Government shutdowns bring chaos. It’s time to end them.

Sep 25, 2025 by AFP

We’re days away from a possible government shutdown. Again.

Every year, we’re forced to suffer through the same old, tired routine:

Congress fails to approve funding by October 1, as required by law.

Leaders from both parties scramble for a backroom deal to keep the government open.

Sometimes the government shuts down, sometimes Congress manages to get a deal at the last minute.

In the end, Congress almost always passes a massive spending bill that didn’t go through the proper, committee-driven process. Members complain that they don’t like what’s in the bill, but they vote for it because the alternative (a shutdown) is worse.

This process is a lose-lose for everyone: The vast majority of Congress doesn’t get a say in the budget process, government spending usually soars, and the uncertainty takes a toll on the public.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Prevent Government Shutdowns Act fixes this glitch in the budget process and ends government shutdowns.

And at Americans for Prosperity, we support this bill. Here’s why.

Why do we have shutdowns in the first place?

Every year, Congress is supposed to pass 12 spending bills by October 1. When they don’t finish their work on time, any agency left unfunded has to suspend most activities until money flows again — when its spending bill or a stopgap measure is enacted.

When that happens, we have a government shutdown.

This isn’t how the process should work. In fact, before 1980, shutdowns weren’t even possible.

Back then, if Congress didn’t pass a budget in time, agencies kept operating under the funding levels from the previous year until Congress approved new spending.

Then, a couple of memos in the Carter administration changed the rules — and we’ve been stuck with shutdowns ever since.

Why shutdowns are bad for all of us

Some people might think government shutdowns help us get debt and spending under control and give Congress more power to oversee the executive.

That’s not really what happens.

The looming shutdown puts Congress in panic mode. Party leaders often have to hammer out stopgap or bloated spending bills behind closed doors and ram them through Congress.

And of course, government shutdowns have done nothing to get spending under control:

Congress has allowed more spending than revenue for 24 straight years.
The federal government now owes more than $37 trillion.
In 1980, our national debt was 30% of our gross domestic product. Today, it’s almost 120%.

Shutdowns aren’t a feature of our Constitution. They’re an expensive glitch that brings chaos and instability and makes governing harder.

A better way to govern

That’s why AFP supports the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act introduced by U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas.

This bill would:

Make Congress do its job: Keep every member of Congress in session and prevent them from considering other bills or going into recess until they do their job. No agreement? No vacations.
Keeps the lights on: If Congress doesn’t agree to a new funding bill, the government keeps running with last year’s allocations while Congress gets a new budget through.

This is a tested and tried approach.

At least 18 state governments already have similar laws on the books, and they’re doing a far better job at passing their budget bills on time. In fact, this is how the federal government worked for over 200 years until 1980.

If you want Congress to stop years of delay and dysfunction caused by constant government shutdowns, help us.

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