PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A federal government shutdown is imminent unless Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy can convince extreme members of his party to do something they’ve already refused: pass a temporary measure to keep the government open.
A shutdown would affect millions of Americans. Unfunded agencies will be forced to stop operations on Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, unless a deal is worked out — something Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi thinks is unlikely.
“Looks like lawmakers are having a hard time getting it together, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the government is shut down,” he said. “I would buckle in.”
A shutdown would mean about half of federal workers would be furloughed. The other half, who are considered essential workers, must carry on — without pay. Zandi said people in stressful positions, like TSA agents and air traffic controllers, would then have the added burden of not knowing when they would get their next paycheck.
“What makes this so unusual is it’s just a handful of representatives that are the roadblock here,” Zandi explained. “It makes it very difficult in this particular Congress because Republicans have a very small majority and they need every vote to get something done. So even if a few hard-right Republicans don’t go along, it bogs everything down.”
Lawmakers plan to work into the weekend, though many Republicans say an agreement is far off.
“In the shutdown back in 2018-19 that lasted a month, TSA agents at the airport stopped going to work because they had to go get a job to get other income to pay their bills,” Zandi recalled. “You can get a sense of how painful this is, the longer it drags on.”
That shutdown, from December 2018 to January 2019, was the longest federal government shutdown in history. It lasted 35 days.