Fact check: Which federal agencies faced full or partial closures in the 2025 shutdown?

1. Extracting the central claims — who was named and what happened

The supplied materials converge on a set of core assertions: numerous cabinet-level departments and independent agencies experienced either complete or partial operational shutdowns, producing widespread furloughs and a large cohort of employees working without pay. Sources specifically mention the Department of Veterans Affairs reporting nearly 37,000 employees furloughed or working without pay and the Federal Aviation Administration encountering hundreds of staffing problems since the shutdown began ^{[4] [2]}. Other analyses list the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency among those affected ^{[1] [5]}. A recurring claim across sources is that essential operations — border protection, law enforcement, in-hospital care, wildland firefighting, and certain food safety inspections — continued despite funding gaps, creating a bifurcated federal workforce of furloughed and essential unpaid staff ^{[3] [1]}.

2. Mapping the most frequently mentioned agencies — repeated patterns across reports

Several agencies appear repeatedly: the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, and DHS recur across the supplied items ^{[4] [1] [5]}. Independent agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA are also cited for operational disruptions or furloughs ^{[4] [6]}. The overlap between sources indicates agreement that the shutdown’s impact was broad rather than isolated. Where sources differ is in granularity: some provide headcounts of furloughed staff ^{[4] [6]}, others list services that remained operational or self-funded entities that stayed open, such as the U.S. Postal Service or certain GSA services ^[7]. Collectively, the documents portray a federal landscape in which most large departments curtailed nonessential activities while retaining core safety and security functions.

3. Counting the scale — discrepancies and common figures in workforce impacts

Analyses offer different numeric views: one source estimates roughly 420,000 employees working without pay and 380,000 furloughed during a prior partial shutdown referenced for context ^[6], while another highlights the VA’s reported nearly 37,000 affected employees specifically in 2025 ^[4]. The variance reflects differing measurement windows, agency scopes, and whether counts include unpaid essential workers or only furloughed staff. The supplied materials also reference a broader estimate of around 1.4 million federal employees either on unpaid leave or working without pay in the 2025 shutdown narrative ^[3]. These differences underscore that aggregate figures can shift depending on inclusion criteria and timing, but all sources align on the shutdown’s large scale and its mixed pattern of furloughs and essential unpaid duty.

4. What stayed open — essential services and self-funded exceptions

All analyses emphasize that core public safety and mandatory services continued despite lapses in appropriations: border protection, law enforcement, in-hospital medical care, wildland firefighting, food safety inspections, and certain emergency animal and plant health services are repeatedly identified as ongoing ^{[3] [1]}. Several entities remained operational due to alternative funding mechanisms: the U.S. Postal Service, Social Security Administration payments, and agencies with mandatory or self-funding streams are noted as exceptions to closures ^[7]. These continuities reflect legal and practical decisions to prioritize life-and-safety functions and statutorily protected programs, creating a two-tier federal response where public-safety operations proceed while administrative, regulatory, and nonessential public-facing services are paused ^{[1] [7]}.

5. Political causes and differing framings — why sources emphasize different aspects

The supplied analyses trace the shutdown’s cause to partisan disputes over healthcare subsidies and Medicaid cuts, and they frame agency impacts through distinct lenses: some emphasize service interruptions and furlough headcounts ^{[2] [5]}, others stress continuity of critical operations and self-funded exceptions ^{[7] [1]}. This reflects likely institutional agendas: veterans’ and labor-focused reports highlight worker impacts and unpaid service ^{[4] [2]}, while administrative guides and state-facing pieces prioritize operational continuity for safety and food systems ^{[1] [7]}. The result is a complementary, if sometimes frictional, narrative: the shutdown both strained workforce livelihoods and forced prioritization of essential governmental functions, with reporting emphasis shaped by the stakeholder interests and intended audiences of each source.

6. Bottom line — what can be stated with confidence

Based on the supplied materials, the 2025 shutdown produced widespread partial closures across many cabinet departments and independent agencies, including the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Homeland Security, the EPA, and agencies like the FAA and NASA, while essential public-safety services continued and some agencies remained operational via mandatory or self-funding mechanisms ^{[4] [1] [3]}. Numeric estimates of affected personnel differ by source and methodology, but all accounts agree the impact was substantial — hundreds of thousands to over a million federal employees were furloughed or working without pay, illustrating both the operational reach of a shutdown and the variability in how its effects are counted and framed ^{[6] [3]}.