By: Lily Amback / News & Opinion editor and Lydia Styf / Staff writer
There have been a total of 15 government shutdowns in the history of the American legislature.
Recently, the government had been shut down for a record amount of time: 43 days. The last longest shutdown was for 35 days and was also under the Trump Administration in 2018 and 2019.
That shutdown was caused by a funding dispute over the Mexican-American border wall. Concerns related to travel to and from the country caused the previous shutdown. That, however, was only a partial government shutdown and did not affect healthcare and workers’ pay.
This government closure was caused by a controversy over this year’s government spending bill, which was due on Oct. 1, the day the shutdown started.
“Congress has the power to spend in our government, and so Congress passes spending bills every year that keep the government functioning because there’s so many things that the government provides for people, like public services. Certain benefits, like SNAP and nutrition benefits, Congress needs to pass the spending bills to keep those things funded through the year. So a government shutdown is when Congress can’t agree on a spending bill. Then those benefits can’t be provided because of student spending bills. This spending bill needed to be passed by Oct. 1, which is the start of the new fiscal year to avoid the government shutdown. Ideally, it would happen before, but it needs to be right around Oct. 1,” government teacher Gina Iacobucci said.
This bill needed all Senate Republicans and a few Senate Democrats to support it; however, many Democrats disliked the lack of benefits to certain individuals in need, such as giving healthcare to those who don’t receive it through their job benefits. Since the bill wasn’t passed in time, the government promptly shut down.
However, a government shutdown affects more than just the ability to pass bills. During the shutdown, many government-funded sites were unable to operate fully, such as the St. Louis Arch and all national parks.
The shutdown also affected job stability and worker pay for government officials.
“There were a bunch of people who work for the federal government that were at risk of not getting paid because the federal government was shut down. There are some people that were furloughed. So they were temporarily suspended from their jobs. So they would not be paid, because the agency they work for is not running right now,” Iacobucci said. “But other people are considered essential employees that have to show up to work, like TSA (transportation security administration) agents or postal service workers, but the difficult thing is that they also still aren’t being paid, but they just are not allowed to strike. They’re not allowed to not show up for work. They will get paid now that the government shutdown has ended, they’ll get back paid for their work, but that’s really difficult for Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, to still have to go to work but not be paid for 40 plus days.”
Public pressure prompted a few Democrats to relent and settle for a compromise; they ended the shutdown by passing the bill with a promise to revisit it.
Upon the government shutdown ending, many things were partially reopened and people who weren’t getting paid received back pay.
“I think maybe the Trump administration, they don’t like big government, they don’t like a lot of government spending, so I think that they also maybe saw an opportunity to see which parts of government are really essential and which parts are not as essential,” Iacobucci said.
