The government shutdown takes a $7 billion toll on the U.S. economy, so far

The government shutdown takes a $7 billion toll on the U.S. economy, so far

That sum would climb to $14 billion if the government shutdown drags on for another month.

Michele Sandiford

October 30, 2025 11:51 am

< a min read

• The second-longest government shutdown is projected to put a toll on the U.S. economy. The Congressional Budget Office expects the shutdown so far to take a $7 billion hit to the economy. That sum would climb to $14 billion if it drags on for another month. About 75,000 federal employees are currently furloughed and many others are working without pay.
• Some GOP House lawmakers want to maintain an NDAA provision that would let civilian DoD employees keep their union contract. In a new letter, Republicans argued that removing union coverage in the DoD would not enhance national security, but risk it, by worsening employee morale and retention. The GOP letter comes as civilian employees at most agencies are on track to lose collective bargaining rights, due to executive orders from President Trump earlier this year. The National Federation of Federal Employees expressed support for the GOP letter, but added that it should be expanded to include the entire federal workforce.
• A Senate lawmaker is raising questions about the recent F5 cyber breach that sent agencies scrambling. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-L.A.) in a new letter called on F5 to work with its customers to secure systems potentially affected by the hack. Earlier this month, the company publicly disclosed that nation-state hackers had breached some F5 systems and stolen files. The intrusion led to a government-wide emergency directive to patch F5 devices and systems. Cassidy wants to know more about how F5 is working with customers to identify specific threats and safely re-connect systems.
• Passport services employees are working without pay, despite available funds. About 1,500 passport services employees at the State Department are showing up to work without pay during the second-longest government shutdown. That’s an unusual step since this part of the agency is fee-funded and can normally pay staff on time during a lapse in congressional funding. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said it’s been standard practice to pay these employees on time in previous shutdowns.

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• Maryland Democrats are seeking to offer student loan relief to federal employees and contractors affected by the shutdown. House and Senate lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require the Education Department to pause all payments on student loans for both feds and contractors during a government funding lapse. The legislation would apply to the current shutdown and any future shutdown that lasts longer than two weeks.
• The nominee to be inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services is pledging to support the Trump administration’s agenda. HHS IG nominee Thomas March Bell, in his written statement for the Senate Finance Committee, said he’ll work to support the initiatives of President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bell is a lawyer and former Senate staffer who served at HHS in Trump’s first administration. Oversight experts said his pledge of support for a political agenda raises questions about his ability to be independent. Bell’s nomination comes after the previous HHS inspector general was among 17 IGs fired during Trump’s first days in office. A federal judge later found those firings were unlawful.
• The Defense Department is stripping away job protections from its civilian employees and directing managers to “act with speed and conviction” to fire employees who are performing “unsuccessfully.” The new memo also warned that managers will be held accountable if they fail to remove poor performers. This ultimately suspends DoD’s requirement that managers attempt to rehabilitate underperforming employees, clearing the way for supervisors to fire workers whose performance is deemed “unacceptable” more quickly. Legal experts and analysts warn that the new policy could be used to remove anyone who does not align with the Trump administration’s priorities.
• More than 45 recent senior political appointees from the Biden-Harris administration who worked on economic policymaking are calling for major changes to how the federal government works. The Roosevelt Institute’s new report captures 161 ideas that they said would result in a more effective, nimble and responsive government. Among the ideas are to build the infrastructure and capacity to proactively sustain two-way engagement with the American people and to eliminate the current role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), as well as remove the Paperwork Reduction Act and the Regulatory Flexibility Act from the books as a way to remove red tape and accelerate rulemaking.
• GSA took the first step to modernize its platform to track its real estate holdings. The General Services Administration is looking for a commercial software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to consolidate and streamline the Public Buildings Service’s business processes, improve its data visibility and integration and enhance user experience across the real estate lifecycle. In a new request for information, GSA says it’s currently using eight separate systems to oversee and manage its real estate portfolio. Among the technology capabilities GSA is looking for include an API-first, extensible architecture to enabling modularity and future integrations and the application of AI to enhance efficiencies, forecasting and decision making across the real estate lifecycle. Responses to the RFI are due by Nov. 17.
• Marc Berkowitz, the White House’s nominee to serve as assistant secretary of defense for space policy, has long advocated for a closer relationship between the National Reconnaissance Office and the Space Force’s Space Systems Command. When asked about a potential merger, Berkowitz said that all options to improve the efficiency of national security space capabilities are on the table. He also told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that, for decades, the undersecretary or assistant secretary of the Air Force was dual-hatted as director of the NRO, and that programs were running “efficiently” at the time.

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