A government shutdown occurs when federal employees and institutions go out of business without pay due to a lack of agreement on how to pay for services in the federal budget. The US government has had five shutdowns, with the most serious occurring in 1995-1996, affecting essential services and leading to the layoffs of over 800,000 federal employees. Shutdowns create a burden on the government budget and can result in a loss of revenue. The US Congress makes budgetary decisions through the Government Accountability Office, and as the national debt rises, the incidence of shutdowns is likely to increase.
A government shutdown is a process in which federal employees and institutions must go out of business without pay for an indefinite period of time due to a lack of agreement by congressional representatives on how to pay for these services in the federal budget. The US government offers the most egregious example of government shutdown procedures, where it has recorded five such arrests since 2011, all of which occurred in the late 20th century. US government spending is allocated on a fiscal year basis like many corporate budgets, and the budget must be approved for the following year by the Sept. 20 deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
Three of the government shutdown incidents that have occurred in US history have been of a rather minor nature. Those that took place in 1981 and 1984 lasted less than a day each, although they effectively laid off 400,000 to 500,000 federal employees each time. The shutdown that occurred in 1990 lasted slightly longer, as it took place during a three-day federal holiday on the Columbus Day weekend, but most federal workers took time off and are not directly affected by the process.
The two most serious government shutdowns in US history as of 2011 occurred between 1995 and 1996. A political impasse related to fiscal policy between a Democrat-controlled White House and a Republican-controlled Congress at the time about how to fund Medicare spending and public services like education and health care led to the closures. The government initially ceased operations of various departments on November 14, 1995, and this continued to escalate into April 1996. The process led to the widespread suspension of many essential government services, such as delays for pensioners and people with health care needs requiring Social Security pay and Medicare funding, suspension of toxic waste site remediation, and disruption of services to US veterans. It is US government policy, however, to maintain core services such as military and air traffic control services during shutdowns, even though these employees may not be paid during the time period.
Shutdowns create a greater burden on the government budget due to the fact that furloughed employees are paid for the time they have been absent, even though they have not performed any work during this time. It can also result in a loss of government revenue, as federal revenue-generating facilities such as the National Parks Service are temporarily closed. However, a government shutdown does not necessarily affect all federal branches at once, and in the United States, the decision as to which services need to be closed first rests with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The US Congress makes its budgetary decisions for tax levels and how to manage public debt through reports made by the General Accounting Office (GAO) established in 1921 and recently renamed the Government Accountability Office (GAO). As the US national debt rises, the incidence of government shutdowns is likely to increase, with one case narrowly avoided by a last-minute budget deal in the US Congress in March 2011. in this case it was March due to the fact that temporary spending laws had been passed since the previous September to keep the government running while a long-term budget deal was worked out. Arrests also tend to affect increasing numbers of individuals the longer they continue. The 1995 US incident ultimately led to the layoffs of more than 800,000 federal employees and untold numbers of independent contractors who work for the federal government but are not officially counted in those statistics.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
