Government Shutdown

Story by Bailee Wicks | Design by Matthew Conrardy

What happened and what is next for the US?

On Dec. 22, 2018, the United States government began its longest government shutdown in history lasting a total of 35 days. According to CNN, before the most recent one, Former President Bill Clinton held the longest shutdown for 21 days from 1995 to 1996. But both of these shutdown were partial and created due to federal budget issues. According to The Hill, over 800,000 federal employees were affected during the partial shutdown, but what even is a shutdown?

Full vs Partial Shutdown?

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s website, a government shutdown happens when a new fiscal year begins and there is a lapse in funding when only some of the 12 appropriation bills setting discretionary spending levels are not passed.

A full government shutdown would turn off all government-funded sectors or entities. Whereas in a partial government shutdown, all fully-funded government operations such as the military, social security/Medicare/Medicaid and the federal judiciary are still running, says the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. However, many of those services can only run for so many days with limited funding without having to temporarily shut down until the congress comes to a decision.

Food stamps are to stay open during a shutdown, but because the shutdown bypassed 30 days and the program was without funding, families’ received their last food stamps until the shutdown came back on. Without more funding, the United States Department of Agriculture could only guarantee them through February.

21-year-old Jordan Dixon-McMann, a stay-athome mom, says that without food stamps it would be difficult for herself and her husband, who is currently in the military, to supply for their threemonth-old baby. “The last two months more than 75 percent of [the food stamp] money goes toward baby formula to feed my son,” says Dixon-McMann. “I have now received the last bit of food stamps until further notice.”

Nick Lawson, a member of the United States Air Force, states that during the shutdown, “In military, everyone is getting paid, except Coast Guard because they are not Department of Defense.”

Dixon agrees, adding that the military only had sufficient funds to be able to pay the entire United States Department of Defense until September 2019 if President Donald Trump’s previous statements that the shutdown can last months or even a year turned out to be true.

Effects of the 35-day partial shutdown

Many people across the US were laid off or furloughed, according to Vox. Two of those people happen to be married and the parents of Alyssa Carle, a 22-year-old student at University of Nevada Las Vegas.

“My parents have both worked for the government for over 30 years. … My dad works for the US Attorney’s Office and my mom works for the FBI,” says Carle. “This year, it has been extremely stressful financially, and my family has had to reduce our spending and be cautious of how much money we have. Paying for college books, car repairs and more have fallen completely on my part-time job as a math tutor.”

Although losing two incomes in a household of four is scary, it was not detrimental for the Carles.

“I’m very lucky that my parents have had such good jobs, because we do have some time before we are really in serious money troubles,” Carle adds.

Not everyone is as lucky. According to a NPR survey, over half of the United States said they could only go without two paychecks before going completely broke.

More than just fiscal repercussions have happened due to the shutdown. The National Parks all across the US have had a dramatic increase in vandalism and excess littering during the shutdown, according to Forbes. “The shutdown has led to a number of issues at parks, overflowing trash cans, clogged and overflowing toilets, poaching, damage to off-limits areas of parks, and theft,” wrote Trevor Nace, Forbes Contributor.

During the shutdown, the National Parks stayed open but unattended. According to the National Geographic, not only can the trash upset guests, but it could also alter the balance of the park’s natural wildlife.

In an interview with the National Geographic, Diane Regas, President of the Trust for Public Land, stated, “[E]xposure to sewage is a huge risk to human health.”

In a recent interview conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle, Jon Jarvis, former National Park Service director under President Barack Obama and now executive director of UC Berkeley’s Institute for Parks, People and Biodiversity, mentioned the difference between zoos and national parks.

“Nature was not on furlough. Now the parks have to figure out how to make it so visitors can be safe,” said Jarvis. “These are not zoos. They are open wild places. Those places are vulnerable.”

Now that the government is open, it gives the 16,000 park workers who, according to Vox, had been previously furloughed a chance to access the parks to see how much damage was truly done and how long it will take to clean it all up.

Assistance for the ones affected

Sandra Salas, a bankruptcy specialist at HarborStone Credit Union, says that the credit union is making adjustments to current loans to aid in the people suffering from the shutdown.

“I have heard there has been an increase in delinquent accounts … Recently an email went out to all staff members letting them know of how we can help our members out that currently bank with us,” Salas says. “The credit union is offering two different things to help these folks out … one being a modification to their current loans by deferring their payments for six months and waiving any interest that would normally be occurring. The second thing they are offering is a signature loan up to the amount of $7,000, payments and interest also being deferred for the first six months.”

However, these methods are time-consuming for employees to do and abnormal.

“HarborStone is trying to prepare for a long run of this because they are offering six months deferred payments and interest. A typical loan modification is for three months only,” adds Salas.

Melanie Lancaster, a full-time employee at Jet Chevrolet and volunteer at the United Service Organizations, says that “Us at the USO are doing what we can to help” the Coastguard who were being unpaid during the shutdown.

The Future

Presidents Trump and Former President Carter are the only two presidents to ever have a funding lapse while their affiliated parties held both the House of Representatives and the Senate according to CNN. Trump is still having issues with seven of the bills in the federal budget passing due to opposing forces in the government. One of the bills includes his 5.7 billion dollar plan on border protection and building the wall.

The data is coming from both the democrats and republicans saying opposite things. The Hill, a news website covering politics, states that the majority of the country does not want a wall, while the another news source, Rasmussen Reports, say that the wall is not immoral and the majority of the US wants stronger border protection.

During Trump’s speech on reopening the government, he mentioned it was only until Feb. 15 so the federal workers could be paid. However, he said within the first minute of his speech, “As everyone knows, I have a powerful alternative that I could use.”

As the future remains uncertain, Trump’s opening of the government is temporary, but the damages caused to about 800,000 people and National Parks could take years to fix.