What the federal government shutdown means for Michigan
Washington ― Michigan residents could soon start to feel the pinch of a prolonged shutdown of the federal government, with funding projected to run out for several programs in the coming days and weeks that could hit food aid, U.S. courthouses and subsidies for air travel to rural communities.
The White House Council of Economic Advisors has projected that Michigan’s gross state product could decline by about $361 million each week that the shutdown extends, or the equivalent of $1.6 billion a month.
Many of the state’s estimated 29,800 civilian federal workers are furloughed, while staff deemed essential to protecting life or property — including Coast Guard members, Border Patrol agents and air traffic controllers ― are supposed to continue to work, not knowing when their next paycheck will arrive.
“The consequences for Michigan are real,” said U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain of Bruce Township, chair of the House Republican Conference. “All it takes is for Democrats to vote yes.”
The federal government partially shut down a week ago. Lawmakers are at an impasse over a short-term stopgap bill after the Trump administration and the GOP majority in Congress refused to bend to Democrats’ demands to include protections for health care subsidies.
Democrats like Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan have declined to give Republicans the eight votes required in the Senate to reopen the government, saying they are holding the line for constituents, some of whom will face soaring health insurance premiums in the new year.
“I am willing to talk to anybody about how we move out of this situation now,” Slotkin said in a video message.
“If you want to have a conversation about my vote, I have made very clear that we’ve got to address the health care crisis that is now upon us because of the bill that the president signed into law, the Big Beautiful Bill, back in July.”
This is the first shutdown since 2018 — the 35-day closure that set a record for length and happened the last time Donald Trump was president.
Some federal activities are expected to continue using fee revenue or money that has already been set aside through other funding streams.
U.S. Postal Service operations will continue, as they don’t depend on the appropriations process. Road projects and construction on the new shipping lock in Sault Ste. Marie are ongoing. Court operations in Michigan’s Eastern and Western districts should go uninterrupted through Oct. 17 using court fee balances and other funds.
But shutdown plans also call for suspending water quality monitoring and blocking public access to some wildlife refuges. Food assistance payments for November are in question.
Here are some other ways in which Michigan might or might not feel the effects of the ongoing shutdown:
➤Air travel: Most employees of the Transportation Security Administration in Michigan are deemed essential workers who must show up to work without pay during a shutdown.
But in past shutdowns, air traffic controllers and TSA employees called out sick or found other positions, causing staff shortages. This is already happening at some airports around the country, leading to delays, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.
“They already have a high-stress job, and now they have to worry about paying their mortgage and their credit rating for car loans,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, an Ann Arbor Democrat who met last week with employees of the Federal Aviation Administration in Michigan.
“They are very angry. They are tired of being political pawns. I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”
Duffy this week warned that the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes airline service to small and rural communities, including nine airports in Michigan, will run out of money Oct. 12, Sunday.
A letter that the Department of Transportation sent to airlines Monday said they would be relieved of their EAS contractual obligations if the shutdown extends beyond Sunday as it suspends grants under the program starting Oct. 13, until funding is restored.
The Essential Air Service serves airports in Michigan, including Muskegon, Alpena, Pellston, Escanaba, Houghton/Hancock and Sault Ste. Marie.
However, SkyWest, which serves multiple Michigan communities under the program, told the office of U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, that it has no plans to discontinue regional flights to the Michigan airports that it serves.
The airline in a statement said that it plans to “honor our service commitments” despite the potential lapse in funding, and that it was working with individual communities to determine its capabilities.
➤Federal workers and service members: Most federal employees will miss their first paycheck Friday if Congress hasn’t reached a deal on funding the government by then. U.S. troops would miss their first paycheck Oct. 15.
An estimated 750,000 federal employees were expected to be furloughed each day nationally at a daily cost of roughly $400 million, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office.
The number of furloughed employees in Michigan is unclear and could vary by agency and day. The state had about 29,800 federal civilian workers as of September 2024, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management, with most of them (over 12,000) employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This estimate is likely outdated following the waves of worker firings and buyout offers by the Trump administration earlier this year. A more recent state-level figure was not available.
Federal employees would typically get back pay after the shutdown ends, but a draft memo circulated Tuesday by the White House suggested that back pay is not guaranteed.
Many viewed the memo as a move to ramp up pressure on Senate Democrats. President Trump, who in 2019 signed a bill to provide for back pay after a shutdown, at the White House on Tuesday suggested that not all workers would get back pay, but “it depends on who we’re talking about.”
“I can tell you this: The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about,” Trump said.
“But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
The largest union for federal employees, the American Federation of Government Employees, issued a statement on Tuesday blasting the memo.
“The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
“It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago, which clearly and correctly states that furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay for the time they were out of work as quickly as possible once the shutdown is over.”
➤Military service members: Michigan is home to about 2,000 active-duty service members who are going without pay during a shutdown, though they’d still be required to report for duty.
That figure doesn’t include members of the Coast Guard that are housed under the Department of Homeland Security, whose staff also go unpaid.
In previous shutdowns, Congress has worked to secure troop pay, according to the Associated Press. But in 2019, members of the Coast Guard were left out and went more than a month without pay.
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Holland Republican, introduced a bill last month to ensure that Homeland Security law enforcement, Coast Guard and other staff would continue to get paid during a shutdown. The legislation wasn’t adopted before the lapse in appropriations.
➤Food assistance: Food stamp recipients are set to receive their October payments without interruption as those cards are loaded in advance; however, November payments could be delayed or interrupted for what’s known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, advocates say.
If the shutdown extends beyond mid-October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could tap its contingency reserve funding to cover SNAP costs, according to experts with the Food Research & Action Center. Under the Biden administration, that reserve held $6 billion, but it is unclear how much remains available or whether the Trump administration would choose to use it, the center said.
About 15% of Michigan’s 10 million residents receive SNAP benefits or 1.47 million people ― 59% of whom are families with children, according to state figures.
The separate nutrition program that supports nearly 189,000 women and children in Michigan is expected to run out of funding within two weeks. Nearly 7 million people last year relied on the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which offers supplemental spending money for groceries and trainings for young parents on how to feed their children.
A White House budget spokesperson said last week that the “program will run out of money this month, meaning that women and children could no longer receive benefits.”
Amid past shutdown threats, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has said it had sufficient money to continue the program during a federal shutdown. It wasn’t clear how long the state could continue this fall, but the agency confirmed this week that the program is still operational.
“While Michigan WIC remains open for business and clinics continue to support Michigan families, delays or cuts to federal funding could disrupt services, reduce benefits and risk turning away eligible families,” MDHHS spokeswoman Erin Stover said by email Monday.
“WIC is an investment in the health and well-being of our residents to help ensure families don’t have to choose between buying nutritious foods or paying their bills.”
The state-administered Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which distributes federal aid for heating and cooling to low-income households, will also continue using appropriated funds from 2025 that are normally held to carry forward into the next fiscal year, Stover said.
MDHHS will continue to accept applications for the State Emergency Relief (SER) program and process them using the carry-forward funds, Stover said.
➤Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits: These benefits continue in a shutdown.
Social Security staff continue processing applications for benefits and appeals requests and issuing cards; however, staff usually stop issuing replacement Medicare cards.
Veterans’ pension benefits and compensation would continue, as would education and housing programs. VA hospitals, outpatient clinics and veteran centers will be open as usual, and burials will continue at VA national cemeteries.
Veterans crisis and suicide prevention lines would keep operating. Outreach efforts and career counseling for veterans would cease, and the agency’s public-facing regional offices would be closed.
➤National Parks: Some national parks have closed during this shutdown, while others are accessible with limited staffing, according to news reports.
Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior’s Facebook pages says that “only basic or no visitor services, maintenance, or other management activities will be conducted, and emergency services will be limited” during the shutdown.
The Washington Post has a running list of the status of park and monument sites that are pen or closed. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., said last week that all of its properties will remain open through Saturday, Oct. 11, but locations will close starting Oct. 12 if the shutdown continues.
During the last shutdown in 2018-19, the Trump administration allowed some of the most popular national parks to open without park rangers.
Staff Writer Carol Thompson and The Associated Press contributed.
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