Additional settings for Safari Browser.
The Government Shutdown
The Government Shutdown
Lillee Martin
The government shutdown officially lasted 43 days. This is the single longest shutdown of the government in United States history, beating out only the previous shutdown under President Trump’s former administration, which lasted 35 days. Everyone in the country with this knowledge has the understanding that this situation was bad, but what does that mean?
A government shutdown is caused by conflict among the House of Representatives, as well as their miscommunication with the Senate. The Senate consists of 100 representatives—two per state—and works in legislation, or law-making, for a term of six years. The House of Representatives is a collective of 435 members elected biennially under Congress (which is divided between its two chambers) to individually represent each state within the United States—with the number of representatives relying on population size and the corresponding priority of larger states. The purpose of the House is to pass legislation with agreement and urgency. These chambers work in correspondence with one another in that bills and laws are passed back and forth and experiencing potential amendments from one chamber to another until the votes can provide evidence that the majority of the 535 members of Congress are in agreement.
The House was provided a deadline of September 30 to pass a fiscal bill (the federal fiscal year beginning on October 1). This fiscal bill is what is being referred to in political spaces as the “Megabill.” The Megabill is a Republican-backed proposal based on the preexisting “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (passed on July 4 of this year) and aims to create tax cuts that will result in the removal of accessible health insurance, as well as other necessary financial resources within the United States. The contention begins with the Democratic House Representatives being unwilling to succumb to such a system that does not prioritize the needs, health, wellbeing, and stability of the American people—and the Republican House Representatives are unwilling to compromise their Megabill. Beyond policy, this tension represents a larger conversation of the complicated nature behind compliance and reinforcement and the vast potential impact and power decision making at the federal level holds.
Since the shutdown has begun, the domino effect of consequence has been nationwide. A government shutdown initially entails the abrupt amputation to the circulation of money within the government itself. This means that people within federal positions, like air traffic controllers and prison guards, are going without payment, jeopardizing their livelihood, as well as creating unrest within their own workplaces. For example, many air traffic controllers have begun missing work due to the impact of their unpaid labor, resulting in chaos among the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). There has been an uptick in flight delays and mishaps sourced from the decrease in communication support within the aviation procedures enacted within the country currently—meaning, there are no existing accommodations or means of solving issues related to the FAA outside of concluding a shutdown. The government shutdown has also resulted in the cut of funding towards the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides the necessary means to afford food and groceries for around 42 million homes in the United States. This has put millions of Americans’ lives in a detrimental condition of risk as resources dwindle.
On November 12, President Trump signed a deal to bring the shutdown to a close after the Megabill got passed with a narrow 222-209 vote—with 216 Republicans and 6 Democrats voting for the initiation of the new financial system (207 Democrats and 2 Republicans voted no). The result of the Megabill and its impact will remain unknown until its official implementation, but it can be assumed that the financial climate within the United States will experience—yet another—dramatic shift during the coming months.