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The federal government shut down at midnight Wednesday morning.
Shutdowns happen when Congress fails to meet its deadline to fund federal agencies. The majority-holding Republicans in the Senate were unable to meet the threshold needed to advance a House funding proposal because Senate Democrats insisted that any funding bill extend the expiring tax credits that make health insurance through Obamacare more affordable, a move most Republican lawmakers oppose extending.
Here’s a guide to what a shutdown could mean for Massachusetts and New England.
What won’t shut down
Mail carriers will keep delivering packages, TSA agents will keep screening travelers, troops will remain at their posts, and other services government agencies deem essential will go on uninterrupted — although the workers who perform them won’t get paid until the shutdown ends.
Other federal programs — like Social Security, Medicare, and veterans’ health benefits — will also continue. But they could become harder for Americans to access if the workers who answer phones, issue Medicare cards, or provide career counseling for veterans are furloughed.
What will
Still, it’s called a shutdown for a reason. Agency functions that will cease include:
- The Environmental Protection Agency will stop inspecting drinking water and cleaning up contaminated sites;
- The Food and Drug Administration will stop inspecting most farms and other facilities;
- The Small Business Administration, which provides about half a billion dollars to Massachusetts companies annually, will stop processing new loan applications;
- The National Institutes of Health will delay scientific research, further straining a Massachusetts industry already hurt by President Trump’s funding cuts.
What might
Some federal programs that will initially stay open could close if the shutdown lasts a while. Food stamps and Head Start, an education program for low-income children, could run out of money. So could WIC, a $7 billion food-voucher program for low-income mothers and young children that serves about 126,000 Massachusetts residents. If the shutdown lasts past Friday, it could delay the release of federal data on how many jobs the economy created last month, which the Federal Reserve uses to set fiscal policy.
Other impacts are less certain. Bathrooms and visitors centers at national parks will close, but some parks could stay open. The federal government oversees more than a dozen monuments, historic sites, and trails throughout New England, including Acadia National Park in Maine. The last shutdown, a record 35-day impasse that started in late 2018, partially closed Acadia during winter. A shutdown now could curtail a lucrative fall visitor season, denting revenues for a park that contributed $685 million to the local economy in 2023.
What about government workers?
Some federal employees, including about 16,500 active-duty troops stationed in New England, will have to work without pay. Everyone not employed in a critical role such as federal law enforcement or air traffic control will effectively go on unpaid leave. As of last year, there were about 25,500 civilian federal workers in Massachusetts, plus another 33,600 in the other New England states.
All will get back pay, but not until the shutdown ends. During the last one, civilians opened a food pantry on the Coast Guard base in Boston for Guard employees. Still, some federal workers told my DC-based Globe colleagues that they would prefer a shutdown, noting that the administration has already targeted many of them for layoffs.
The costs
The fate of federal workers could be the biggest difference from past shutdowns. The Trump administration has threatened to fire nonessential federal employees en masse, which could spike the already rising unemployment rate.
Other economic consequences are also possible. The last shutdown cost the economy about $11 billion, and federal money supplies roughly a quarter of Massachusetts’ $61 billion budget. Governor Maura Healey’s administration has told agencies to create contingency plans.
Then there are the political costs. Americans view shutdowns as a sign of government dysfunction, but who they blame can determine how shutdowns end. Last time, most faulted Trump and his party after he refused to sign a spending bill that didn’t include money for a southern border wall; he eventually relented.
Early polls suggest most voters want lawmakers to extend the Obamacare subsidies (which Vice President JD Vance and other top Republicans falsely claim would go to illegal immigrants) and that more Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown. . Now that there is a shutdown, the blame game will begin in earnest.
Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.