Every other Tuesday, Civics 101 hosts Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice join NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.
Congress has been trying to prevent a government shutdown before funding runs out at the end of the day on Friday.
The House passed a short-term spending bill Tuesday afternoon that would delay the funding debate until early next year. It still needs approval from the Senate and President Biden.
This week, Hannah joins us on the show to talk about the history of government shutdowns and why they happen.
You can listen to Civics 101 here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Transcript
What is a government shutdown?
So, a government shutdown is when most federal employees are basically told not to show up for work. However, there are employees who are deemed essential. They are expected to continue to report for work and not be paid, unless and until there is finally an appropriation bill or bills that is passed that will go on funding the government in the proper way.
What is exactly the cause of all of this?
What causes this basically is when the government fails to fund itself. So there was an act that was initially passed in the late 19th century that says that a federal agency cannot spend money without an appropriation or some other way of having spending approved by Congress. So every year Congress has to have passed by Oct. 1, 12 total appropriations bills.
Now, [on] Oct. 1, if all of them are not passed, we are looking at either a total or partial government shutdown. Congress can opt to pass something called a continuing resolution to prevent that shutdown. It basically keeps funding going and kicks the can down the road. But there's always a deadline for the end of that continuing resolution. You have to get to that can eventually, and you have to find a way to properly fund the government.
Well, Hannah, we've been hearing about government shutdowns a lot in headlines in recent years. How many times has the U.S. government actually shut down?
So, I quickly want to talk about the Antideficiency Act. Congress has amended and reinterpreted that act to basically result in a government shutdown, where agencies cannot operate without an appropriation. So the strictest interpretation of that act showed up in the 1980s. And that is when we started to see government shutdowns the way that we think of them today. So in the last five decades, we have had 21 government shutdowns. But we are facing yet another one.
When I look at the issues that have caused government shutdowns in the last decade, they seem to be over specific policies that have a pretty strong political leaning, like the border wall or the Affordable Care Act.
Yeah, that's exactly right. I think for a lot of people, government shutdowns seem fairly new—even newer than the 1980s, as I mentioned. I think that's in large part because they used to happen over relatively small line item concerns, and then the government would shut down for a fairly short period of time.
It wasn't until 1995, under Clinton and a massive Medicare fight, that a long and major shutdown occurred, of the kind that we think about today. And from there on out, shutdowns have tended to be about parties not getting what they want, especially from the executive branch and the president who is in power at the time. So 2013, a fight with Obama over the Affordable Care Act that resulted in no appropriations bill and a 16-day shutdown. The 2019 shutdown, that was 34 days long. And it really started with a fight with Donald Trump over a requested $5.7 billion to fund the border wall.
So what can be done to prevent a government shutdown to prevent Congress from reaching that point in the first place?
The starry eyed version of me says, everyone could just get along and realize that the responsibility of Congress is very important. But I feel like I can reasonably say that's just not going to happen.
There is currently a call for passing a rule that would essentially require automatic funding for the government at prior existing levels. So let's say we're facing 2024. There's no 12 appropriations bills. Let's just use last year's funding model for now until you guys can figure it out.
Some suggest that maybe if Congress can't pass the appropriations bills properly, they don't get paid either. There's currently an exception for Congress. If there is no exception for Congress, if their livelihood is on the line, it might change the way that they approach the budget process.
