Government Shutdown

 On January 19, 2018 a government shutdown was looming. Congressmen were arguing from their corners preventing the passing of a vital bill. As many people heard all over the news, the government was officially shut down on January 20 at midnight deadline and it promptly reopened January 22 after a 2 day shutdown and a 3 day standoff in Congress. If the shutdown was so short this time compared to previous ones, why should people care?

  A government shutdown doesn’t happen often but when it does, it can cost the government (and citizens) millions of dollars and lots of time wasted. When Congress fails to pass a new funding bill by a specific deadline, usually when the last one expires, the government can grind to a halt where neither party will work to pass a new bill until the issues they stand for have been worked on. This particular time, the biggest tension between the two parties was on immigration. Prior to the shutdown, Democrats of Congress wanted to make sure that action was taken in the form of a deal to protect the hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants who came here under the protection of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, (a group commonly known as DREAMers). On September 5, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his decision to end DACA. Although his original plan was to have unauthorized individuals eligible for deportation starting March 5, 2018, a court ruling has temporarily restarted the program. The deportation of DREAMers is something Democrats in Congress want to prevent. One of the contributing factor of the government shutdown was a decision made by Democratic congressmen that would hold votes from the new funding bill unless progress was made regarding DACA. Since no progress was made, the Democrats did not vote for the funding bill, which resulted in the government shutdown.

  With such a dramatic title, it’s easy to think a government shutdown could be catastrophic but in reality, many government activities continue throughout the shutdown period. Military and law enforcement never stops working, you still have to file taxes (although your refund might be delayed) and you’ll still get mail and your Social Security check. However what does happen is that many government employees previously deemed as “non-essential” will be furloughed, or put on a leave of absence. Members of Congress still get paid while government-funded research by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among other agencies, is no longer funded and can be slowed or stopped entirely. That said, the government can also lose money. During the 2013 shutdown, the government lost $500 million dollars from the closed national parks alone, so is another shutdown really the solution? Congress seemed to think it wasn’t.

  On January 22, Congress passed a bill that stirred up movement within the legislative chambers and got the government working again. How’d they do it? They gave in to pressure and signed a bill allowing reopening of the government without first addressing the immigration issues. Through an effort from both parties, they reached a deal that would bring DACA-related issues to the floor in the coming weeks and the bill, signed on Monday night by President Trump, also approved funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the next six years before its previous expiration date in September of this year.

  Although the negotiations for the bill were intense and many issues were discussed among the group of 25 senators from both parties, the bill was passed allowing the government and many American’s daily lives to return to normal. National parks are open again and many people have been back at work since the bill was passed. Hopefully for the near future, legislators can put aside party politics to tackle issues affecting the people without clashing over their different views, resulting in another shutdown.