By Juliana Vasquez | Staff Writer
As lawmakers on Capitol Hill struggle to find a consensus on the government’s spending bill, Baylor students continue to go about their day-to-day lives. Trouble in Washington doesn’t impact students in Waco, or does it?
Government shutdowns occur when Congress fails to pass legislation to fund the government before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
“What’s commonly the case is that Congress will pass what’s called a continuing resolution, which just sort of continues things as they are, and kicks the can down the road until hopefully they make some kind of agreement that carries us through the next September,” Dr. Patrick Flavin, chair of the political science department, said.
But this was not the case during this fiscal year, which ultimately led to a government shutdown, Flavin said.
“When we say shutdown, it’s not the most accurate way to describe it,” Flavin said. “A better way to put it is that most federal workers are working right now without pay.”
According to an Oct. 2 NPR article, federal employees either don’t work or work unpaid when shutdowns occur. This puts federal offices in a bind, with services provided by airlines, the U.S. Postal Service and Social Security likely to be delayed.
Christopher Holmes, Baylor’s general counsel and chief legal officer and corporate secretary, said that this shutdown likely won’t have a huge impact on students.
“Most of the areas that would impact our students are not things that are going to be impacted by a government shutdown, particularly when the government shutdown occurs mid-semester,” Holmes said.
Students will likely see an impact regarding federal research grants, research funding and revisions to the regulations passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Holmes said. Luckily, Baylor was able to anticipate the shutdown.
“We’re really working with our federal lobbyists, with a number of education associations … and they are really working quite intensively with the federal government to anticipate what might happen as a result of the shutdown,” Holmes said.
In terms of research grants, Holmes said even though the government is shut down, faculty members will continue applying for research grants.
“With a shorter-term shutdown, that delay might be a few weeks,” Holmes said. “In which case, the amount of delay in the actual research process, that’s going to be minimal to really nonexistent.”
However, if the shutdown continues to drag on, it will start impacting research progress. Holmes said Baylor hopes the issue is resolved sooner rather than later and that the university is optimistic about a budget being approved and delays being resolved.
“Last time was five or six years ago, and I think it was a 35-day shutdown … but they usually do tend to be short,” Flavin said.
Past shutdowns have helped the university to better prepare for this one, Holmes said.
“We take a look at different things that have happened in the past, and we want to continue to take steps to minimize the impact from this,” Holmes said. “If this is of a shorter nature, then we’re hopeful that this won’t have any type of long-sustaining impact on the institution.”
