Who Will Be Affected by a Federal Government Shutdown

Democrats and Republicans are having trouble finding common ground to pass a budget and prevent a government shutdown that could affect various areas of the federal government and the people who depend on them. If a bill is not passed before the April 8 deadline, the country could experience the first shutdown since 1995-1996.

If a shutdown occurs, no one can say for sure which areas of the federal government will be shutdown or affected. In fact, the actual shutdown plan is kept secret. While the U.S. Constitution requires that an agency is properly appropriated funds by Congress, some government agencies would be deemed essential and would continue to operate without passage of a bill. For example, agencies providing services involving our national security would not be completely halted, jeopardizing the safety of Americans. Predicting which agencies would be shutdown is impossible, but the last shutdown in 1995-1996 can provide some insight.

The shutdown we experienced 15 years ago lasted 21 days and affected over 800,000 federal employees. Three agencies among the many affected by the shutdown, and affecting many Americans, were Medicare, Social Security, and the National Parks Service. The shutdown which could occur on April 8 will certainly affect different agencies and people than the last shutdown, but the three aforementioned areas of the federal government would likely be hampered at some level.

Medicare

A program like Medicare involves a variety of services, many of which would be considered essential to the public. For example, a federal government shutdown would not prevent Medicare recipients from receiving health care. During the last shutdown, Medicare even continued to pay physicians and hospitals. However, due to some of the staff being furloughed, there were about 400,000 new Medicare applicants who were delayed.

With a government shutdown potentially around the corner, a program covering such a large population is bound to draw attention. Not to mention the program costs almost $700 billion per year, making up almost a quarter of federal spending and covering about 43 million people, 7 million being under-65 disabled people. Additionally, almost half of those covered by Medicare are considered from low-income households. Therefore, a large number of Americans would be impacted if portions of Medicare were shut down, and a large number of them would be unlikely to have the resources to cover their own medical care if there were some hold up.

Fortunately, Medicare recipients were largely unaffected during the last federal government shutdown, and would likely be unaffected if the government shuts down on April 8. However, if there is some effect, even a relatively small one, it would be drastic considering the breadth of the program and circumstances of those relying on it.

Social Security

Those relying on Social Security checks most likely won't have to worry. During the last federal government shutdown, the Social Security Administration still distributed checks, even when additional workers were brought back to keep processing the checks.

However, similar to the last shutdown, it's likely that new applications would not be processed or accepted. If the shutdown lasted only a day or two, the effect would be minimal in the long-run. However, if the shutdown dragged on, hundreds of thousands could feel the effect. The last shutdown saw 112,000 new applications go unprocessed, 212,000 new or replacement Social Security cards not issued, and 800,000 calls for information go unanswered.

National Parks Service

Not only are the National Parks a destination for Americans all over the country, they are also a source of revenue for the federal government and the surrounding communities. The last shut down saw the closure of 368 National Park Service sites, which led to a loss of 7 million visitors. The closure of national museums and monuments led to the loss of an additional 2 million visitors. Unfortunately, the "non-essential" nature of these destinations means that they would almost certainly be shut down to some extent.

Besides the potential millions who would be unable to visit, there's also a substantial potential loss of revenue for surrounding communities. During the last shutdown, Sen. John McCain spoke to Congress about the lost revenue around the Grand Canyon. Citing a report, he indicated that $14.2 million in tourism revenue was lost each day. That's just one day at one National Park. If a shutdown lingers on for multiple days, or weeks, the lost tourism revenue across the county would be considerable.