(NEXSTAR) – With lawmakers unable to reach a funding agreement by the midnight deadline, a government shutdown began on Wednesday.
While the federal government is shut down, some essential services will continue. The FBI and CIA are still running investigations, air traffic controllers are still guiding planes to land, and Social Security payments still go out.
But other agencies pause operations or furlough workers, severely impacting their ability to deliver services. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed each day of the shutdown.
Here is how some key government operations are (or are not) impacted during the 2025 government shutdown.
USPS
Even if the shutdown drags on, you will still be getting mail as expected. The U.S. Postal Service is an independent entity funded through the sale of its products and delivery services, not by tax dollars, so it doesn’t rely on Congress passing a funding bill to keep deliveries going.
DMV
DMV offices are primarily state run, so they shouldn’t be impacted during a federal shutdown, LegalClarity Team explained in an interview with USA Today. That means wait times should be about as long or short as they otherwise would be.
National parks
The National Park Service plans to furlough about two-thirds of its employees while keeping parks largely open to visitors during the federal shutdown, according to a contingency plan released Tuesday night. The plan says “park roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors.”
The plan also allows parks to enter into agreements with states, tribes or local governments willing to make donations to keep national park sites open. The park service has more than 400 sites, including large national parks such as Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, national battlefields and historic sites.
Sites could close if damage is being done to park resources or garbage is building up.
FAFSA and student aid
The Education Department immediately furloughed the vast majority of employees, The Hill previously reported, except those who work in the Federal Student Aid Office. In a contingency plan released ahead of the shutdown, the department said the disbursement of student aid for the first week. If funding is still paused past that point, new guidance will be issued.
FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, normally goes live on Oct. 1, but launched a week early this year. Students can continue submitting aid applications and they will still be processed for the time being, according to the Education Department.
TSA, air traffic control at airports
As essential employees, the Transportation Security Administration employees who run airport security and air traffic controllers are required to keep working during a shutdown, even if their pay is delayed. (They will receive back pay for any missed paychecks once the government reopens.)
But airlines warn a prolonged shutdown could still cause delays for travelers. That’s what happened in 2019, during the longest shutdown in U.S. history, when TSA and air traffic control employees started calling in sick more frequently as they weren’t getting paid.
“While TSA is prepared to continue screening about 2.5M passengers a day, an extended shutdown could mean longer wait times at airports,” the agency said on X. “We kindly ask for our passengers’ patience during this time.”
