Congress is threatening another “government shutdown” as the September 30 deadline approaches. But here’s what most Americans don’t understand: Government has never shut down. Not once.
What people call “shutdowns” affect only the most visible, least essential services. The actual machinery of government continues operating normally during shutdowns.
Somewhere, at 3 a.m. this morning, USDA food safety inspectors walked into meat processing plants across America. They will examine 37 billion pounds of meat this year — not because politicians told them to do it this week, but because that’s what the permanent government does every year. In windowless rooms at the National Weather Service, meteorologists are today analyzing atmospheric data that will determine whether your flight gets delayed tomorrow. At USDA’s global intelligence centers, analysts are tracking crop conditions in 95 countries that could affect American food prices months from now. Nuclear engineers are monitoring reactor cooling systems that can’t take a day off.
This will all continue going on, regardless of budget negotiations in Congress. This is the government that Americans rarely see but depend on absolutely — and it reveals why the term “government shutdown” is fundamentally misleading.
What actually stops during shutdowns are the visible, public-facing services that make citizens feel the political pain. This includes tourist visits to national parks and the Smithsonian and processing of some permits and applications.
Here’s what continues: nuclear reactor monitoring, air traffic control, food safety inspection, disease surveillance, border security, law enforcement, military operations, Social Security payments, Medicare processing, weather forecasting, and thousands of other essential functions.
In terms of shutdown language, “the government” consists of 15 enormous agencies that run the country. The government in this sense is very different and separate from politics. Politics is what happens in Congress — the debates, the standoffs, the theater of elected officials. Government is the infrastructure of 2.2 million career professionals who maintain complex systems regardless of election outcomes.
This separation isn’t bureaucratic inefficiency — it is democracy’s firewall against political manipulation of essential services. It prevents politicians from weaponizing food safety, air traffic control, or nuclear security for electoral advantage.
Each of the 15 cabinet-level agencies operates at a scale most citizens can’t comprehend. The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration coordinates more than 44,000 daily flights, serving more than 3 million airline passengers across 29 million square miles of airspace. Its system is so complex that a single software glitch can ground planes nationwide.
The Department of Health and Human Services processes Medicare claims for approximately 63 million Americans, with the program serving nearly everyone over 65 plus younger Americans with disabilities.
The Department of Energy manages not just power grids but the entire nuclear weapons arsenal — warheads, delivery systems, and the scientific infrastructure that maintains them. The department’s responsibilities include ensuring that nuclear reactors continue operating safely, regardless of political standoffs.
What does shutdown theater actually cost taxpayers? Lost Productivity, for starters. The 2013 shutdown cost $2.5 billion in back pay to 850,000 furloughed employees who missed a combined 6.6 million work days. All that productivity was permanently lost, since they were paid for work not performed.
Shutdowns also result in special expenses specifically related to preparing for shutdowns. Before each shutdown, agencies must develop detailed contingency plans outlining which functions will continue and which will stop. This pulls hundreds of thousands of employees from their regular duties to document procedures that everyone hopes will never be used.
Shutdowns cause economic disruption. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced GDP by $11 billion in all, including $3 billion that will never be recovered. The 2013 shutdown cost the economy $24 billion and 120,000 private sector jobs.
Finally, shutdowns cause a great deal of administrative drama. Beyond direct costs, shutdowns can delay tax refunds (almost $4 billion in 2013), halt fee collections, and force the government to pay penalty interest on late payments. These indirect costs often exceed the supposed savings from furloughing workers. (White House Office of Management and Budget, November 2013)
The government’s actual structure is both simpler and more complex than political rhetoric suggests. It is simpler because it is just 15 major agencies with clearly defined missions. It is more complex because each agency is as large as most multinational billion dollar companies and they operate multiple sophisticated systems that interlock with others.
The Department of Agriculture doesn’t just inspect food — it manages global agricultural intelligence, rural banking systems, emergency food stockpiles, scientific research networks, and international trade relationships. When politicians threaten to “shut down” the department, they’re really threatening to pause passport applications at rural offices while inspectors continue examining meat and intelligence analysts keep tracking global grain supplies.
Understanding this distinction would make Americans immune to much political manipulation. You can’t be misled about agricultural policy if you know it involves operating intelligence networks in 95 countries. You can’t be fooled by promises to “drain the swamp” if you understand that career professionals maintain essential systems while political appointees rotate through ceremonial positions.
American government isn’t all broken — it’s just invisible. Every day, 2.2 million professionals keep complex systems running while 537 elected officials argue about credit and blame. The systems largely work despite political theater, not because of it. The proof is in all the things we take for granted — stocked grocery shelves and electricity that comes on when you flip a switch.
We could save money and fix things inside the government, but even to talk about it effectively, people need to understand what it is — starting with the fact it never shuts down.
The next time you hear shutdown threats, remember what actually continues: food inspection, air traffic control, nuclear security, disease surveillance, weather forecasting, and thousands of other functions that keep 330 million people safe and prosperous. During “shutdowns,” all of these operations continue. A true shutdown would include things we never imagine like power outages across the nation within weeks as our power grids sit unprotected.
Government doesn’t ever shut down, because it can’t. The politicians making threats are the only ones who get to leave town.
Understanding this difference is the first step toward better citizenship in our complex, but knowable democracy.
Cheryl Kelley is a former senior government official with experience across five Cabinet agencies, including serving as director of planning, management and budget. She is an adjunct fellow at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University and the author of “An Informed Citizenry: How the Modern Federal Government Operates” and the novel “Radical, An American Love Story.”
