The government has officially been shut down after the House and Senate failed to pass a crucial funding bill. According to NBC News, Speaker Mike Johnson canceled the votes for next week as it is a “district work period.” This means that the shutdown will go on through next week.
A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass funding for government agencies. These agencies are then stopped from using their budgets since they haven’t been approved by lawmakers, though this does not mean that work is stopped.
This is the second government shutdown in the Trump Administration’s time. This shutdown occurred because House Republicans passed bill H.R. 5371 to extend government funding temporarily through December. A main point of contention for Democrats on this bill is that the bill does not want to extend tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. This would increase the cost of Health Care for the 22 million low and middle-income people and families enrolled under the bill by more than 50 percent of the original costs, as derived from numbers according to Clinical Trials Arena.
Although this was the main point of concern for Democrats, other concerns were the bill’s reductions for Medicaid, similar to reductions stated in the “Big Beautiful Bill,” and no protection for the funding of medical and public health research.
The consequences of this shutdown are already being seen nationwide. The Trump administration has said it intends to enact massive layoffs of federal employees. “We’ll be laying off a lot of people,” as stated by President Trump. From the BBC news article, Why the US government has shut down and what happens now, this is an almost unprecedented move, as in past government shutdowns, we have seen federal workers get furloughed rather than fired. As of now, an estimated 750,000 workers will be placed on furlough as well.
Many essential and non-essential workers will not be paid throughout the shutdown. Workers deemed essential must work through the shutdown even without pay. Although members of Congress and President Donald Trump will still be paid.
Federal programs will be affected in different ways. Spending for agencies deemed essential or for mandatory spending like Medicaid, Medicare, air traffic control, social security, border control and protection, ICE and in-hospital care will not be affected. This is because no matter what budget bills are passed, the budgets for these programs are already set aside regardless of what occurs with different financing bills.
Discretionary funded programs have no designated allocated funds given to them in this situation, since discretionary programs depend on Congress passing bills for finances and budgeting to receive their funds. When the House and Senate are in a budgetary stalemate, discretionary programs suffer.
There are programs that are deemed to have mandatory spending, but they have many discretionary spending components that affect all their operations. Mandatory spending programs sometimes need discretionary money to distribute services supported by mandatory spending. The committee for a responsible budget states that programs like SNAP and Social Security have funding deemed mandatory, but various other aspects of these programs will greatly cease operations. SNAP may not be able to send out checks for food stamps, while benefit verification and card issuance for Social Security may cease as well.
Aspects of the Department of Education, like the direct loan program, are deemed necessary. Due to the current stalemate, and with the department being forced to both roll back on non-essential employees as well as have essential employees work without pay, most of the services towards new grants and loans will be heavily affected.
Air traffic services will be greatly impacted as well because of employee rollbacks and their having to work forcibly without pay. Delayed flights and staff shortages will become commonplace.
The Department of Agriculture has many parts deemed essential as well, but they have already been forced to shut down several operations, such as the processing of farm loans and the ability to distribute resources for natural disasters, according to American AG Network.
Programs for children’s and adults’ nutrition and medical needs, such as WIC, will also be affected, as well as educational programs for youth. Head Start, the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, for example.
Talk of the numerous effects of this shutdown has already been widely circulated, but not enough is being distributed from our communities on how these actions can have disastrous consequences.
Allison Cannon (‘28) talked about the impact recent events have had on her. “The shutdown really impacted my family. My dad is in the military, and in the past, he wouldn’t have been paid. I am using his GI bill, and if the VA goes through any more cuts and issues, I won’t be able to pay for my tuition here.”
She spoke more about it, “My family is entirely dependent on my dad’s income from the military. This shutdown means that they are going weeks without pay, and they aren’t sure if they will be able to get any support when it comes to buying groceries or paying for medical visits,” said Cannon.
Another student talked about the impact this shutdown will have on themselves and their family, “I’d say the government shutdown has been difficult, considering my mom works for the government and she no longer has income. I also don’t have a dad to help out, either, so it adds to the already difficult situation. It has not impacted us quite yet because of saving, but if it continues on for much longer, it will,” said Leah Deselms (‘28).
We see the article headlines, but we do not see the people affected by these shutdowns discussed enough. This country will not only have to handle the economic and political consequences of this shutdown, but also handle the possible losses of talent and potential from our generation, Generation Z.
“I hope that my time here at Drew will continue, but if anything happens to the GI bill, I won’t be able to afford to go here,” said Cannon.
Kayla Kiernan is a sophomore who is double majoring in Spanish and political science and minoring in Italian.
