By Gillian Roberts and Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — The US federal government remains shut down with a spending deal to reopen it still out of reach on Capitol Hill.

The last time the government shut down — which started on December 22, 2018, and went until January 25, 2019 — it lasted 35 days, making it the longest in history. It cost the United States an estimated $3 billion in lost GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Here are all the government shutdowns since 1981

US agencies were first instructed in the early 1980s to stop normal operations during government funding lapses, and resume operations when Congress appropriated more money. The first federal government shutdown happened in 1976, according to CNN research.

While government shutdowns have become less common in recent decades — there have been six since 1990 — an increasingly partisan Washington has left Congress unable to resolve sticking points on spending for longer periods of time.

With Republican Speaker Mike Johnson overseeing one of the narrowest House majorities in history, and the GOP lacking the 60 votes needed to overcome a Senate filibuster, the path to avoiding a shutdown was murky in the 11th hour as negotiations stalled.

CNN’s Tami Luhby has more on which government services are expected to halt, and which are likely continuing, during this shutdown.

The last government shutdown

The shutdown that began in December 2018 was a partial shutdown, where Congress had approved annual funding for certain agencies, allowing them to continue operations while other federal departments went dark. During that time, an estimated 800,000 people were employed at the shuttered federal agencies, and about 300,000 of those were furloughed, meaning they were not paid and asked not to report to work, according to the CBO.

The rest were considered exempt from furlough, meaning they needed to report to work but could not receive pay. Both furloughed and exempted employees received backpay when their agencies reopened after the funding agreement was passed.

The current Congress has not passed any of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the US government. That means this is a full government shutdown.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.