Which government functions are unaffected?
Military operations, air traffic control, medical care of veterans and federal criminal investigations are among the essential activities that go on. US troops continue to work, and Trump directed the Defense Department to ensure they are paid with $US8 billion in reallocated “research development” funds. The manoeuvre has raised legal questions and lawmakers say there is not enough money to cover future paychecks.
Air traffic controllers, on the other hand, are working without pay. Shutdowns often coincide with higher levels of air traffic controllers calling in sick, and staffing issues have led to delays and cancellations at airports during the current government closure. In the 2019 shutdown, air traffic controllers threatened to walk off the job after a month of uncompensated work – a development that hastened the end of the shutdown.
The US Postal Service and the Federal Reserve have their own funding streams, so they are largely unaffected.
What happens to federal contracts?
Private companies that rely on federal contract work – ranging from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to janitorial service providers for local federal buildings – typically face lost revenue. Service contract employees historically have been furloughed during shutdowns and haven’t received back pay when the government resumes operations.
What happens to government checks?
Entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare are considered mandatory spending, meaning they don’t need annual appropriations to continue distributing money.
That doesn’t mean such programs are unaffected. During a 1996 shutdown, even as Social Security checks continued to go out, “staff who handled new enrollments and other services, such as changing addresses or handling requests for new Social Security cards, were initially furloughed”, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And during the 2018-2019 shutdown, the Department of Agriculture had to rely on a special authority included in the previous continuing resolution to continue issuing food stamps.
The Trump administration told a federal judge on Nov 3 that it will comply with a court order to fund US food aid benefits for November during the government shutdown, but only at 50 per cent of the amount that eligible households normally receive.
Source: CNA
