Stephanie Ferguson Melhorn
Senior Director, Workforce & International Labor Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Updated
December 19, 2024
Published
November 14, 2023
A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass a spending bill to fund the federal government. A shutdown imposes detrimental impacts on Americans and businesses across the country. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling on Congress to work together to pass a bipartisan funding measure to avoid a shutdown and its damaging consequences.
Should a shutdown occur, 57,793 small business vendors that rely on federal contracts and 1,865,698 active duty and military reservists would not be paid on time. E-Verify cases would not be processed, delaying as many as 1.8 million workers from receiving necessary authorization to begin working. An estimated 438,944 new business applications would not be approved, nor would roughly 6,291 SBA-backed loans be processed.
A government shutdown would also impact more than American businesses. New patients would no longer be accepted into potentially life-saving clinical research trials. The hiring of federal law enforcement officials would come to a halt. National parks, vital for generating revenue in local communities, would close. Read the real life stories of what Americans endured during the 2018-19 government shutdown here.
The U.S. Chamber is committed to supporting businesses and our nation's system of free enterprise. We call on Congress to work together now to pass the budget and spare our nation from the pains of a government shutdown.
To see the impact a government shutdown would have in your state, click on or select your state below.
Sources:
- Bloomberg Government, September 2023
- U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Manpower Data Center, June 2024.
- U.S. Census Bureau, November 2024.
- E-Verify, April 2023.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, November 2024.
About the authors
Stephanie Ferguson Melhorn
Stephanie Ferguson Melhorn is the Senior Director of Workforce & International Labor Policy. Her work on the labor shortage has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press.
Makinizi Hoover
Makinizi Hoover is the Senior Manager of Strategic Advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She leads the housing portfolio and mobilizes resources to address high-priority issues, ensuring effective advocacy on key legislative and regulatory priorities.
