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What role does the House of Representatives play in initiating a government shutdown?
Executive Summary
The House of Representatives is central to how a federal government shutdown can begin because all appropriations and spending bills originate in the House, and failure there to enact regular appropriations or a continuing resolution creates the funding gap that triggers a lapse in agency authority and a shutdown [1]. In practice, the House’s actions interact with Senate rules and presidential decisions—if the House passes bills but the Senate cannot reach 60 votes or the President refuses signature, funding still can lapse—so responsibility is shared politically even though the constitutional and procedural starting point for funding is the House [2] [3] [4].
1. How the House Starts the Money Train — and How It Can Stall
The House begins the appropriations process by drafting and passing the twelve regular appropriations bills via the House Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees; this origination power makes the House the procedural first mover on whether annual funding is enacted on time [1]. If the House fails to pass those measures, or passes measures that cannot be reconciled with the Senate, Congress must adopt a continuing resolution to avoid a lapse; absent such a stopgap, federal agencies lose statutory authority to obligate funds and a shutdown follows [4]. The House can therefore initiate a shutdown by declining to pass clean funding or by attaching policy riders that the Senate will not accept, creating an impasse that prevents passage of a funding vehicle acceptable to both chambers and the President [3].
2. Where the House’s Power Meets the Senate’s Gatekeeping
Although the House originates spending bills, the Senate’s filibuster and 60-vote threshold often determine whether House-passed funding becomes law; a House majority cannot, on its own, convert appropriations into enacted law if the Senate blocks the measures [2] [5]. The 2025 shutdown shows this dynamic: the House passed or proposed measures, but the Senate needed 60 votes to move legislation and Democratic senators withheld support, leaving the government unfunded at the deadline [2]. Calls to remove or alter the filibuster to bypass Senate obstruction, as publicly urged by the President in 2025, would change the balance of responsibility, but until rules change the venue where deadlock is resolved remains bicameral [5].
3. Political Strategy: House Majorities Can Use Shutdown Threat as Leverage
The House majority can deliberately create brinkmanship by refusing to approve spending bills or insisting on contentious policy conditions, using the risk of a shutdown as leverage to extract concessions on issues like foreign aid or entitlement policy; this strategic posture makes the House a frequent initiator of shutdown standoffs even when the Senate and the Presidency are controlled by the same party [6] [1]. In 2025, partisan disagreements over spending levels, foreign aid rescissions, and health insurance subsidies played central roles in the impasse, demonstrating how substantive policy fights in the House can precipitate a lapse in funding when compromise fails [6].
4. What Happens Inside the House During a Lapse — Operations and Priorities
When appropriations lapse, the House continues to operate in a limited fashion: essential congressional functions and constitutionally mandated activities persist, while nonessential staff and services face furloughs or suspension, and the House focuses on activities that safeguard human life, protect property, and maintain critical legislative responsibilities [7]. This internal continuity contrasts with the broader federal workforce, where agencies determine which employees are excepted from furlough based on life-safety and property-protection needs; the House’s operational posture during a shutdown underscores that while it can trigger a lapse, Congress itself maintains a narrower set of ongoing functions [7] [4].
5. Big Picture: Shared Responsibility, Distinct Authority, and Political Accountability
Legally, the House holds distinct procedural authority as the origination point for appropriations, making it a principal actor in whether funding is enacted on time; politically, responsibility is shared because the Senate’s rules and the President’s signature are necessary to convert House bills into law, and the public often assigns blame across institutions depending on partisan narratives and visible maneuvers [1] [2] [5]. The 2025 shutdown illustrates this interplay: House-originated disputes over content and timing collided with Senate supermajority requirements and presidential responses, producing a funding lapse that was procedurally rooted in the House but dependent on Senate and executive actions to resolve [6] [2] [3].