Betsey Stevenson, Columnist

Eliminating the Women’s Bureau Won’t Balance the Budget

Congress may have averted a government shutdown this time, but Republicans will still keep trying to play political games with the budget process.

November 17, 2023 at 11:30 AM UTC

By Betsey Stevenson

Betsey Stevenson is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. She was on the president’s Council of Economic Advisers and was chief economist at the US Department of Labor.

When does the next shutdown countdown start?
Photographer: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

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A federal government shutdown has been averted for now, but the countdown will begin again in January, when this round of funding runs out. The political theatrics will also return — such the Republican proposal to eliminate the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau.

Now, cutting a $23 million program would do almost nothing to address a $1.7 trillion budget deficit. Congress would have to defund the Women’s Bureau for 75,000 years to eliminate one year of the deficit.