Once again, Washington is caught up in a government shutdown melodrama. 

Once or twice a year, the government approaches its funding limit, meaning that it will run out of taxpayer money to pay for federal services. 

One side blames the other. Meanwhile, the rest of America is just watching the drama unfold on our nightly news programs, wondering when our policymakers will act responsibly with our tax dollars and why they allow this to happen every time.

What’s Happening

On Friday, March 14, 2025, the federal government will have exhausted the funds appropriated. 

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a bill last Friday to continue funding operations of the federal government through the end of this fiscal year (September 30). This is called a continuing resolution (CR).

Ideally, Congress should pass a federal budget each year, but that has not happened in years. Instead, Congress is in the habit of passing short-term (six months or longer) extensions of funding levels, especially to get through sticky periods such as elections. 

Sometimes, other issues or bills get attached to a CR that should—but would not—ordinarily be voted on as standalone legislation. This is a tactic to force members to take tough votes on controversial issues or a strategy to sink the CR because the CR would not get passed with that “poison pill.” The CR introduced by Republicans has no poison pills or riders; it’s considered a “clean” CR.

Here are the toplines from the proposed CR:

  • Fully funds core government services without increasing spending.
  • Increases defense investments, including the largest pay raise for junior enlisted troops in over 40 years.
  • Reduces $7 billion from fiscal 2024 levels ($13 billion in non-defense discretionary spending cuts to offset $6 billion in defense spending).
  • Increases funding for air traffic control priorities over FY24.
  • $500M increase for the program that provides important nutrition assistance to mothers, infants, and children (WIC) as requested by the Trump administration, for a total of $7.6B.
  • Safeguards legislation from any poison pills, ensuring a clean CR.

Mandatory spending programs (i.e., Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) are not affected or included in the CR. They are the largest costs for the government. Nor does the CR affect the cost of interest payments on the federal government’s $36 trillion debt.

State of Play

Congress has until midnight on Friday to pass this CR and avert a government shutdown. A simple majority is needed to pass it in the House, but the legislation will require 60 votes in the Senate. 

Republicans have a very slim one- or two-vote majority in the House and a wider margin in the Senate, but they will still need a few House and Senate Democrats to get it passed.

Democrats are strongly opposed to this CR despite it being crafted with bipartisan support. Democratic House leadership grandstanded with lies about the bill:

Republicans have decided to introduce a partisan continuing resolution that threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the current fiscal year.

They claim that they would “enthusiastically support a bill that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans health and Medicaid,” but that “Medicaid is our redline.”

This is disingenuous; Medicaid is not touched by the CR. Medicaid is a mandatory spending program. The continuing resolution affects discretionary spending only.

They are using the threat of a government shutdown to halt DOGE efforts to cut waste, fraud, and abuse out of the federal government, including in Medicaid.

DOGE’s work is important, but so are the other priorities that Congress needs to get to, namely, the tax cuts. If Congress does not approve an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, average Americans will be hit with a 22% tax hike starting next year.

Learn more about the tax cuts at iwf.org/tax-cuts.

So not only is the Left directly opposing government efficiency and responsibility, but they could make life much more unaffordable for American workers, households, and small businesses.

What Happens if the Government Shuts Down 

The media always hypes government shutdowns as doom for Americans. Yes, many federal workers would be furloughed, but by federal law, they must get back pay once funding is approved. Federal contractors who are forced to stop working are not guaranteed back pay, though.

Benefits and mail will continue to flow to households:

  • Social Security retirement and disability benefits will continue.
  • Medicare and Medicaid programs and payments will continue.
  • Military veterans’ benefits and medical care will continue.
  • Food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other nutrition programs will continue.
  • United States Postal Service (USPS) mail delivery will continue.

Public safety and national security will continue largely undisrupted:

  • FBI, drug enforcement, Secret Service, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, immigration enforcement agents, prison staffers, and other federal law enforcement agencies remain on the job.
  • 2 million U.S. military personnel would remain at their posts.
  • The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration would continue maintaining nuclear weapons.
  • Airport security screeners and air-traffic-control workers would be required to work.
  • Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, could operate for several weeks without congressional funding.
  • Criminal prosecutions would continue. Most civil litigation would be postponed.

Americans may feel disruptions to secondary services, such as national parks, from a government shutdown. Overall, they won’t be as crippling to daily life as the media would have us believe.

Bottom Line

Leftist policymakers are protesting a generational downsizing of the federal government through DOGE. This fight will play out in every possible federal legislative push. This continuing resolution is just the first battle of many to come this year and beyond. 

Conservatives can honor the trust of the American public by stewarding our national finances and governing well. The electorate handed Republicans all three branches of the federal government; now they must deliver.