Since the conflict began on December 22, 2018, the U.S. federal government has been paralyzed for 35 days due to a lack of agreement between Congress and the White House. This situation is known as a partial government shutdown and occurs when Congress fails to approve the federal budget that the U.S. president submits annually for approval. When that happens, there are no funds to pay the salaries of federal employees, which leads to a halt in administrative activities in some agencies. This has consequences for the country’s domestic politics and, of course, its economy.
Although this isn't the first time it has happened, the current government shutdown is already the longest in U.S. history.
To help you understand what this is all about, Pedro Isern, a professor in the Bachelor’s Program in International Studies at the School of Management and Social Sciences at Universidad ORT Uruguay, answers these five key questions:
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What is a U.S. government shutdown?
This is the term used to describe the shutdown of various sectors of the U.S. government that are unable to function due to a lack of funding.
This can occur when Congress fails to pass the federal budget (which is used to pay civil servants’ salaries) or when the executive branch vetoes the approved budget.
When there is no agreement between the two sides, the funds for those salaries are not released. In general, the root of these disagreements is not financial, but political. -
What is the reason for the current closure?
The political standoff arose after the Democratic opposition in Congress—which has won a majority in the House of Representatives but remains in the minority in the Senate—rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal to include $5.7 billion in the budget for the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico.
As a counteroffer, Democratic representatives proposed a $1.3 billion budget for border control, but the president rejected that offer. -
What it entails and who it affects.
The budget impasse affects more than 420,000 essential federal employees who will not receive their pay until the dispute is resolved, as well as another 380,000 who have been temporarily furloughed. In total, there are 2.1 million federal civil servants.
The current situation is considered a partial shutdown, as Congress has approved 70% of the spending. However, budgets for the State Department, Agriculture, Justice, Transportation, Treasury, Interior, and Homeland Security are still pending.
Many of the 800,000 employees are out of work or on unpaid leave, but more than half—whose duties are considered essential, such as security—are required to work without pay.
The shutdown primarily affects non-essential sectors of the economy and the country, such as museums and national parks. In the case of key agencies, such as the FBI, there may be cuts to administrative tasks or those not critical to their operations. In the case of museums and national parks, some have been unable to pay security staff and have had to close, resulting in a loss of revenue from visitors and tourists. Traffic at some airports also experienced delays and cancellations.
Typically, affected employees receive their pay retroactively once the budget impasse ends, but many workers at contracted service providers—who are not direct employees—may go unpaid. -
How to solve it.
On Friday, January 25, Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks, until February 15, while negotiations continue on a new deal to strengthen security along the border with Mexico. It was an unexpected decision that exposes his weakness, as he failed to secure funding for the construction of the wall.
Although the government has resumed operations, negotiations are ongoing and could stall again if no agreement is reached. If that happens, there is a good chance that Trump will propose another shutdown as February 15 approaches. -
How many times has this measure been used in U.S. history?
Since the 1980s, this has happened seven times in U.S. history.
The most recent instance was in 2013 during Barack Obama’s administration, which lasted two weeks. On that occasion, the conflict was between the Tea Party, the most conservative wing of the Republican Party, which opposed Obamacare, the healthcare reform pushed by the president.
To date, the longest shutdown occurred in late 1995 when Democrat Bill Clinton clashed with the Republican-controlled Congress over disagreements related to Medicare, education, and the environment. At that time, the shutdown lasted 21 days.
A little background…
By Pedro Isern
Instructor in the Bachelor’s Program in International Studies at ORT
“Donald Trump took office as President of the United States in January 2017 with a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress. In the midterm elections in November 2018, the Republicans retained their majority in the Senate but lost it in the House of Representatives. This is key because that is where the controversial and legendary Nancy Pelosi was named “Speaker of the House”—a 78-year-old “liberal” (progressive) congresswoman from San Francisco, California, the most progressive city in the United States.
When we talk about the Shutdown, we are actually discussing the growing political-ideological divide that has solidified in the United States over the past decade and that has a key historical reference in the rupture caused, first, by the conservative Ronald Reagan’s rise to power in 1980 and, even more so, the conservative (Republican) victory in the November 1994 midterm elections, led by the controversial and disruptive Newt Gingrich, during Democrat Bill Clinton’s first presidency.
Gingrich spearheaded the “Contract with America” and is the leading ideologue (even more so than Reagan himself) of the ongoing confrontation with Democrats because, for Gingrich and his followers, there is essentially a war between the conservative and progressive visions of the role of the public sector and state intervention in the economy and society.
Gingrich (Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999) was the driving force behind the government shutdowns of November 1995 (which lasted five days) and December–January 1996 (21 days). It was a political showdown with a clear ideological—and, at one point, philosophical—dimension. Clinton emerged victorious, and this proved key to his reelection in November 1996. But it was only one battle. The war continued.
Today, Pelosi and, above all, Trump represent a degraded version of this ideological dispute. Trump has distorted the Republican Party, transforming it into a populist entity that is fully reflected in this standoff over the bizarre construction of a wall, while Pelosi has contributed to radicalizing the Democratic Party—or, at the very least, has done nothing to halt or moderate this ongoing process.
Both Trump and Pelosi have used the excuse of wall funding to degrade an ideological dispute that, at its core, is valid and legitimate for a democracy like the United States, which is shaped by an increasingly diverse and complex society.”