Shutdown Will Cost $400 Million Daily in Back Pay, CBO Says

Sept. 30, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

Furloughed federal workers who are sidelined during a government shutdown could cost about $400 million for each day agencies are shuttered, a total they’re slated to receive as back pay, the Congressional Budget Office told lawmakers Tuesday.

About 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed during a shutdown, the congressional analysts estimated, citing agency-by-agency contingency plans. Federal workers are legally due back pay at the end of a shutdown — a tradition that was enacted into law at the end of the 34-day funding lapse that ran from December 2018 into January 2019.

The government would shut down on Wednesday, after ...

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