How a government shutdown could impact your holiday plans

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A partial government shutdown is looming over the United States right before the holidays due to disagreements over a spending bill in Congress and lawmakers have until Friday night to figure it out.

This past week fears over a shutdown heightened after incoming Republican leadership – namely Elon Musk – began to push back on the bipartisan spending bill and urged House Republicans to oppose it. Once President-elect Donald Trump agreed with Musk, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson drafted a new bill which ultimately failed on Thursday.

If the spending bill passes, federal agencies would be funded until mid-March. But if it reaches midnight and there is still no deal, some federal services will be temporarily sidelined or federal workers will go unpaid.

Here is how a government shutdown could impact holiday plans.

Nearly all TSA employees would remain working if the government shuts down but they would have to do so without pay because they are considered an essential service.

Approximately 59,000 of the TSA’s 62,000 employees are considered essential, the agency told Axios.

However, airports could still face major staffing shortages as they did during a government shutdown in 2019 when hundreds of disgruntled TSA workers called out sick around the holidays due to working without pay.

National parks and monuments as well as Smithsonian museums would close during a shutdown, forcing those who have plans to visit a park, museum or monument to pivot.

Often during a government shutdown, the national parks services are the first to be impacted during a lapse in government spending plans– as the agency lays out in its contingency plan.

The U.S. Postal Service would be unaffected by a government shutdown because it does not rely on Congress for funding.

Recipients of Social Security and Medicare will continue receiving benefits because those are funded separately from annual Congressional spending bills like the one in dispute.

However, the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget is discretionary – meaning Congress funds it annually. So some activities like benefit verification and new applications can be impacted.

Any service that is related to national security will remain functioning – that includes military personnel and emergency outpatient care in Pentagon medical treatment facilities, a defense official told NBC News.

However, members of the military and reservists would cease being paid during the holidays or at least until the shutdown ends.

Source: independent.co.uk