by Craig Brightup, The Brightup Group —
On Sept. 18, House Republicans passed a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded at Fiscal Year 2025 levels from Sept. 30 – Nov. 21 in order to finish the 12 separate appropriations bills for FY26. On Sept. 19, the CR failed to get the votes needed in the Senate and a competing Democrat bill with some $1.5 trillion in additional spending also failed. Consequently, a federal government shutdown occurred at midnight on Sept. 30, the end of FY25, and will go on until enough Senate Democrats join Republicans to vote for the House CR.
The Senate needs 60 votes to approve any legislation other than reconciliation bills, and Senate Democrats are withholding their support, arguing this bill should include an extension of more generous expiring health care tax credits from the Biden-era and reversing changes to Medicaid from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
Senate Democrats’ bill would also restore funds for programs repealed by the OBBBA like NPR and “green” energy programs. In addition, their bill contains language that would limit the President’s ability to use recissions to cut federal programs. However, during a shutdown, the administration has latitude to decide which programs and services to close.
Shutdowns affect non-essential discretionary government programs and services which in the past have led to the closures of national parks and museums, the suspension of health inspections, the postponement of immigration hearings, and many other impacts. Essential services that continue include those related to national security, law enforcement, air traffic control, and inmate control. Mandatory spending such as entitlement programs continue, too.
Thus, President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced programs that will continue which include Social Security, Medicare, military operations, veteran benefits, border security, and air-traffic control. But furloughed federal employees who routinely return to their jobs with back pay when shutdowns end may not be doing so for this one.
OMB Director Russ Vought added a new twist to shutdowns when he issued a Sept. 24 memo ordering federal agencies to identify all discretionary funded programs not aligning with the President’s priorities. Employees who administer such programs won’t be furloughed but rather fired, which means when the shutdown ends there will be fewer employees at programs the Administration wants to cut or eliminate.
However, Vought’s memo should spare trade programs which are Administration priorities. Customs and Border Protection is deemed essential as it’s considered to be law enforcement, and trade processing at ports of entry should continue normally. But import-related services like tariff-exclusion request processing and antidumping duty and countervailing duty investigations might be slowed or suspended.
