SENS JAMES LANKFORD, MAGGIE HASSAN: Congress should suffer shutdown pain, not the American people
For the past decade, Americans have watched a wasteful Washington drama unfold each year: government shutdowns that threaten our economy, jeopardize our security and hurt families all across our country.
Each time there is a shutdown, the American people are caught in the middle. Make no mistake, government shutdowns are not a theoretical or a procedural exercise, they have real consequences all across the country. The last shutdown cost our country more than $11 billion.
In recent shutdowns, we've seen long lines, up to six hours, just to get through airport security because TSA went unfunded. Air traffic controllers — the people who keep the skies safe for us to fly — went without pay. Veterans and seniors had a harder time accessing the benefits they’ve earned because those services ground to a halt. The Small Business Administration was hamstrung in its ability to support entrepreneurs trying to keep their small businesses afloat.
Families were faced with the prospect of having their SNAP benefits dry up as they tried to feed their children. Government shutdowns in the past have even threatened our ability to pay service members who help keep our country free. Government shutdowns show the world, America's friends and foes, that the world's greatest democracy and largest economy can be held hostage by politics.
SENATE PLOTS PERMANENT END TO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS WITH BIPARTISAN PUSH
For some of the loudest voices in our politics, government shutdowns may sometimes look like an appealing way to later score political points in a cable news hit, on social media, or on the campaign trail, but let's be clear: The American people always pay a very real price.
Americans have had enough of this destructive, chaotic style of politics. Both political parties have caused government shutdowns in the past, so we believe both parties should find a way to make them stop.
We have worked together, a Senate Republican and a Senate Democrat, to propose a simple principle: No matter how much we argue about our national budget, the American people shouldn’t pay the price for Congress failing to do its job on time. That commitment helped us write, the "Prevent Government Shutdowns Act of 2026," which takes shutdowns off the table and pushes Congress to fulfill its responsibility to negotiate and pass full-year funding bills.
SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS, WHO DOESN'T AND HOW MUCH IT COSTS
Here’s how it works: If Congress fails to pass any of the 12 appropriation bills on time, an automatic Continuing Resolution (CR) kicks in to keep paying federal workers and programs at the current year’s spending level. However, Members of Congress and our staff would be required by law to remain in Washington, D.C., voting seven days a week, until we solved our budget impasse. The House and the Senate would be restricted to only debating the appropriation bills until they were completed. It is as simple as staying after school to finish your unfinished classwork.
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It may sound simple, but it is a radical change from the status quo. Congress would feel the pressure and pain of a shutdown, instead of the American people and federal workers. Air traffic controllers, service members, federal law enforcement, healthcare professionals, researchers, scientists and thousands of others would be able to continue serving the American people and would no longer be pawns in political standoffs. Because holding federal employees' paychecks and critical federal services hostage doesn’t solve policy disagreements; they just hurts families.
We brought our bill to the Senate last session and earned strong bipartisan support, but we fell just short. We were only three votes away from never having a government shutdown again. Since that time, we have experienced the longest shutdown in American history. A growing group in the Senate and House has expressed its desire to finally end the chaos. We also have the strong support of multiple partisan and nonpartisan organizations, along with the American Federation of Government Employees.
We all understand that changing any of the status quo in Washington is never easy, even if the status quo is failing. But it is painfully obvious that the current system isn’t working, and we need a new path to settle our disagreements.
Americans disagree on many issues; in fact, the two of us disagree on many issues, but we strongly agree that it’s time to take shutdowns off the table for good.
Democrat Maggie Hassan represents New Hampshire in the United States Senate. She served as governor of New Hampshire from 2013 to 2017.