A Senate Republican wants to know the exact cost of a partial government shutdown as GOP and Democratic leaders are at an impasse to keep the government open.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, called on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide a detailed report on the sprawling impact that a partial government shutdown could have, including payments throughout the federal government and the possible broader economic impact.
The House GOP passed its short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), last week, but the bill was later blocked by Senate Democrats. For now, Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber are at odds on a plan to keep the government open.
And the deadline to fund the government by Sept. 30 is fast approaching.
Ernst, who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus named after tech-billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, laid the fault of a potential shutdown on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in her letter to CBO Director Phillip Swagel.
‘The same politicians who whined and complained about the Department of Government Efficiency laying off unnecessary bureaucrats just a few months ago are now forcing a government-wide shutdown themselves to expose who is and isn’t an essential employee,’ she wrote.
Ernst requested a sweeping economic operational impact analysis from the agency, including how a shutdown could affect back pay costs for furloughed non-essential employees, military pay, congressional pay and the broader economic impact that the government closing could have on the private sector.
Specifically, she wanted to know how businesses could be impacted by a temporary stoppage of government services, like loans, permits and certifications, and how companies and businesses could recoup losses after a shutdown ended.
She also wanted information on lost efficiencies in the government and the costs that could accrue from unfulfilled procurements or allowing contracts to lapse, and whether the burden of keeping national parks open would fall onto the states or if they’d be shuttered, too.
The CBO did provide an analysis of the cost of the last time the government shuttered in 2019, when Schumer and President Donald Trump were at odds on providing funding to construct a wall at the southern border. That 35-day shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, and no funding for a border wall was granted.
The report, published in January 2019, found that the shutdown saw roughly $18 billion in federal spending delayed, which led to a dip in that year’s first quarter gross domestic product of $8 billion. The report noted roughly $3 billion of that would not be recovered.
It also found that federal workers who received delayed payments and private businesses were the hardest hit.
‘Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income,’ the report stated.
It remains unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Schumer can strike a deal. After Trump canceled a planned meeting Tuesday with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., both Democrats blamed the president for the looming shutdown.
However, Democrats’ asking price for a short-term funding extension is too high for Republicans.
They want permanent extensions to Affordable Care Act subsidies, a full repeal of the ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ health care title, which includes the $50 billion rural hospital fund, and a clawback of the canceled funding for NPR and PBS.
‘Once again, Donald Trump has shown the American people he is not up to the job,’ Schumer said. ‘It’s a very simple job: sit down and negotiate with the Democratic leaders and come to an agreement, but he just ain’t up to it. He runs away before the negotiations even begin.’