Critical Update: No End in Sight For Shutdown as Costs Mount
President Donald Trump, second from right, speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, as he hosts a roundtable with conservative leaders to discuss the security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border. Susan Walsh/AP
The partial government shutdown is having dire effects across the country, not just at federal agencies.
The government shutdown has continued for over a month, hitting day 34 on Thursday. While this historic shutdown must eventually end, the ramifications will continue to ripple out for some time to come.
A look at the year ahead in federal IT—the topic for this season of Critical Update—would not be complete without breaking down the current state of the shutdown and its long-term effects on federal agencies, contractors, state and local governments and people across America, whether they work for the government or not.
This week, we brought together top reporters and editors from across Government Executive Media Group to dig in on how the shutdown is affecting every level of American life.
“When the shutdown first started, when you’d talk to people connected to state and local government, they’d say, ‘Well, it’s not really such a big deal unless it lasts a really long time.’ I think we’ve entered that period, now, where it’s lasted a really long time,” Laura Maggi, managing editor of Route Fifty, tells the podcast.
As the costs—human and monetary—continue to pile up, there’s no end in sight, according to Erich Wagner, staff correspondent at Government Executive.
Defense One’s Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber agreed while looking forward to the next big budget battle.
“To me, this right now is frightening for another reason. At the end of September, we have another budget battle brewing,” he says. “We’re now only a month into this [shutdown]. You can only imagine what the fight will be like. … The impact would be strikingly, strikingly worse if it were governmentwide.”
Listen to the full interview below or by subscribing through the Apple store or Google Play.