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With a United States government shutdown looming—again—you may be wondering what that actually means for New York City. Well, it's not quite clear yet, as each administration gets the power to choose which services to freeze and fund, per the Associated Press.
But it's likely that some things, including cultural organizations, would temporarily close if the shutdown happens, especially based on the shutdown during the last Trump administration. Though nothing is confirmed yet, here's what we suspect could close in New York City in case of a shutdown.
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Why is the government shutting down?
If you're feeling like, "wait, what's happening now?," we don't blame you. In this frenetic news cycle, it's hard to keep track. Here's a quick breakdown, with help from the Associated Press: Basically, our federal leaders can't agree on a budget. An October 1 deadline is approaching, and neither side wants to budge. When a funding lapse happens, some agencies shut down and non-essential workers don't work.
Some things will continue, like the FBI, CIA, military, veterans health care and the postal service. But for other agencies, it's not quite clear. In past eras, each federal agency developed its own shutdown plan and posted it publicly, but that hasn't happened this time around, so we're all left to guess.
What New Yorkers need to know
Again, nothing is certain. But based on past shutdowns, our federally funded museums and cultural organizations could temporarily shutter. That includes Smithsonian museums, national sites and more, such as:
The National Museum of the American Indian
As a Smithsonian museum, the always-free-to-enter National Museum of the American Indian closed in the last government shutdown, and it likely would again. The museum contains some 825,000 items from 1,200 Indigenous cultures covering 12,000 years of Native American history. It displays its collection around the grand rotunda of the 1907 Custom House at 1 Bowling Green.
The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Housed in a sumptuous former mansion on the Upper East Side, the Cooper Hewitt is dedicated to the field of design. It houses a collection of objects that span 3,000 years. As it's a Smithsonian museum, it would be likely to close, as it did during the last Trump administration shutdown.
National Parks sites
Lower Manhattan's African Burial Ground National Monument, Grant's Tomb on the Upper West Side, Hamilton Grange (a.k.a. Hamilton's uptown estate), and Wall Street's Federal Hall (the birthplace of American government, coincidentally) all closed last time, per the New York Times. As federal sites, it's likely they would close again.
Gateway National Recreation Area, a national park that stretches into in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, stayed open last time without visitor services.
And finally, Ellis Island. The state stepped in to keep Ellis Island and Lady Liberty running back during the 2018 shutdown. That cost the state $65,000 per day, according to Curbed.
How long the government shutdown could last
Unfortunately, it's anyone's guess if the shutdown will actually happen and how long it will last. With the October 1 deadline looming, Republicans proposed extending government funding at current levels until November 21, per CBS. Democrats meanwhile made a counteroffer to keep the government open through October; they attached health care provisions and restrictions on Trump's ability to withhold funding, which Republicans generally aren't into.
A short-term shutdown isn't likely to have a major impact on the economy, but if it lasts, that's not great.
"That can give rise to uncertainties about what is the role of government in our society, and what's the financial impact on all the programs that the government funds," Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Associated Press.
The last government shutdown, which stretched from December 2018-January 2019 during the last Trump administration, ended with a permanent loss to the economy of about $3 billion, per CBS.