Tens of thousands of Texans could be affected by government shutdown

Millions of federal employees, including thousands in Texas, are heading into the weekend with a lot of uncertainty about their next paychecks.

The federal government will shut down tomorrow night at midnight if there is no agreement on a spending bill.

On Friday, House Republicans shot down their own short-term spending plan with 20 holdouts voting against it.

Many of them accuse House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of breaking a promise to roll back government spending.

McCarthy has almost no leverage with his party holdouts, or with Democrats, after moving to impeach President Biden.

Texas Congressman Chip Roy (R-Austin) is one of the Republicans frustrated with his party's infighting.

"They had a bill on the floor that would cut spending and would secure the border. And apparently that's not good enough for some people.  Now why can't they go figure this problem out themselves?" he said.

A government shutdown will freeze paychecks for federal employees, but members of Congress will still get paid.

In North Texas, the pain would be felt across many workgroups, including active duty military, air traffic controllers and TSA agents.

"Ultimately this is a failure of Congress. Both parties really to do their jobs, which includes passing a budget on time every year," said Dean Stansel, an economist at the SMU Cox School of Business.

Stansel says the looming shutdown would likely have a minimal impact on the economy, but what could have a bigger impact down the road is Congress failing to reign in spending.

"The federal government has increased spending by 55%, and it has doubled in the last 15 years, tripled in the last 20. So I believe part of the debate here is over a reduction in spending, and a reduction in spending would be a welcome reprieve from most taxpayers," said Stansel.

It is worth noting that spending cuts are a key argument among the Republican holdouts.

The U.S. credit rating was recently downgraded, costing taxpayers more in interest on federal debt.

"We could see a real problem," said Stansel. "The total federal debt owed by the U.S. government is bigger than the annual production of the U.S. economy. That doesn't happen very often. Past examples include Greece, and we all know what happened there. So we're on a negative, a kind of a unsustainable fiscal path."

While Texas is no Washington, D.C. the state does have tens of thousands of federal employees.

114,000 active duty military personnel would not be paid until the shutdown ends.

Texas has over 4,700 TSA officers and over 1,200 air traffic controllers.

That is stressful work already without the added stress of financial uncertainty if the shutdown lasts beyond their next pay period.

In the 35-day shutdown in 2018-2019 some agents who couldn't pay for gas or childcare called in sick.

FOX 4 was there in 2019 as fellow Dallas Love Field employees, who work for the city, fired up the grill to make 200 lunches for unpaid employees.

The Airline Pilots Association Captain Jason Ambrosi said in a statement, "Our pilots depend on our partners at the (FAA), especially the hardworking and dedicated air traffic controllers, to help safely shepherd us through the skies. Failing to fully fund the FAA puts the world’s safest aviation system at risk."

Stansel says the ultimate question is should the government spend less or tax Americans more.

"The last thing we want to do is say, Okay, well, we've got these deficits. Let's just raise taxes a little more," he said. "We really need as a society to revisit the idea of what do we want government to do?"

The North Texas Food Bank government relations officer told FOX 4 in a statement that it is working with its network of partners to prepare for worst-case scenario of a prolonged shutdown.

A lengthy shutdown could cause disruption to snap and other nutrition programs.