--- title: When Was the Last Government Shutdown? description: With less than 24 hours to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans and Democrats are locked in a bitter stalemate. canonical: https://time.com/7321870/when-was-the-last-government-shutdown-united-states/ author: Callum Sutherland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-30T12:17:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-10-02T20:56:03.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: When Was the Last Government Shutdown in the U.S.? og:description: With less than 24 hours to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans and Democrats are locked in a bitter stalemate. og:url: https://time.com/7321870/when-was-the-last-government-shutdown-united-states/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1539406e94bc9e4/6998ca451f67092296f56c54/senate-building-sep29.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Government Shutdown Looms As House And Senate Disagree On Funding Bill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: When Was the Last Government Shutdown in the U.S.? twitter:description: With less than 24 hours to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans and Democrats are locked in a bitter stalemate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1539406e94bc9e4/6998ca451f67092296f56c54/senate-building-sep29.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # When Was the Last Government Shutdown in the U.S.? 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Callum Sutherland](https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/) ## Callum Sutherland Reporter Updated: Oct 2, 2025 8:56 PM UTCPublished: Sep 30, 2025 12:17 PM UTC  A view of the U.S. Capitol as the sun sets after Democrat leaders met with President Trump in an unsuccessful discussion ahead of a looming government shutdown on Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. A view of the U.S. Capitol as the sun sets after Democrat leaders met with President Trump in an unsuccessful discussion ahead of a looming government shutdown on Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images by [Callum Sutherland](https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/) ## Callum Sutherland Reporter Updated: Oct 2, 2025 8:56 PM UTCPublished: Sep 30, 2025 12:17 PM UTC With less than 24 hours to avoid a government shutdown, Senate Republicans and Democrats are locked in a bitter stalemate as they’ve yet to make any progress in their funding talks. After a pivotal [Oval Office meeting](https://time.com/7321745/government-shutdown-trump-meeting-democrats/) between President Donald Trump and congressional leaders on Monday provided no results, Vice President J.D. Vance placed the blame with Democrats. “I think we’re headed to a shutdown, because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,” said [Vance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F%5FH35-es6A0), emphasizing that policy differences shouldn’t be “an excuse for shutting down the people’s government and all the essential services that come with it.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has remained firm in his opposition of the funding bill without certain assurances, such as the extension of Obamacare tax credits. “It’s now in the President’s hands. He can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leader to go along with what we want,” Schumer said on Monday. With the government funding deadline of midnight on Tuesday steadily approaching, thoughts are turning to what a shutdown might look like and when they’ve previously occurred. In reality, although best avoided as they can bring a halt to vital services, government shutdowns are not entirely uncommon in the U.S. There have been 14 shutdowns since 1980, the most recent took place during Trump’s first term. ## **When did the last government shutdown happen?** There were three government shutdowns during Trump’s first term. The last occurred in late 2018 and continued over the festive season. The majority of government activity came to a halt for a full 34 days from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25, making it [the longest closure](https://time.com/5499397/shutdown-longest-history/) of its kind in U.S. history. This beat the previous record of 21 days, set under President Bill Clinton. Per a Congressional Budget Office [report](https://www.cbo.gov/publication/54937), the partial shutdown over the 2018 festive season “delayed approximately $18 billion in federal discretionary spending for compensation and purchases of goods and services and suspended some federal services.” Furthermore, [hundreds of thousands](https://time.com/5486113/goverment-shutdown-effects/) of federal workers went without pay during that period, with many [raising serious financial concerns](https://time.com/5497039/government-shutdown-workers-paycheck/). NASA, the Department of Transportation, the IRS, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) were some of the departments in which workers were put on mandatory furlough. Linda Bilmes, a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, says that many of the costs involved in a government shutdown, separate to those calculated by the CBO, build up in _preparation_ of a shutdown. Agencies are required to plan how they might continue their functions, such as research maintenance and contracts with external bodies, without government funding. “It's hard to think of a dumber thing to spend taxpayer money on, shutting down and then reopening the government,” argues Bilmes. Given the layoffs and budget cuts already delivered by the Trump Administration this year, Bilmes says that a lot of the federal workforce is already demoralized. “There is the fear that if the government shuts down, there will be another round of layoffs, more than many of those working the federal government can bear. It may be the straw that breaks the camel's back,” she says. **Read More**: [_Top Democrats Leave White House With No Deal as Shutdown Nears_](https://time.com/7321745/government-shutdown-trump-meeting-democrats/) ## **What led to the last government shutdown?** The shutdown unfolded due to [disagreements between Republicans and Democrats](https://time.com/5486113/goverment-shutdown-effects/) over funding—to the amount of $5.7 billion—requested by Trump to construct a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. To Trump’s disapproval, the Senate failed to pass a bill that included the funding for the border wall. A senate vote of at least 60 in favor of the bill was required, but Democrats were unwilling to budge on the border wall funding, a project that was [estimated at the time](https://time.com/5486082/donald-trump-shutdown-math/) by Democrats to cost up to $70 billion to build and $150 million annually to maintain. Trump had previously threatened to initiate a shutdown. “I would be willing to ‘shut down’ \[the\] government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for border security, which includes the wall!” [the President said ](https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1023557246628900864?)via social media in July 2018. Schumer, in January 2019, strongly [critiqued](https://archive.org/details/CSPAN2%5F20190110%5F132400%5FU.S.%5FSenate%5FSen.%5FSchumer%5Fon%5FGovernment%5FShutdown) Trump’s stance, arguing: “We should not treat hundreds of thousands of Americans, millions of Americans, as leverage to try and get something by pounding the table. That’s not how our government works.” Ultimately, amid the turmoil, Trump signed legislation to temporarily fund the government until Feb. 15, 2019, but that still left the question of border wall funding in the air. Days before the Feb. 15 deadline, [a revised bill was passed](https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20190211/CRPT-116hrpt9.pdf), allocating just $1.4 billion in funding to wall construction, much less than what Trump had originally envisioned. Bilmes points to significant differences between the last shutdown and the current looming disruption, most notably the depth of what is up for debate this time round. “The complexity of explaining to the public the importance of the Affordable Care Act and tax credits is, I think, a much more complicated sound-bite than the last time when Trump reduced it down to, ‘They won't pay for the wall,’” she says. Bilmes maintains that for many Americans, the main concern is simply that Congress be able to continue doing its job: “They just want Congress to pass a budget and to take care of the programs that they \[the public\] depend on.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7321870/when-was-the-last-government-shutdown-united-states/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7321870/when-was-the-last-government-shutdown-united-states/"},"headline":"When Was the Last Government Shutdown in the U.S.? Here's What to Know","datePublished":"2025-09-30T12:17:08.000Z","dateModified":"2025-10-02T20:56:03.000Z","description":"With less than 24 hours to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans and Democrats are locked in a bitter stalemate. 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