The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Congress’ failure to pass a short-term government funding bill before midnight Tuesday will lead to the first shutdown in nearly seven years and give President Donald Trump broad authority to determine what federal operations keep running — which will have a huge impact on the government, its employees, states and Americans. 

A funding lapse this year would have a considerably wider effect than the 35-day one that took place during Trump’s first term and could last longer, given heightened political tensions. 

The last shutdown didn’t affect the departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor and Veterans Affairs, since Congress had approved those agencies’ full-year funding bills.

Lawmakers had also enacted the Legislative Branch appropriations bill, exempting Capitol Hill from any repercussions. 

That isn’t the case this time around since none of the dozen government spending bills have become law. That means nearly every corner of the federal government will feel the pain in some way if a compromise isn’t reached by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. 

States Newsroom’s Washington, D.C. Bureau offers you a quick guide to what could happen if Republicans and Democrats don’t broker an agreement in time.

How does the White House budget office determine what government operations are essential during a shutdown?

Generally, federal programs that include the preservation of life or property as well as those addressing national security continue during a shutdown, while all other activities are supposed to cease until a funding bill becomes law. 

But the president holds expansive power to determine what activities within the executive branch are essential and which aren’t, making the effects of a shutdown hard to pinpoint unless the Trump administration shares that information publicly. 

Presidential administrations have traditionally posted contingency plans on the White House budget office’s website, detailing how each agency would shut down — explaining which employees are exempt and need to keep working, and which are furloughed. 

That appears to have changed this year. The web page that would normally host dozens of contingency plans remained blank until late September, when the White House budget office posted that a 940-page document released in August calls for the plans to be “hosted solely on each agency’s website.”

Only a few departments had plans from this year posted on their websites as of Friday afternoon.

The White House budget office expects agencies to develop Reduction in Force plans as part of their shutdown preparation, signaling a prolonged funding lapse will include mass firings and layoffs.

While the two-page memo doesn’t detail which agencies would be most affected, it says layoffs will apply to programs, projects, or activities that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

Trump will be paid during a shutdown since Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution prevents the president’s salary from being increased or decreased during the current term.

No one else in the executive branch — including Cabinet secretaries, more than 2 million civilian employees and over 1 million active duty military personnel — will receive their paycheck until after the shutdown ends. 

Are federal courts exempt from a shutdown since they’re a separate branch of government?

The Supreme Court will continue to conduct normal operations in the event of a shutdown, according to its Public Information Office. 

The office said the court “will rely on permanent funds not subject to annual approval, as it has in the past, to maintain operations through the duration of short-term lapses of annual appropriations,” in a statement shared with States Newsroom. 

As for any impact on lower federal courts, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said the federal judiciary was still assessing the fiscal 2026 outlook and had no comment. 

The office serves as the central support arm of the federal judiciary. 

During the last government shutdown from late 2018 into early 2019, federal courts remained open using court fee balances and “no-year” funds, which are available for an indefinite period. 

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has said that if those funds run out, they would operate under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which “allows work to continue during a lapse in appropriations if it is necessary to support the exercise of Article III judicial powers.” 

Supreme Court justices and appointed federal judges continue to get paid during a government shutdown, as Article III of the Constitution says the judges’ compensation “shall not be diminished” during their term.

What happens to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

The three programs exist largely outside of the annual appropriations process, since lawmakers categorized them as “mandatory spending.” 

This means Social Security checks as well as reimbursements to health care providers for Medicare and Medicaid services should continue as normal.

One possible hitch is the salaries for people who run those programs are covered by annual appropriations bills, so there could be some staffing problems for the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, depending on their contingency plans. 

The first Trump administration’s shutdown guidance for the Social Security Administration showed 54,000 of 63,000 employees at that agency would have kept working. The CMS plan from 2020 shows that it intended to keep about 50% of its employees working in the event of a shutdown. Neither had a current plan as of Friday.

Will the Department of Veterans Affairs be able to keep providing health care and benefits?

Veterans can expect health care to continue uninterrupted at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics in the event of a shutdown. Vets would also continue to receive benefits, including compensation, pension, education and housing, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs contingency planning for a funding lapse that is currently published on the department’s website. It’s unclear if the plan will be the one the Trump administration puts into action.

But a shutdown would affect other VA services. For example, the GI Bill hotline would close, and all in-person and virtual career counseling and transition assistance services would be unavailable.

Additionally, all regional VA benefits offices would shutter until Congress agreed to fund the government. The closures would include the Manila Regional Office in the Philippines that serves veterans in the Pacific region.

All department public outreach to veterans would also cease.

Will Hubbard, spokesperson for Veterans Education Success, said his advocacy organization is bracing for increased phone calls and emails from veterans who would normally call the GI Bill hotline.

“Questions are going to come up, veterans are going to be looking for answers, and they’re not going to be able to call like they would be able to normally, that’s going to be a big problem,” Hubbard said.

“Most of the benefits that people are going to be most concerned about will not be affected, but the ones that do get affected, for the people that that hits, I mean, it’s going to matter a lot to them. It’s going to change the direction of their planning, and potentially the direction of their life,” Hubbard said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Management and Budget did not respond to a request for current VA shutdown guidance.

What happens to immigration enforcement and immigration courts? 

As the Trump administration continues with its aggressive immigration tactics in cities with high immigrant populations, that enforcement is likely to continue during a government shutdown, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s March guidance for operating in a government shutdown.

Immigration-related fees will continue, such as for processing visas and applications from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

And DHS expects nearly all of its U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees to be exempt — 17,500 out of 20,500 — and continue working without pay amid a government shutdown. 

That means that ICE officers will continue to arrest, detain and remove from the country immigrants without legal status. DHS is currently concentrating immigration enforcement efforts in Chicago, known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Other employees within DHS, such as those in Transportation Security Administration, will also be retained during a government shutdown. There are about 58,000 TSA employees that would be exempt and continue to work without pay in airports across the country.  

DHS did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for a contingency plan if there is a government shutdown.

Separately, a shutdown would also burden the overwhelmed immigration court system that is housed within the Department of Justice. It would lead to canceling or rescheduling court cases, when there is already a backlog of 3.4 million cases.

The only exceptions are immigration courts that are located within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detention centers, but most cases would need to be rescheduled. The partial government shutdown that began in December 2018 caused nearly 43,000 court cases to be canceled, according to a report by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.

And 28 states have an immigration court, requiring some immigrants to travel hundreds, or thousands, of miles for their appointment. 

States that do not have an immigration court include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Will people be able to visit national parks or use public lands during a shutdown? 

Probably, but that may be bad for parks’ long-term health.

During the 2018-2019 shutdown, the first Trump administration kept parks open, with skeleton staffs across the country struggling to maintain National Park Service facilities.

Theresa Pierno, the president and CEO of the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association, said in a Sept. 23 statement the last shutdown devastated areas of some parks.

“Americans watched helplessly as Joshua Trees were cut down, park buildings were vandalized, prehistoric petroglyphs were defaced, trash overflowed leading to wildlife impacts, and human waste piled up,” she wrote. “Visitor safety and irreplaceable natural and cultural resources were put at serious risk. We cannot allow this to happen again.”

The National Park Service’s latest contingency plan was published in March 2024, during President Joe Biden’s administration. It calls for at least some closures during a shutdown, though the document says the response will differ from park to park. 

Restricting access to parks is difficult due to their physical characteristics, the document said, adding that staffing would generally be maintained at a minimum to allow visitors. However, some areas that are regularly closed could be locked up for the duration of a shutdown.

But that contingency plan is likely to change before Tuesday, spokespeople for the Park Service and the Interior Department, which oversees NPS, said Sept. 25.

“The lapse in funding plans on our website are from 2024,” an email from the NPS office of public affairs said. “They are currently being reviewed and updated.”

Hunters and others seeking to use public lands maintained by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will likely be able to continue to do so, though they may have to make alternative plans if they’d planned to use facilities such as campgrounds. 

Land Tawney, the co-chair of the advocacy group American Hunters and Anglers, said campgrounds, toilets and facilities that require staffing would be inaccessible, but most public lands would remain available.

“Those lands are kind of open and they’re just unmanned, I would say, and that’s not really gonna change much,” he said. “If you’re staying in a campground, you’ve got to figure something else out.”

As with national parks, access to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges and other hunting and fishing sites will differ from site to site, Tawney said. The Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t require permits for hunting on its lands, but access to some refuges is determined by a staff-run lottery drawing. If those drawings can’t be held, access to those sites will be limited, Tawney said.

What happens to the Internal Revenue Service?

How the Internal Revenue Service would operate during a government shutdown remains unclear. 

When Congress teetered on letting funding run out in March, the nation’s revenue collection agency released a contingency plan to continue full operations during the height of tax filing season. 

The IRS planned to use funds allocated in the 2022 budget reconciliation law to keep its roughly 95,000 employees processing returns and refunds, answering the phones, and pursuing audits. 

Ultimately Congress agreed on a stopgap funding bill to avoid a March shutdown, but much has changed since then.

The new tax and spending law, signed by Trump on July 4 and often referred to as the “one big beautiful bill,” made major changes to the U.S. tax code. 

Additionally, the agency, which processes roughly 180 million income tax returns per year, has lost about a quarter of its workforce since January. Top leadership has also turned over six times in 2025.

Rachel Snyderman, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said workforce reductions combined with a string of leadership changes could factor into how the agency would operate during a funding lapse.

“It’s really difficult to understand both what the status of the agency would be if the government were to shut down in less than a week, and also the impacts that a prolonged shutdown could have on taxpayer services and taxpayers at large,” said Snyderman, the think tank’s managing director of economic policy.

Do federal employees get back pay after a shutdown ends?

According to the Office of Personnel Management — the executive branch’s chief human resources agency — “after the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as the result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods.” 

The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires furloughed government employees to receive back pay as a result of a government shutdown. 

That law does not apply to federal contractors, who face uncertainty in getting paid during a shutdown. 

What role does Congress have during a shutdown?

The House and Senate must approve a stopgap spending bill or all dozen full-year appropriations bills to end a shutdown, a feat that requires the support of at least some Democrats to get past the upper chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., control their respective chambers’ calendars as well as the floor schedule, so they could keep holding votes on the stopgap bill Democrats have already rejected or try to pass individual bills to alleviate the impacts on certain agencies.   

Neither Johnson nor Thune has yet to suggest bipartisan negotiations with Democratic leaders about funding the government. And while they are open to discussions about extending the enhanced tax credits for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, they don’t want that decision connected to the funding debate.  

Democratic leaders have said repeatedly that Republicans shouldn’t expect them to vote for legislation they had no say in drafting, especially with a health care cliff for millions of Americans coming at the end of the year. 

Members of Congress will receive their paychecks regardless of how long a shutdown lasts, but the people who work for them would only receive their salaries after it ends. 

Lawmakers must be paid under language in Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 of the Constitution as well as the 27th Amendment, which bars members of Congress from changing their salaries during the current session. 

Lawmakers have discretion to decide which of their staff members continue working during a shutdown and which are furloughed.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police, which is tasked with protecting members amid a sharp rise in political violence, said a shutdown “would not affect the security of the Capitol Complex.” 

“Our officers, and the professional staff who perform or support emergency functions, would still report to work,” the spokesperson said. “Employees who are not required for emergency functions would be furloughed until funding is available.”

Gov. Tony Evers and Veterans Affairs Sec. James Bond spoke an event for veterans in the state Capitol on April 22, 2025. (Photo via Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Facebook page)

A Republican bill that would provide funding for the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program received a hearing in the state Senate on Thursday, advancing a potential solution to the cuts the program is facing even as it appears too late to stop the closures. 

Sen. André Jacque (R-New Franken), the lead author on the proposal, told the Senate Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs committee that it is the responsibility of lawmakers to ensure that Wisconsin “properly honors the sacrifices made by our brave men and women of the armed services” and his bill would help do that. He also serves as the chair of the committee.

“I know that there’s been a lot of confusion and contentious finger pointing over responsibility for the interruption of service at these sites. Ideally, these issues would have already been resolved but finger pointing accomplishes nothing,” Jacque said. 

The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) has been a source of back-and-forth between Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic lawmakers and Republican lawmakers since the closure of two sites, one in Chippewa Falls and the other in the Green Bay area, was announced in July. 

The program, operated by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, has focused on providing support to veterans on the verge of or experiencing homelessness, including those who have experienced incarceration, unemployment or physical and mental health problems. Veterans in the program are able to participate for a maximum of 24 months, but the average length of stay is six to 10 months.

Evers announced in July that the sites would close on Sept. 30 due to a lack of state funding in the budget. He had requested an additional $2 million from lawmakers to help sustain the program, but that request wasn’t heeded and Democratic attempts to put the funding back in the budget were rejected by Republicans — apart from Jacque, who voted with Democrats. 

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration announced shortly after the end of the budget process in July that the two facilities would be closing. 

Evers blamed the closures on lawmakers for not providing the additional funds, while lawmakers said Evers didn’t try to negotiate for the funding.

Then some Republican lawmakers who represent areas surrounding the facilities started claiming that money should be available for the administration to use. In a 16-page letter on Sept. 10, a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Reps. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) and Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere), claimed that the Evers administration should have access to funds to help support the program. That letter pointed to the balance that the WDVA returns at the end of the year, though an agency spokesperson has noted that the agency cannot spend funds on whatever the administration chooses, and is “only allowed to spend the money they tell us to spend.”

Evers had also denied the claim, saying “the money is not there.” He noted that a paper from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau to the Joint Finance Committee warned lawmakers that additional funds were needed for the program. 

“Without additional funding, the Department [of Veterans Affairs] would not have sufficient resources to maintain the program’s three sites,” the paper stated.

Senate Bill 411 would provide $900,000 in 2025-26 and $1,050,000 in 2026-27 for the program and for costs associated with the Chippewa Falls site. Jacque’s bill also includes two other policy changes that he said veterans have been requesting. One would require the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin system to provide funding to the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project to support missions to recover and identify Wisconsin veterans who are missing, and the other would lower the eligibility threshold for veterans and surviving spouses to claim the veterans and surviving spouses property tax credit.

“We have the opportunity to achieve a proactive, bipartisan solution to the funding problem, and I encourage my committee members to join me in approving this funding package,” Jacque said. “Supporting our veterans has not been and must not be a partisan fight. I truly believe there’s enough support and good will on both sides of the aisle to accomplish each of these priorities.” 

The bill does currently has only nine Republican sponsors and no Democratic sponsors. Democratic lawmakers had proposed their own bill with Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) saying at a press conference that she preferred “clean legislation.” That bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-led Legislature even as Democrats call for a bill hearing on it. 

Jacque said legislators are also discussing  the potential for the Joint Finance Committee to reallocate funds for the program, and that his conversations about his bill have been productive on both sides of the aisle. 

“That was my goal in bringing it forward immediately after the budget was done, to have a vehicle to continue that conversation and make sure that we get some additional progress done on these issues beyond budget,” Jacque said. 

The VHRP has been funded through three revenue streams: trust fund payments, payments made by program participants and per diem payments, which are made to the agency by the federal government at a current rate of about $71 per resident per day. 

Growing staffing and maintenance costs have strained those funds. A contract with Lutheran Social Services, which staffs the facilities, makes up about 70% of the costs. The Evers administration had postponed some of the looming financial hardship by allocating American Rescue Plan Act funding to the program in 2023-24, but those funds have been expended. 

WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey said in testimony that it is too late to stop the closure of the facilities at least for a time.

Hoey said that when the budget passed on July 3, the three VHRP sites were in their fourth year of the federal VA’s Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program with the option to renew for a fifth and final year starting October 1, 2025.

The agency was forced to consolidate the facilities to the Union Grove location, the site in best physical condition, without dedicated state funding for the program. The agency also had to notify the USDVA that it would not be renewing its grant agreement for Chippewa Falls. It asked to renew and change the scope of the grant agreement that covers both Union Grove and Green Bay, reducing the total number of beds from 57 to 40 to reflect the closure of the Green Bay facility. 

“Being forced to close our facilities in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls was gut wrenching for the veterans and for staff,” Hoey said. “I want to assure everyone in this room that with the help of veteran advocates, our partners at Lutheran Social Services and others, we were able to provide all the veterans in our care at Green Bay and Chippewa Falls with alternative options. As of last week, neither facility has any veterans still at the facility. All those residents have been successfully placed either in other treatment programs for veterans, other treatment programs that are not veteran centered, some have moved to Minneapolis, some moved to Michigan, a good amount have moved to our facility in Union Grove, but no veterans were kicked out on the street.” 

Hoey said even if the state were to pass the bill before the end of September, the state agency cannot rescind the notification for Chippewa Falls. It would only be able to apply for the next round of grants, which wouldn’t be available until October 2026.

“The earliest we could resume the program in Chippewa Falls would be sometime after October 1, 2026,” Hoey said. “If this bill passes, we stand ready to ask the USDVA to change the scope of our agreement covering Union Grove and Green Bay to go back up to the 57 beds included in the original grant. We believe that the USDVA would approve that change, meaning we could resume the program in Green Bay relatively quickly, provided that the landlord has not rented out the facility we were using and that we can sign a contract with Lutheran Social Services.”

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At a press conference outside the state Capitol Wednesday, Sens. Jamie Wall, Jeff Smith and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein urged Republicans to schedule a hearing for their bill expeditiously. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Less than a month before the planned closure of two Wisconsin veterans’ housing sites, a handful of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are seeking a way to save the sites. But bipartisan work on a solution appears out of reach as lawmakers bicker over who is to blame for the lack of funding and over whether to take up Democratic- or Republican-authored bills.

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration announced, shortly after the state budget was completed in July, that two Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) sites, one in Chippewa Falls and one in Green Bay, would be closing on Sept. 30 due to a lack of funding in the state budget. One facility in Union Grove will remain open. 

The program, which is run under the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, serves veterans who are on the verge of or are already experiencing homelessness, including those who have been incarcerated, unemployed or have physical and mental health problems. Participants get access to transitional housing, referrals to service providers, financial assistance, assistance with seeking vocational opportunities and access to a room at a reduced rent for working veterans.

Participants can stay for a maximum of 24 months, but the average length is six to 10 months.

The program has been funded with a combination of an appropriation from the Veterans Trust Fund, payments made by program participants and per diem payments, which are made to the agency by the federal government at a current rate of about $71 per resident per day. However, growing staffing and maintenance costs at the facilities led to the need for additional state support. Evers had included a funding proposal in his budget but that was removed by Republican lawmakers.

Following the news of the closures, Sens. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) and Jaime Wall (D-Green Bay) introduced a bill that would dedicate $1.9 million to the sites.

At a press conference outside the state Capitol Wednesday, the bill authors and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) urged Republicans to schedule a hearing for their bill expeditiously.

Citing the upcoming closure date, Hesselbein said the Senate and Assembly must meet. She said committees could meet this week or next to hear the legislation and pass it out of committee this month and have the bill on the floor in October.

“It’s a cool day out here today. The weather is going to get worse. We need to take care of our veterans,” Hesselbein said.

According to the Associated Press, the state Senate is not planning to meet for a floor session this month. 

“It’s way past time to take action to keep these facilities open so they can continue to provide vital services to our veterans,” Hesselbein said, adding that “when Democrats have the power of majority which we believe is coming in just a few years, we will always have your backs.” Democrats are seeking to flip control of the state Senate in the 2026 election cycle. 

Smith called Republicans’ lack of action on the issue “callous,” noting that Democrats tried months ago to include the funding in the budget. When Democrats proposed an amendment to  fund the veterans’ housing sites in the state budget, every Republican voted against it except for Sen. André Jacque (R-New Franken). 

It is unlikely that the Republican-led Legislature will allow Democrats’ bill to advance. 

“[Republicans] have ignored our pleas. As far as we know, we’re not going to see these bills on the floor this month, and this is the final chapter. This is when it ends. No hope for the veterans that they like to pretend that they care about,” Smith said. 

Jacque, meanwhile, began circulating his own bill last month to provide the needed funding for the facilities. 

The Republican bill, coauthored by Jacque and Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere), includes $1.9 million for the VHRP program as well as two other policy changes related to veterans. 

One would require the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin system to provide funding to the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project to support missions to recover and identify Wisconsin veterans who are missing. The other would lower the eligibility threshold for veterans and surviving spouses to claim the veterans and surviving spouses property tax credit.

Jacque said the two policies were also left out of the budget and are critical to helping veterans.

“Every budget has missed opportunities, and I am hopeful that the rest of the session will provide openings to address those challenges in a number of areas, particularly providing for our veterans who have done so much in service to our country and communities,” Jacque told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email.

Jacque said he has “found a lot of support” from his Republican colleagues and is “hopeful that the bill will be referred to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Veterans and Military Affairs,” which he chairs.

In response to a question about Jacque’s bill and whether Democrats are working with any Republicans to advance funding for the facilities, Hesselbein brushed off the GOP bill saying it simply pulled from Democrats’ ideas. 

“What Sen. Jacque did is he took three Democratic bills and pushed them all into one omnibus. We’ll be interested if he gets a hearing. I’m not sure…,” Hesselbein said. “I like to have clean legislation when we try to have committee hearings so you can hear exactly what’s going on with those bills, so we are supporting the bill that Sen. Wall and Sen. Smith put forth.”

Smith said Democrats separated the VHRP funding from other policies purposefully. Wall added that their bill is a “smaller, cleaner ask” than a bill with multiple items. 

Jacque told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email that he is “extremely disappointed by Sen. Hesselbein’s comments and her unwillingness to put partisanship aside for the sake of working to support veterans — as I did when I voted for the omnibus veterans motion her caucus introduced during the budget. I am rather surprised at her comments due to her longstanding penchant for putting forward omnibus bills and amendments.” 

Jacque noted that he has supported and authored legislation to expand the property tax credit for veterans and surviving spouses in previous years “going all the way back to my service in the State Assembly,” and has also supported previous UW MIA legislation. 

“I supported VHRP within the budget and it was not introduced as standalone legislation by any legislator previously to that, at least to my knowledge,” Jacque added. “I didn’t think Sen. Hesselbein was that unaware of the history of these initiatives.”

Not every Republican lawmaker has appeared open to providing additional funding that would be used to keep the two VHRP programs open. Following the initial news of the planned closures, Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee, blamed Evers for not negotiating for the money in the budget.

According to the Green Bay Press Gazette, Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) claimed last week that Evers had a “slush fund” — referring to federal pandemic aid — and should be able to find the money to keep the facilities afloat. He pointed to the Wisconsin DVA’s Veterans Trust Fund, a state fund that supports most grant and benefit programs for Wisconsin veterans, and said the agency has regularly returned around $1 million in unspent funds each year and in 2025, the agency sent back about $600,000.

WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey has disputed the comments, saying that the agency is “only allowed to spend the money they tell us to spend.” He has also said the trust fund cannot be used for the staffing costs and that there isn’t enough in it.

Wall objected to Wimberger’s “slush fund” comments as well on Wednesday, saying that federal American Rescue Plan Act money has been spent. ARPA funds were used to help support costs for the program in 2023-24. States had to expend the one-time ARPA funds by the end of 2024.

“[Evers] took some ARPA interest funds and used it to help prop up the program. Those funds don’t exist anymore. The ARPA funds all had to be allocated by the end of last year,” Wall said. “The ARPA interest money was all spent in the last budget, so that get out of jail free card doesn’t exist.”

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Nearly all abortions, except those to save a patient’s life, would be banned at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and would no longer be covered by VA medical benefits under a rule proposed by the Trump administration. The policy change comes from the Project 2025 playbook. (Getty Images)

The Trump administration has taken its first step toward restricting access to abortions for veterans who are covered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ medical benefits, reversing a 2022 rule.

Former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration enacted the rule following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which ended federally protected access to abortion. More than a dozen states implemented abortion bans after that decision, and the policy was meant to preserve access to abortion for veterans in certain circumstances, regardless of where they lived. Veterans Affairs medical centers were allowed to provide abortions in cases of rape or incest, and when the life or health of the pregnant person was in jeopardy. Counseling about abortion was also permitted.

Under the proposal, nearly all abortions, except those to save a patient’s life, would be banned at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and would no longer be covered by VA medical benefits.

In eight states with abortion bans, there are no rape or incest exceptions, including Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Five states with bans also don’t have an exception in cases where the pregnant person’s health is at risk, only to save their life.

The rule also applies to recipients of the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), which provides coverage to veterans’ families, including children, along with caregivers of veterans.

Officials wrote in the proposal that the 2022 policy was enacted because the administration expected increased “demand” for abortion services, but the rule cited abortion bans in several states that created an environment of uncertainty for veterans who might need care.

The Department of Veterans Affairs provided 88 abortions in the first year after the rule went into place, 64 of which were performed because of a threat to the pregnant person’s health, according to VA data reported by Military.com.

Rescinding the rule was a directive in Project 2025, the blueprint document published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and co-authored by anti-abortion organizations such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The first of what the document calls “needed reforms” calls for rescinding all department clinical policy directives that are “contrary to principles of conservative governance, starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery.”

“Neither aligns with service-connected conditions that would warrant VA’s providing this type of clinical care,” the Project 2025 document reads.

U.S. law already mandates that federal funding cannot be used for abortions except in cases of rape, incest and in certain medical circumstances. The administration argues the 2022 rule violated the “bright line between elective abortion and health care services” and should return to a policy that only allows abortion care to save the pregnant person’s life. Counseling about abortion options would no longer be permitted.

“Taken together, claims in the prior administrations rule that abortions throughout pregnancy are needed to save the lives of pregnant women are incorrect,” officials wrote in the proposed rule description. “Prior to September 9, 2022, abortions and abortion counseling were excluded from the medical benefits package, with no exceptions.”

According to estimates from nonprofit National Partnership for Women and Families, more than 400,000 women veterans lived in states that already had an abortion ban in place or were likely to ban it in 2023. That figure represents more than half of the women veterans in the country.

Public comment on the proposed rule will be accepted until Sept. 3. 

Gov. Tony Evers and Veterans Affairs Sec. James Bond spoke an event for veterans in the state Capitol on April 22, 2025. (Photo via Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Facebook page)

Two Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs programs that provide support to struggling veterans, including those experiencing homelessness, are on track to close locations and shrink in size due to a lack of funding in the new state budget.

The state budget was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers in early July following months of negotiations. While Evers and lawmakers hailed the agreement as a bipartisan accomplishment, they are now blaming each other for the anticipated closure of two facilities, one in Chippewa Falls and one in Green Bay, that serve veterans struggling with homelessness this year due to insufficient funding available. Another program that provides support for veterans dealing with mental health and substance use issues will also face cuts due to the budget.

The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP), which currently has three physical sites, serves veterans who are on the verge of or experiencing homelessness, including those who have experienced incarceration, unemployment or underemployment, physical and mental health problems. The program lasts a maximum of 24 months, but the average length of stay is six to 10 months.

The VHRP locations in Chippewa Falls, which has 48 beds, and Green Bay, which has 17, will close by September 30 of this year. The Union Grove location, which has a capacity of 40 beds, will remain open.

“We make a promise to our veterans that when they return home to their civilian life, we will support and serve them just as they have supported and served us. Our veterans should not have to worry about being able to afford to keep a roof over their heads. Period,” Evers said in a statement Monday. 

Randy Nelson, 63, has resided at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls for about three months. He told the Wisconsin Examiner in a phone interview that it has been the “perfect place for me to come and figure some things out,” especially since his daughter lives nearby. Before he moved in, he had been experiencing homelessness and navigating substance use issues.

Nelson served in the military for three years starting in 1979 and spent much of his time working on aircraft repairs. He said he has been lucky to receive some of the veterans’ services that he has. 

Nelson said the VHRP program has given him an array of resources, including access to recovery and anger management programming, and it has also been a safe place for him to look for housing. 

“I just lucked out in getting a housing voucher this quick, otherwise I’d have no place to go,” Nelson said.

Nelson said he is confident in his sobriety now and “more hopeful about my remaining years,” but is “truly worried” about his fellow veterans, given the recent news. He said some residents are considering leaving the state to try to find a new place with similar services, even though they want to remain in the area. 

“They’re scared of getting kicked out and being homeless,” Nelson said. He said residents are still considered homeless to some degree, since they lack a permanent address, but the closure could mean some would “actually be out on the streets again.”

“There’s people that are working and saving up money here, and they don’t know what to do because they’re not making enough money to get into a place yet,” Nelson said.

The Legislature, Nelson said, is “taking away valuable resources for veterans” with the cuts to the program. 

The program was created by Wisconsin lawmakers in the 1993-95 state budget and was initially supported from Wisconsin’s veterans trust fund. It was expanded in the following years and is currently funded from a combination of trust fund payments, payments made by program participants and per diem payments, which are made to the agency by the federal government at a current rate of about $71 per resident per day. Participants can be charged up to 30% of their monthly income in rent when using transitional housing. 

Growing staffing and maintenance costs at the facilities led to Evers and the agency requesting nearly $2 million in additional state funding during the budget process, but it wasn’t included in the final bill. 

“The bottom line is that there will now be fewer options for homeless veterans as a result of the Legislature’s irresponsible decision to reject the investments,” Evers said, adding that he would be urging the Legislature to provide additional support for veterans in the fall.

Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick), Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) and Reps. Jodi Emerson, Ryan Spaude, Christian Phelps, Christine Sinicki, Brienne Brown, Amaad Rivera-Wagner, Maureen McCarville and Angelito Tenori, quickly introduced legislation Wednesday that would provide the necessary funding.

“Republicans withheld critical funds for over a year while our region struggled with hospital closures. Now homeless veterans are the victims of the Republicans’ callous inaction,” Smith said in a statement. “These men and women served our country. We have a moral obligation to ensure they have a roof over their heads.”

Emerson called the closures “extremely alarming” in a statement, noting that the facilities  are scheduled to close just as the weather in Wisconsin turns cold.   

The co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee Rep. Mark Born and Sen. Howard Marklein pushed back on Evers in a statement, saying his comments were “simply disingenuous.”

“The Legislature made significant investments to support veterans in our state including in this program,” the lawmakers said, noting the budget included $5 million to support Wisconsin veterans homes, $2.5 million to support the Veterans Community Project which provides housing and support services for veterans and a slight increase in the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program.

“Legislative leaders negotiated for weeks with Governor Evers and he did not bring this topic up once,” Born and Marklein said. “Evers is looking for a scapegoat to blame for his administration’s failure to adequately manage the changes to the program volume and demands.”

WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey told the Wisconsin Examiner, however, that it is “disingenuous” to blame Evers when lawmakers made the decision to exclude the funding from the budget.

“They can try and paint it however they want,” Hoey said. “If they wanted to fund it, they could have put it in the budget.”

The agency worked with lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee during the budget cycle, agreeing to eliminate over 200 positions that were unfilled. Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) thanked the head of the agency for working with them during the committee’s June 12 meeting. 

Hoey said the agency had hoped the budget would reflect that collaboration and would include funding for the Veterans Housing and Recovery program (VHRP) or the Veterans Outreach and Recovery program (VORP). Ultimately, it did not.

The VHRP program’s base funding was about $2.1 million, including $1.3 million in federal funding, $677,500 from the veterans trust fund and $115,500 from rent payments.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) laid out the stakes for the program in a memo to lawmakers as they were writing the state budget. 

“Without additional funding, the Department would not have sufficient resources to maintain the program’s three sites,” the memo stated. 

One of the funding issues outlined by LFB was the rising cost of staffing. According to the memo, about two-thirds of VHRP costs went towards Lutheran Social Services, the organization providing management and supportive services at each location. Lutheran Social Services has incurred higher staffing costs in recent years. Evers dedicated $500,000 in ARPA funds to those increased costs in 2023-24, but that funding has run out.

The facilities were also proving a problem, Hoey said. Evers had requested $24 million in his capital budget to build new facilities in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls, but lawmakers declined to fund them.

“The physical upkeep was also above what we had calculated or budgeted,” Hoey said, noting that the Chippewa Falls building had roof leaks and the HVAC system was old. “We were paying people to repair it and Band-Aid it. In Green Bay, we had problems, and every time you have a problem and you can’t have a resident in a room… you’re not getting that $73 per day from the federal government. It’s a double whammy, and that’s why we thought new facilities would fix that for Green Bay and Chippewa Falls.” 

Evers had proposed providing $1.95 million across the biennium for the program.

Lawmakers provided an adjustment to the program of $100,000, which they are touting as a 15% increase. Hoey said in an email, however, that the funding is an adjustment that reflects what the agency has already been spending and still falls “well short” of the funding the LFB identified as necessary to keep the sites open.

Hoey also noted another program administered by the WDVA will face cuts under the new state budget.

The Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program (VORP), which serves veterans dealing with mental health and substance use issues and aims to reduce the suicide rate among veterans, is set to lose seven employees. Evers had asked for seven positions and more than $1.1 million to help support the program. 

The program launched in 2015 with the help of a federal mental health grant, and has since become state funded. ARPA funds were used in 2023 to expand the reach of the program, but with those funds running out the agency sought state funds to continue its current size. The positions expire in October 2025.

“We had expanded to 16 regions where there was somebody who was living in that part of the state, and now we’re having to go back to 11 regions,” Hoey said. “They wouldn’t fund that.”

Those positions had helped the agency reach more veterans, provide support in a more timely manner and give veterans more time, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The program provided services to 2,222 people in 2023-24 — nearly 70% more contacts than in 2021-22 when the program served 1,329 people. 

“It was really very disappointing, because these are two programs that have incredible track records of really helping veterans who need it,” Hoey said. “It was really disappointing being in Joint Finance when that vote came up. My heart was breaking, sitting there thinking ‘Oh, my God, all these people who won’t get served.’” 

Hoey shared an anecdote of a former program participant who recently returned to the Chippewa Falls site to give people an update on where he was, to illustrate the effectiveness of the programs. The VHRP, Hoey explained, is a monthslong process to help struggling veterans get to “the point where they can return to society in a stable, functioning way.” 

“He came in and wanted to tell everyone that, you know, five years ago, he was homeless, and now he’s married with a kid, and he had just bought his first house and was so proud because he had paid his first property tax bill,” Hoey said. “That’s the kind of result these programs have… Between the two programs you’re looking for $4 million and we couldn’t find that.” 

Wisconsin DVA Secretary James Bond said in a statement that the agency remains committed to assisting veterans. 

“We have a duty to support veterans, especially in their darkest times,” Bond said. “VHRP has been integral in helping veterans find stability and succeed in their communities, and along with our partners on the ground, we intend to still carry out that mission to the best of our ability.”

Veterans who are currently residing at the two facilities will be offered alternative placement options and will continue to receive assistance through supportive services.

Hoey said even as the Department of Veterans Affairs continues its work, the cuts and closures will likely mean fewer veterans will be served and it could be more difficult to reach veterans across the state. He said wait times could also become more of an obstacle for veterans seeking services. 

“Most of these veterans, they want to go to a program that’s somewhat near their community so they can count on whatever support systems they have, so… it’s unlikely we’ll be able to serve as many veterans in the majority of the state, since the home that’s existing is near Milwaukee.” 

Hoey said the agency decided to retain the Union Grove site, located just south of Milwaukee, because upgrades and repairs that were funded with state and federal funds were recently completed.

“The VORP team, instead of referring someone to Chippewa Falls, now they have to refer them to a program in Minneapolis, so we’re going to still try and get people the help they need,” Hoey said. “It’s just going to be harder.”

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