The True Cost of U.S. Government Shutdowns and a Constitutional Solution
Government shutdowns inflict billions in economic losses, furlough hundreds of thousands of workers, and disrupt services nationwide. This article explores their full impact on the economy and workers—and proposes a constitutional amendment to prevent these costly standoffs.
Introduction
When the U.S. federal government shuts down due to a budget impasse, the consequences ripple through the economy and American livelihoods. From lost GDP output to unpaid federal employees and halted public services, shutdowns create “completely unnecessary damage”obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. In recent years, these impasses have grown longer and costlier, prompting calls for reforms to ensure the government remains funded. This article examines the full impact of U.S. government shutdowns on the economy and workers, detailing the losses incurred and the laws that govern such events. It then outlines a proposed constitutional amendment to protect workers and hold lawmakers accountable, so that budget deadlines can no longer be ignored.
Economic Impact of Government Shutdowns
Government shutdowns carry a steep economic price tag. Each funding lapse stalls federal spending, dampens consumer confidence, and interrupts private-sector activity. Below we break down the historical and recent shutdowns and their economic toll:
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1995–1996 Shutdowns (Total 27 Days): Two shutdowns in late 1995 and early 1996 (totaling 26 full days) cost the federal government over $1.4 billion at the timepewresearch.org – equivalent to about $2.1 billion in today’s dollarspewresearch.org. Most of that expense was back pay for furloughed federal workers who could not work, meaning taxpayers ultimately paid for output that “did not get on time”pewresearch.org. In other words, far from saving money, the shutdowns wasted over $1.4B in unproductive costs.
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2013 Shutdown (16 Days): The 2013 full government shutdown had wide-ranging impacts. Independent forecasters estimated it shaved 0.6% off fourth-quarter GDP growth (about $20–$24 billion in lost output)theguardian.comjec.senate.gov. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported $2–$6 billion in direct lost economic output from halted government spendingobamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Federal employees were furloughed for a combined 6.6 million work days – at its peak, ~850,000 workers were idled in a single dayobamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Paying those furloughed employees for unworked days cost the government $2.0 billion in lost productivityobamawhitehouse.archives.gov. The shutdown’s ripple effects led to an estimated 120,000 fewer private jobs created in October 2013obamawhitehouse.archives.govobamawhitehouse.archives.gov, as business confidence faltered. One ratings agency (S&P) pegged the total economic hit at $24 billion (roughly $1.5B per day) when factoring in lost spending and consumer confidencetheguardian.com. The National Park Service alone calculated over $500 million in lost visitor spending at national parks during those two weeksobamawhitehouse.archives.gov, affecting tourism businesses nationwide.
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2018–2019 Shutdown (35 Days): The longest shutdown in U.S. history occurred from December 2018 to January 2019. It was a partial shutdown (some agencies had funding), but still 800,000 federal employees were affectedtheguardian.com. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this 35-day lapse cost the U.S. economy about $11 billion in GDP in the following two quarterstheguardian.com. While much of that GDP loss was later recovered after government reopened, about $3 billion in economic activity was permanently lost (roughly 0.02% of annual GDP)theguardian.com. The shutdown slowed projected economic growth, leading analysts to trim annual growth forecasts by 0.2 percentage pointstheguardian.com. Beyond macroeconomic numbers, the shutdown delayed approximately $18 billion in federal spending on salaries and purchasestheguardian.com. This delay had real impacts: by January 2019, hundreds of thousands of families missed paychecks, consumer spending softened, and businesses couldn’t access federal approvals or loans. In short, the shutdown “hurt the U.S. economy,” as one S&P analyst summarizedtheguardian.com.
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Recent Trends: Shutdowns have become a recurring (and costly) part of U.S. budget showdowns. Since the modern budget process began in 1976, there have been 20 funding gaps and 10 shutdowns that actually furloughed workersusafacts.org. In just the past six years, three major shutdowns (2013, a brief 2018 lapse, and 2018–2019) cost taxpayers at least $4 billion in direct costs, including $3.7 billion in back pay for furloughed workers who couldn’t workgovexec.com. Those three shutdowns resulted in nearly 15 million combined furlough days, equivalent to 57,000 years of lost productivity across the federal workforcegovexec.com. These figures don’t even count the untold losses to private businesses and contractors that depend on federal operations.
Disrupted Services and Ripple Effects: Beyond the dollar figures, shutdowns undermine many services and economic activities:
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Federal Services Halted: During shutdowns, “non-essential” federal operations grind to a halt. In the 2018–2019 shutdown, agencies stopped conducting routine food safety inspections, halted civil immigration court hearings, and stopped processing small business loans. For example, the Food and Drug Administration suspended routine food inspections, raising health risksliccardo.house.gov. The Department of Justice postponed over 86,000 immigration hearings, worsening court backlogsliccardo.house.gov. The Small Business Administration couldn’t issue new loans, with an estimated $2 billion in SBA loans delayed during the 2018–2019 shutdownjec.senate.govjec.senate.gov. The IRS scaled back operations, delaying tax refunds and income verification services that lenders rely on, which disrupted mortgage and business lendingobamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
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Impact on Travel and Tourism: National parks and museums typically close or severely curtail operations, hitting tourism revenue. In 2013, the closure of parks was estimated to have led to over $500 million in lost visitor spending in local communitiesobamawhitehouse.archives.gov. Iconic destinations like National Parks, Smithsonian museums, and monuments see gates locked and visitor centers closeddoi.govdoi.gov. During the 2018–2019 shutdown, some parks attempted partial access, but most visitor services (trash collection, road maintenance, restrooms) were halted, leading to unsanitary conditions and safety issuesliccardo.house.govdoi.gov. Airlines and airports also felt the strain: air traffic controllers and TSA agents were required to work without pay, leading to staffing shortages. Notably, in January 2019, unpaid air traffic controllers shortages caused a temporary ground stop at a major airport (LaGuardia) due to safety concernsliccardo.house.gov.
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Consumer and Business Confidence: Shutdowns erode confidence in the government’s ability to function, which can dampen private economic activity. During the 2013 shutdown, consumer confidence indices fell sharplyjec.senate.gov, threatening the recovery from the Great Recession. Surveys in 2018–2019 similarly showed declines in consumer sentiment and business optimism as the impasse dragged on. The longer a shutdown lasts, the more these indirect effects grow: businesses delay investments and hiring because of uncertaintytheguardian.com. Even the U.S. credit rating has been scrutinized – in 2023, Fitch Ratings cited repeated governance standoffs (including shutdown threats) as a factor in downgrading U.S. sovereign creditjec.senate.gov.
In sum, government shutdowns inflict real economic pain. They reduce GDP growth, rack up unnecessary federal costs, and ripple out to private sector workers and communities. Next, we examine how shutdowns impact the people at the heart of government operations – the federal workforce and contractors – and why so many end up working without pay during these impasses.
Impact on Federal Workers and Contractors
Federal employees protest during the January 2019 shutdown, holding signs about missed paychecks. Hundreds of thousands of workers went without pay for weeks, leading to financial strain and public outcry. Federal shutdowns have a direct human impact on government employees and contractors. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers can be furloughed or asked to work without pay, and many contractor employees see their income halted with no guarantee of reimbursement. This section details who is affected and how:
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Furloughed vs. “Essential” Employees: In a shutdown, federal employees are split into two categories. “Non-essential” (non-excepted) employees are furloughed – forbidden from working and not paid during the shutdown. “Essential” (excepted) employees, whose roles are critical to public safety or other exempted functions, must continue working without payliccardo.house.gov. (Examples include military service members, law enforcement agents, air traffic controllers, and hospital staff at VA facilitiesusafacts.org.) These designations are determined by agency heads under the Antideficiency Act’s guidelines. The terminology officially used is “excepted” employees, but they are commonly called essential personnel. They still face pay delays: agencies legally owe them their salary once funding is restoredusafacts.org, but during the shutdown they receive paychecks of $0.
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Number of Workers Affected: The scale of unpaid labor is staggering. During the 2018–2019 shutdown, the federal government employed about 2 million civilian workers. Of those, approximately 380,000 employees were furloughed without working and another ~420,000 deemed essential worked without payliccardo.house.gov. In the 2013 shutdown (which affected most agencies), about 850,000 employees were furloughed on day oneobamawhitehouse.archives.gov until some Defense employees were later recalled. Even in shorter shutdowns, hundreds of thousands are impacted: e.g. a 3-day shutdown in January 2018 saw around 850,000 furloughed for at least one day (though that one was brief). These workers face personal financial stress – in 2019 many had to delay mortgage and bill payments, leading to late fees and damaged creditliccardo.house.gov. Some workers turned to food banks or emergency loans to make ends meet.
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Lost Wages and Back Pay: By law (and tradition), Congress eventually grants back pay to federal employees after a shutdown ends. Indeed, after the 2019 shutdown, a new statute – the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 – was passed to guarantee that all furloughed and unpaid working federal employees “shall be paid” retroactively as soon as appropriations resumeliccardo.house.gov. This ensures no permanent loss of salary for federal employees. However, the delayed wages still cause hardship. During the 35-day shutdown, the government withheld roughly $9 billion in pay (about $6B for essential workers and $3B for furloughed workers) that would normally have gone into employees’ pocketscbo.gov. Those are paychecks missed in real time, even if repaid later. Federal workers essentially involuntarily loan their labor to the government during shutdowns – an arrangement some scholars argue violates the Thirteenth Amendment’s ban on involuntary servitudeacslaw.org. Notably, groups of federal employees have filed lawsuits under the Fair Labor Standards Act seeking damages (such as overtime and penalty pay) for the government’s failure to pay on timeacslaw.org. This underscores how extraordinary it is that in modern America, people can be required by law to work for weeks without compensation.
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Contractors: Unseen and Unpaid: Perhaps even more harshly affected are the legions of federal contractors and their employees. Contractors provide services from cafeteria staffing and janitorial work to high-tech consulting. Unlike direct federal employees, contractor staff typically do not receive any back pay once a shutdown is overliccardo.house.gov. Their lost income is permanent. During the 2018–2019 shutdown, an estimated 4.1 million people worked under federal contractsliccardo.house.gov. Many of these workers – often lower-wage employees like security guards, maintenance crews, and support staff – were furloughed by their private employers when federal facilities closed or projects stopped. For them, every day of a shutdown is a lost day of pay that won’t be reimbursed. One union representing service contractors estimated that these workers lost up to 15% of their annual income during the 35-day shutdownnextgov.com. Small contracting firms can be hit hard as well. For example, during the 2019 shutdown, a North Carolina company employing disabled workers to fulfill federal food aid contracts had to warn employees it could only pay them through mid-February without federal paymentswashingtonpost.com. Almost 10,000 companies with federal contracts were impacted by that shutdown; an analysis found about $200 million per week of contractor payments at risk while agencies remained unfundedwashingtonpost.com. Unlike federal agencies that eventually get funding, many contractors never recoup these losses, and some small businesses never recover.
In short, government shutdowns directly harm those who serve the public. Federal employees face stress, uncertainty, and logistical nightmares (some even pawned belongings or took out emergency loans during the 2019 impasse). Contractors and their workers often bear an even heavier burden, as their income “is gone” with no legislative rescuetheguardian.comtheguardian.com. This human toll is a key motivator behind proposals to reform how shutdowns are handled – including ensuring workers are compensated for the hardship and preventing shutdowns from happening in the first place.
Why Do Shutdowns Happen? Laws and Essential Personnel
Understanding why shutdowns occur requires a look at the laws and budget rules that govern federal funding. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress must appropriate funds for federal agencies each fiscal year. If lawmakers fail to enact appropriation bills (or a stopgap continuing resolution) by the start of the new fiscal year (October 1), the government legally lacks spending authority, triggering a shutdown of unfunded activitiesliccardo.house.gov. The key legal constraints and procedures include:
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The Antideficiency Act: This 19th-century law (codified at 31 U.S.C. §1341 et seq.) prohibits federal officials from obligating funds or incurring expenses in excess or absence of an appropriation. In plain terms, it’s illegal for agencies to spend money without an approved budget. A 1980 legal opinion by Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti clarified that during a funding gap, agencies must cease operations except for those relating to “the safety of human life or the protection of property” or otherwise authorized by law. This opinion established the modern practice of government shutdown furloughs. As a result, when funding lapses, agencies execute shutdown contingency plans: non-excepted employees get furlough notices, and only excepted functions continue.
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“Essential” (Excepted) Personnel Rules: Each agency designates which employees are “excepted” from the shutdown because their work is allowed to continue. Broadly, roles related to national security, public safety, or other critical operations are exceptedusafacts.org. This includes military personnel, law enforcement and correctional officers, emergency medical personnel at federal hospitals, air traffic control, border protection, power grid maintenance, etc. Also, certain activities funded by fees or multi-year appropriations (or classified as mandatory spending, like Social Security checks) can continue, and those employees are “exempt” from furlough. All other activities deemed non-essential (from regulatory administration to parks and museums) are halted. It’s worth noting that “essential” vs “non-essential” is about funding, not the intrinsic value of workers’ contributions – the terminology switch to “excepted” aimed to reflect that. Agencies periodically update their shutdown plans and workforce designations based on guidance from OMB and the Office of Personnel Management.
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How Many Work Without Pay: The number of employees forced to work unpaid varies by shutdown, depending on which agencies lack funding. In a full shutdown (like 2013), most agencies are hit; in partial shutdowns (like 2018–19), some departments were already funded. As mentioned, in 2018–19 about 420,000 excepted employees (essential personnel) worked without pay at peakliccardo.house.gov, while ~380,000 were furloughed. In 2023, as another shutdown loomed, the Department of Homeland Security estimated over 220,000 of its law enforcement and security staff would have to stay on the job unpaid. These employees accrue pay which they receive later, but in the interim they must report to work or be considered AWOL (absent without leave) – a fireable offensewtop.com. This places workers in an agonizing position: obey the call to work for free or potentially lose your job.
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Federal Employee Protections: As noted, Congress has always retroactively paid federal workers. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 now guarantees that after any shutdown, all furloughed and excepted employees receive back pay as soon as possibleliccardo.house.gov. This law ensures no federal worker loses their base salary permanently due to a shutdown. However, it doesn’t cover other financial harms – e.g. late fees on bills, credit score hits, or emotional stress. Nor does it address contractor employees, who still depend on separate action (Congress sometimes passes one-time relief for certain contractors, but it’s not guaranteed).
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Congress and Its Own Pay: Interestingly, members of Congress and the President continue to receive their salaries during shutdowns if their funding has been appropriated (legislative branch and executive salaries are often funded by prior legislation). Politically, many choose to forego or donate pay during a shutdown as a gesture. There have been proposals for “No Budget, No Pay” – to withhold Congressional pay during shutdowns – but those efforts raised concerns under the 27th Amendment (which bars varying Congress’s pay mid-term)en.wikipedia.org. In practice, a lapse in appropriations doesn’t automatically stop Congressional pay unless a specific law is passed.
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Budget Deadlines and Stopgaps: The federal budget process is supposed to follow an annual timetable (with budget resolutions, then appropriations bills by September 30). In reality, Congress often misses these deadlines. To avoid shutdowns, they pass short-term continuing resolutions (CRs) that extend existing funding for weeks or months. Every shutdown since 1990 has ended when Congress finally agreed on a CR or budget dealusafacts.org. This pattern shows that shutdowns are a self-inflicted crisis that get resolved by doing what was needed all along – passing temporary funding. The existence of CRs as a safety valve sometimes encourages brinksmanship: lawmakers push negotiations to the 11th hour or beyond, knowing a last-minute CR could retroactively fix the lapse. However, as seen repeatedly, miscalculations in this game of chicken lead to shutdowns when consensus fails.
In summary, shutdowns happen because our laws require agencies to stop when money runs out, and our political system sometimes fails to fund the government in time. Essential services continue on the backs of unpaid workers due to statutory exceptions for safety and life protection. This legal framework keeps critical functions running but at great personal cost to employees. The next section proposes a structural solution: a constitutional amendment that would change the incentives and rules, so that shutdowns can be prevented and workers protected.
A Constitutional Amendment to Prevent Shutdowns
It has become clear that piecemeal fixes and after-the-fact back pay laws are not enough. To truly end the threat of government shutdowns and shield workers from being used as pawns, more binding measures are needed. Here we propose a draft U.S. constitutional amendment with several key provisions designed to ensure budgets are passed on time, workers are treated fairly, and elected officials are held accountable for budget failures.
Draft Amendment – “Budget Accountability and Protection Amendment”:
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Guarantee of Compensation and Hardship Pay for Federal Workers: All federal employees required to work during a funding lapse shall be guaranteed full back pay plus a time-scaled hardship bonus. In practice, this means any “essential” personnel who must work without timely pay would receive, once funding is restored, their normal pay with an additional compensation that increases with the duration of the shutdown. This bonus could be structured as a percentage of salary or a flat rate per day of delayed pay, recognizing the growing burden the longer workers go unpaid. The constitutional provision would enshrine the right to this compensation, ensuring that never again will federal employees be forced to shoulder interest-free loans of their labor to the government. (This idea builds on the concept behind lawsuits seeking FLSA penalties for delayed wagesacslaw.org, effectively writing into the Constitution that workers must be made whole for not just lost time but also the hardship endured.)
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Strict Penalties for the President and Congress for Failing to Fund the Government: If Congress and the President fail to enact appropriations by the start of the fiscal year, automatic penalties take effect for those officials. Such penalties could include the suspension of Congressional salaries and the President’s salary during the funding lapse (with no retroactive pay for that period), a prohibition on using official travel funds, and other measures to create personal consequences. Since a constitutional amendment is superior to the 27th Amendment, it can explicitly allow altering lawmakers’ pay in this scenarioen.wikipedia.org. The amendment could also state that members of Congress are ineligible for reelection if they deliberately cause repeated shutdowns – a strong deterrent to using shutdowns as a negotiating tactic. The goal is to shift the burden of a shutdown’s pain onto the lawmakers responsible, rather than the workforce and public. For example, a clause might read: “Failure to timely pass a budget shall be considered a breach of oath, and Senators and Representatives shall not receive any compensation or emoluments during such failure.” With real skin in the game, elected leaders would have much stronger incentive to compromise before hitting a deadlock.
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Budget Passage Takes Precedence Over Other Business: As the fiscal deadline nears (for example, within 30 days of year-end), Congress must prioritize budget legislation over all other matters. In practical terms, this could bar either chamber from adjourning or taking up unrelated bills until appropriations are passed. The amendment could require that no recess is permitted in the month leading up to the deadline, and that floor time be dedicated to budget debate and votes to the exclusion of extraneous topics. This provision ensures that Congress cannot ignore the ticking clock. It elevates funding the government to the top of the agenda. Many state legislatures have similar rules that they cannot end their session without passing a budget. The amendment would create a constitutional obligation that budget bills get fast-tracked and cannot be delayed by less urgent legislative fights as the deadline approaches.
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Annual Budget Deadline and Automatic Enforcement: The amendment would establish a clear annual deadline for Congress to pass all appropriation bills – for instance, August 1 (two months before the fiscal year start) – to provide a buffer for negotiations. If this deadline is missed, a series of escalating enforcement mechanisms kick in. For one, automatic continuing funding at current levels could be triggered on a short-term basis to prevent any funding gap (essentially an automatic continuing resolution)congress.gov. This ensures the government doesn’t shut down even if the deadline passes – effectively removing the shutdown weapon from the table. Additionally, missing the deadline could activate the penalties on lawmakers described above, even before a shutdown occurs, to spur action. The “clear timeframe” gives all parties fair warning and transparency. By writing the date into the Constitution, it would be impossible to ignore without consequence. The President would also be obliged to submit budget proposals on time and work in good faith with Congress to meet the schedule. This timeframe provision, combined with the prioritization clause, creates a duty to govern that transcends partisan stalemates.
Together, these measures form a comprehensive approach: protect workers, punish negligence, prioritize the budget, and enforce timeliness. Unlike ordinary laws, a constitutional amendment cannot be easily waived or repealed when politically inconvenient. It would permanently reshape incentives. For instance, if lawmakers knew their paychecks and political careers were on the line, and that a funding lapse wouldn’t pressure workers (since they’d be paid with bonuses regardless), there would be far fewer motives to let a shutdown happen. The amendment essentially says: do your jobs and pass a budget – or face the consequences, and don’t hurt public servants in the process.
Of course, passing a constitutional amendment is no small feat. It requires two-thirds of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Yet, as public frustration with government dysfunction grows, a bold solution like this may gain traction. The costs of the status quo – billions squandered, workers used as leverage, vital services disrupted – are simply too high to continue tolerating.
Conclusion
U.S. government shutdowns have evolved from rare curiosities to almost routine crises in the past few decades. Each episode carries a tangible price: lost economic output, unnecessary federal expenditures, halted paychecks, and a shaken public trust. The data from recent shutdowns underscore that this is a lose-lose scenario for everyone. The economy loses billions, federal workers and contractors suffer personal hardships, and citizens lose access to services they’ve already paid for through taxes. It is a self-inflicted wound that a modern nation should be able to avoid.
By examining the full impact of shutdowns, we see clearly that reforms are needed. Current laws do provide a framework (e.g. forcing critical operations to continue, guaranteeing back pay for employees), but they don’t prevent the harm – they merely mitigate it after the fact. The proposed constitutional amendment outlined here directly addresses the root causes and incentives. By guaranteeing compensation and bonuses to those who bear the brunt of a shutdown, it removes the leverage of using workers as hostages. By penalizing lawmakers and prioritizing the budget, it ensures that elected officials put the basic function of funding government first, ahead of partisan games.
Ultimately, the amendment’s message is that keeping the government open and functional is a constitutional duty, not a political bargaining chip. Enshrining such principles in the Constitution would uphold the promise that no American should be asked to work without pay and that Congress must not abdicate its most fundamental responsibility: the power of the purse. The economic stakes and the moral stakes demand no less.
It’s time to end the shutdown wars once and for all – and ensure stability for the economy, security for federal workers, and continuity of services for the nation.
References
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Dominic Rushe, The Guardian – “Government shutdown cost US economy $11bn,” Jan 2019. Congressional Budget Office analysis of the 35-day shutdown’s cost (–$11 billion GDP, $3 billion unrecovered) and impact on ~800,000 workerstheguardian.comtheguardian.com.
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Joint Economic Committee (Democrats) – “The Economic Costs of a Republican Shutdown,” Sept 2023. Summary of past shutdown impacts: 2018–19 shutdown reduced output by $11B (CBO) with $3B permanently lost; 2013 shutdown reduced GDP by ~$20B (Moody’s)jec.senate.govjec.senate.gov. Notes consumer confidence fell in 2013jec.senate.gov and mentions 2013 lost work-hour cost ~$2Bjec.senate.gov.
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White House OMB Report – “Impacts and Costs of the October 2013 Federal Government Shutdown,” Nov 2013. Detailed official accounting of the 16-day shutdown: 6.6 million furlough days (peak 850k employees/day)obamawhitehouse.archives.gov; $2.0 billion in pay to furloughed employees for unworked daysobamawhitehouse.archives.gov; estimated 0.2–0.6% GDP reduction in Q4 2013 (~$2–$6B output lost)obamawhitehouse.archives.gov; 120,000 fewer jobs created that month (CEA estimate)obamawhitehouse.archives.govobamawhitehouse.archives.gov; and numerous programmatic impacts (e.g. halted permits, delayed loans, $500M lost park tourism)obamawhitehouse.archives.govobamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
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Pew Research Center – “How much might a government shutdown cost? Plenty, history says,” Oct 2013. Cites a 1996 OMB letter that the 1995–96 shutdowns cost over $1.4 billion (about $2.1B in 2013 dollars)pewresearch.org, mostly in back pay for furloughed federal workerspewresearch.org.
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Eric Katz, Government Executive – “Agencies Paid Federal Employees $3.7 Billion Not to Work During Recent Shutdowns,” Sept 2019. Reports that the last 3 shutdowns (2013, 2018, 2018–19) wasted $4 billion including $3.7B in back pay to furloughed workersgovexec.com. Over 52 days of combined shutdown, federal workers spent 15 million work days idle (≈57k years productivity lost)govexec.com. In 2013, ~850k employees were furloughed; in 2018–19, ~350k furloughed (partial shutdown)govexec.com.
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Rep. Sam Liccardo (House.gov) – “Government Shutdown FAQs.” Provides recent data on federal workforce impacts: During 2018–2019 shutdown, 380,000 employees furloughed and 420,000 worked without payliccardo.house.gov; in 2013, ~850,000 furloughedliccardo.house.gov. Confirms 4.1 million contractor employees were tied to affected agencies in 2019 (most without back pay)liccardo.house.gov. Also details service impacts (e.g. FDA inspections suspended, 86k immigration hearings canceled, national parks closed)liccardo.house.govliccardo.house.gov. Notes the 2019 Fair Treatment Act guaranteeing back pay for federal employeesliccardo.house.gov.
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USAFacts – “Everything you need to know about a government shutdown.” Explains shutdown basics with sources: Since 1976, 20 funding gaps led to 10 shutdownsusafacts.org. Defines essential vs. non-essential and “excepted” employees; e.g. military, law enforcement, etc. continue workingusafacts.org. Clarifies excepted employees must be compensated once funding resumesusafacts.org. Also notes every shutdown since 1990 ended with a continuing resolutionusafacts.org.
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Washington Post – Ted Mellnik & Aaron Gregg, “Nearly 10,000 companies contract with shutdown-affected agencies, putting $200 million a week at risk,” Jan 16, 2019. Analysis of contractor impact in 2018–19 shutdown: about 9,000–10,000 companies with contracts were affected, representing $200 million per week in unpaid contract valuewashingtonpost.com. Features an example of a NC company (TVS) that could only pay workers through mid-Feb due to the funding stopwashingtonpost.com. Emphasizes that federal contractors and their employees were “overlooked” since they don’t get back paywashingtonpost.com.
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Dominic Rushe, The Guardian – “Government shutdown has cost US economy $1.5bn a day, S&P says,” Oct 2013. During the 16-day 2013 shutdown, Standard & Poor’s estimated a $24 billion loss to the economy (around $1.5B per day, shaving 0.6% off quarterly GDP)theguardian.com. Underscores how the 2013 budget/debt standoff hurt holiday consumer confidence and “humbugged” the economytheguardian.com.
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Ruben Garcia, ACS Law – “The Federal Government Shutdown is a Thirteenth Amendment Problem,” Jan 2019. Legal commentary highlighting that forcing federal employees to work without pay could be seen as “involuntary servitude” under the 13th Amendmentacslaw.org. Notes that workers’ lawsuits sought injunctions for pay (denied by courts) and suggests a constitutional perspective that such labor without pay is fundamentally unjustacslaw.orgacslaw.org. This context supports the case for an amendment ensuring compensation and preventing exploitation of workers during shutdowns.
