Today we celebrate the reopening of our government and hope they never shut down again.
Finally, The U.S. is Open for Business
After the longest shutdown in history, the federal government reopened on Thursday. For many, this has been the longest 43 days of their lives. There were roughly 600,000 federal employees furloughed, and approximately 700,000 workers who were deemed to be essential and worked without pay. There were also millions who faced losing vital benefits such as SNAP.
The director of the White House National Economic Council said the shutdown cost the country about $92 billion, led to the loss of roughly 60,000 private sector jobs, and will lower fourth quarter GDP by 1.5%.
If that wasn’t painful enough, it also led to long delays and cancellations at airports and stopped the release of vital government reports, including those on employment and inflation.
So, are things back to normal?
In short, no. Furloughed workers were ordered back to their offices on Thursday, but it will take time for them to get caught up after missing 43 days. While air travel should be back to normal by Thanksgiving—it better be since my son is flying home from college—expect cancellations and delays to continue until then.
We also don’t know when the release of vital economic reports will resume. In fact, the White House said this week that the October jobs and inflation data may never be released. This is very concerning at a time when the Fed desperately needs this data to make policy decisions.
This article gives a detailed overview of the process for reopening the government.
One last thing. With some exceptions like food stamps, Veterans Affairs and the FDA, the bill to reopen the government expires on January 30, 2026. Whether another shutdown will occur remains uncertain, but after this one, no one is eager to find out.
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