closure, national parks remained open, but trash began piling up and park employees were furloughed. TSA employees, who were required to continue working without pay, began calling in sick, leading to delays at airports. The TSA administrator has warned that a closure this year would lead to longer wait times heading into the holidays.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
