With the federal fiscal year ending on September 30th, a legislative impasse between the Republicans and Democrats in Congress casts doubt on the passage of a proposed seven-week funding extension.
As a result, the federal government will shut down non-essential services at midnight October 1.
This shutdown will likely have an impact on Cornell’s operations.
Cornell faced a similar situation on December 20, 2024.VP for University Relations Joel Malina issued a statement entitled, “Preparing for a potential government shutdown.” That statement promised that Cornell had taken steps to be “well prepared for the impact of a short-term shutdown.” It was able to make that claim based upon the liquidity of Cornell’s current assets and the projected daily expenditures associated with federally funded activities. Cornell had enough liquid assets to keep federally funded expenditures afloat.
Things are different in September 2025. First, Cornell is already carrying the backlog of payments that the federal government owes for research stemming from the Trump Administration’s actions in response to alleged antisemitism. Second, Cornell is in a budgetary austerity mode. The University has already laid off some of its workforce and has frozen its hiring. Third, this threatened shutdown is coming three months earlier in the academic year, leaving Cornell with three fewer months of federal research overhead payments and endowment payouts to help stabilize its finances.
Cornell has yet to issue a comparable reassurance for the 2025 shutdown.
Assuming that Cornell spends money at a consistent daily rate, its $6.41 billion in annual expenses is an average of $17.56 million per day. If the shutdown persists, Cornell would burn through available cash very quickly with little replenishment.
Federal Facilities
Cornell has at least one federal lab embedded on its campus. The Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health on Tower Road is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its federal employees follow the same shut down procedures as government employees in other executive branch departments.
Financial Aid
Federal financial aid is paid to Cornell on a semester-by-semester basis. It is not clear whether Cornell has yet received its payments, but the shutdown would delay further payments to Cornell until funding can be restored.
The Department of Education specifically stated they will continue processing FAFSA applications, disbursing Pell Grants, and handling student loans even during a shutdown. These are considered essential services since they’re statutorily mandated programs.
NSF Research Grants
In past shutdowns, researchers were allowed to continue under their NSF grants so long as intervention by NSF personnel was not required. Online systems for receiving new grant applications remained operational, despite many other government websites shutting down.
The NSF files a shutdown contingency plan with the Office of Management and Budget, which gives the White House final say in how many programs and employees continue under a shutdown. As with other agencies, each agency plan is updated every two years. This shutdown, most NSF employees will be furloughed and not responding to calls or emails.
Agencies that had publicly released their shutdown plans by Monday included the departments of War, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, Justice and Veterans Affairs.
While a government shutdown will inconvenience all citizens across the country, Cornell still has the resources to weather a short-term government shutdown.
