The True Cost of Government Shutdowns: Senate Analysis of the Cost to the American Taxpayer of Three Shutdowns in 2014, 2018, and 2019, Employee Furloughs, Contractors, Long-Term Effects

This Congressional report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. This report documents the cost to the American taxpayer of the last three government shutdowns. Federal workers were furloughed and unable to work for 52 days during those three government shutdowns. The Subcommittee surveyed 26 federal agencies and found the last three government shutdowns cost taxpayers nearly $4 billionat least $3.7 billion in back pay to furloughed federal workers, and at least $338 million in other costs associated with the shutdowns, including extra administrative work, lost revenue, and late fees on interest payments. Agencies reported to the Subcommittee that the combined total of furlough days during all three shutdowns was about 14,859,144, representing an estimated 56,938 years of lost productivity for those agency employees. These figures, however, do not include data from some of the largest government agencies, which were unable to provide complete shutdown cost estimates to the Subcommittee, including the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Justice, and Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency. This report also documents the impacts that shutdowns have on important core government functions.

The federal government routinely operates on temporary continuing resolutions. Ideally, Congress and the President complete the budget process before the end of the fiscal year and enact all 12 appropriations bills before October 1. Since 1997, however, some or all of the executive branch has operated under a continuing resolution or "CR." A CR provides temporary funding when Congress is unable to pass a comprehensive budget. Since 1997, Congress has passed 117 CRs to temporarily fund the governmentoften passing multiple CRs each fiscal year. The CRs have ranged in duration from one day to the entire fiscal year.

This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

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