Some background
If the U.S. Congress does not pass the 2024 budget (the 2024 appropriations bill actually) before the start of the 2024 fiscal year, then money cannot be drawn from the Unites States Treasury. Doing so would violate the U.S. Constitution.
Money can still be drawn from the treasuries of state and local government.
This isn't the first time this has happened. Wikipedia has the details:
- Click here for the entry.
In the United States, government shutdowns occur when funding legislation required to finance the federal government is not enacted before the next fiscal year begins. In a shutdown, the federal government curtails agency activities and services, ceases non-essential operations, furloughs non-essential workers, and retains only essential employees in departments that protect human life or property. Shutdowns can also disrupt state, territorial, and local levels of government.
Funding gaps began to lead to shutdowns in 1980, when Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti issued a legal opinion requiring it. This opinion was not consistently adhered to through the 1980s, but since 1990 all funding gaps lasting longer than a few hours have led to a shutdown. As of September 2023, ten funding shutdowns have led to federal employees being furloughed.
The most significant shutdowns have included the 21-day shutdown of 1995–1996, during the Bill Clinton administration, over opposition to major spending cuts; the 16-day shutdown in 2013, during the Barack Obama administration, caused by a dispute over implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); and the longest, the 35-day shutdown of 2018–2019, during the Donald Trump administration, caused by a dispute over funding an expansion of barriers on the U.S.–Mexico border.
Shutdowns disrupt government services and programs; they close national parks and institutions. They reduce government revenue because fees are lost while at least some furloughed employees receive back pay. They reduce economic growth. During the 2013 shutdown, Standard & Poor's, the financial ratings agency, said on October 16 that the shutdown had "to date taken $24 billion out of the economy", and "shaved at least 0.6 percent off annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth".
Previous shutdowns:
- 1981
- 1984
- 1986
- 1990
- 1995–1996
- 2013
- January 2018
- December 2018–January 2019
How will this impact Texas?
- How the looming government shutdown will affect Texans.
