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But the longer-term costs to national security of this shutdown may be even greater than the short-term risks. One is the cost to the federal workforce itself. Experienced staff, such as foreign-service officers, are quitting. Our government is losing talent that took years to recruit and train, and will take years to replace. Agencies are accustomed to training their workforces to competency and then having their best-trained and highest-performing employees take on management and leadership roles. Instead, they may now find their most competent and able agents, investigators, and analysts leaving for the private sector.

Whether a federal agent is starting out as a GS-11 or has reached GS-15 status, federal employees in the national- and homeland-security fields—like their counterparts in the private sector or non-national-security government roles—have family responsibilities and financial commitments, such as mortgages and car payments. Public service is a calling, but the financial stress of an uncertain paycheck can cause mid-career national-security professionals to leave the federal workforce just when they are reaching the point where they have attained expert-level knowledge and substantial experience.

Second is the backlog of work that simply doesn’t get done. The law says government employees can work only on imminent threats to life or property during a shutdown. But mid- to long-term intelligence analysis and policy-option preparation is vital to protecting national security. The two of us know from experience how easy it is, even in normal times, for government officials to get swallowed up in the day-to-day. Now we’re losing out on the longer-term perspective even more than usual.

Third, as national-security lawyers, we also know that a national-security workforce facing financial struggles creates a heightened counterintelligence risk. Debt and financial solvency have long been indicators in security background checks to determine whether an individual could be subject to blackmail or influence from a foreign power. We have no doubt that, as this shutdown continues, foreign-intelligence services are considering how they can exploit members of America’s national-security workforce who may be approaching severe financial strain.

Our fourth and final concern may be the most worrisome of all: The United States is showing the world how utterly polarized, even paralyzed, we’ve become. This plays directly into Moscow’s strategy to weaken us at home and abroad. Yes, the Kremlin seems to have wanted Donald Trump in the White House, but even in the campaign’s waning weeks, it didn’t expect him to win—hence Russia’s continued messaging that the election was “rigged,” a meme that disappeared after Trump’s surprising victory. More than Trump’s election, the Kremlin wanted America to tear itself apart, leaving it unable to oppose Russian foreign policy or to push for democratic reforms. The first two years of this administration, with Trump at the helm, have weakened our ties to our global allies in favor of foreign policies more sympathetic to Russian strategic interests. Now, at home, this government shutdown further weakens our defenses with every passing day.

The president says our security requires the shutdown. But actually, the shutdown is the real national-security threat—and its damage will prove lasting.

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Carrie Cordero is the Robert M. Gates senior fellow and general counsel at the Center for a New American Security. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, a CNN analyst, and a contributing editor of Lawfare.