The last government shutdown was the longest in more than 40 years. Here are all the recent shutdowns in one chart

By Gillian Roberts and Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — Congress is barreling toward a federal government shutdown, which is set to happen if the House and Senate are not able to reach a spending deal by the time the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, October 1.

The last shutdown started on December 22, 2018, and went until January 25, 2019 — 35 days, making it the longest government shutdown in more than four decades. It cost the United States an estimated $3 billion in lost GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Here are all the government shutdowns since 1981

US agencies were first instructed to stop normal operations during government funding lapses, until Congress appropriates more money, in the early 1980s.

While government shutdowns have become less common in recent decades — there have been six since 1990 — an increasingly partisan Washington has left Congress unable to resolve sticking points on spending for longer periods of time.

With Republican Speaker Mike Johnson overseeing one of the narrowest House majorities in history, and the GOP lacking the 60 votes needed to overcome a Senate filibuster, the path to avoiding a shutdown remains unclear.

CNN’s Tami Luhby has more on which government services are expected to halt, and which could be expected to continue, during this potential shutdown.

The last government shutdown

The shutdown that began in December 2018 was a partial shutdown, where Congress had approved annual funding for certain agencies, allowing them to continue operations while other federal departments went dark. During that time, an estimated 800,000 people were employed at the shuttered federal agencies, and about 300,000 of those were furloughed, meaning they were not paid and asked not to report to work, according to the CBO.

The rest were considered exempt from furlough, meaning they needed to report to work but could not receive pay. Both furloughed and exempted employees received backpay when their agencies reopened after the funding agreement was passed.

The current Congress has not passed any of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the US government. That means it would be a full government shutdown if a deal doesn’t come to fruition by October 1, .

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—CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.