Here's What to Know About the Federal Government Shutdown

After Republican and Democratic leaders failed to reach consensus on the nation's budget, the federal government shut down at 12:01am on Wednesday. 

Congress on Tuesday failed to pass a Democratic-backed spending bill that would have extended health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and reversed cuts to Medicaid, as well as the GOP-backed stopgap funding measure that would have funded the government for seven weeks.

"Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government," House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said on social media, following the Senate vote.

Congressional Democrats blamed the president and Republicans for not caring about the health of Americans. 

"Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan pat forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis," a statement from Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries read. 

The Brooklyn Democrats also said the president's behavior "has become more erratic and unhinged."

"Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos," the statement continued, referring to Trump's Monday social media post of an apparent AI-created video of Schumer speaking in a fake voice noting how Black and Hispanic voters hate the Democrats and immigrants don't speak English. The video also shows Jeffries standing next to him with a sombrero and a mustache.

This is the 21st shutdown since the 1977 fiscal year, and the last shutdown lasted 28 days under President Donald Trump's first term in December 2018. When the government reopened in January 2019, about $3 billion in U.S. economic activity evaporated, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Many federal workers will not be paid during a shutdown. Employees who are considered essential must still report to work, although they will not be paid until the government reopens. Furloughed and essential employees will receive back pay after a shutdown ends.

There are more than 116,000 federal civilian employees working in the state of New York in 2024, according to the state Comptroller's Office. There are close to 46,000 federal employees in New York City, of which over 7,700 are Brooklyn residents. 

Here's what will and will not be affected:

• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will continue during a shutdown, according to the Department of Agriculture's contingency plans.
• Social Security checks will go out as normal.
• Air traffic control services will continue, but air traffic controllers will be required to work through a shutdown without pay.
• The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, said that it expects more than 32,000 of its nearly 80,000 workers to be furloughed during the shutdown.
• The Department of Education will continue to disburse student aid through Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans, but most of the DOE staff will be furloughed. 
• The military will function as normal, although many current personnel and civilian workers will be asked to work withouth pay. The Department of Veterans Affairs said it expects 97% of its employees to work, though regional offices will be closed. Some death benefits, such as the placement of permanent headstones at VA cemeteries, and ground maintenance, will cease. VA hotlines, emails, social media and responses to press inquiries will stop.