Why were there no US government shutdowns before 1976? - Quora
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Laws changed.
In 1974, Congress enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. This piece of legislation passed both House and Senate easily (it went unopposed in the Senate). Before this, there was no formal budgeting process.
Here's how the current system works:
1) The President submits a budget to Congress. This usually gets submitted in February.
2) The Congressional Budget Office (which was also created by the 1974 law) crunches the numbers on the budget and posts its analysis, usually in March.
3) Congress passes a budget resolution, which actually doesn't need to be signed by the President because it is a "continuing resolution."
4) Appropriation bills get written up to formalize spending the money. These must be approved by the President.
Prior to 1974, the CBO didn't exist, nor did the budget resolution - so budgets were highly ad-hoc affairs that generally lacked coherence, cobbled together from various laws that could come into being independently of each other. It's only now that the US has a formal budgeting process (and therefore a formalized budget) that government shutdowns are really possible.
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Because whatever their ideological differences (and there were many), both sides believed in the democratic principle of majority rule. To succeed, you must get a majority of people on your side. In the past, House leaders would threaten, cajole and outright bribe people to come on board and support some law. It wasn't pretty, but it worked after a fashion and when you lost, you lost.
Now about 30 Republican members of the House now think they have a better idea: government by extortion. In other words, winning elections, passing laws? None of that matters. What matters is getting your way regardless of the means.
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