Yeah it appears I would be wrong, as I have looked into this a bit here.
This is actually a "partial government shutdown", as are some others and what I remembered likely was another partial shutdown that didn't affect other operations as it were and was not a "government shutdown" as it would be today(meaning this one, not current times), and yeah when looking it up they didn't reference the late 90s.
Sorry about the confusion, but that happens when going off the cuff right?
However, yeah my dad would be furloughed from time to time on a infrequent yet, regular basis. Not that I paid attention much as a kid, but that is my reflective point.
The media would TRY to make this a topic in the 2000s (to play this same game with the presidents then) but there weren't any takers back then, and they used to air (at least locally here) government workers interviewing smiling and saying it wasn't a big deal. Somehow, these days are different.