Short federal government shutdown caused big consequences nationwide

This archived article was written by: Alexandrea Sherman

The United States federal government shutdown began the night of January 20, and ended Monday, January 22nd. It as a result of disagreements in passing a budget bill to fund government operations and agencies for 2018. A filibuster by Democrats in the Senate caused the shutdown, as they disputed the “extension of status of persons affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy, and therefore whether those covered under the program should face deportation.” There were also arguments about the funding of the Mexico-U. S. border wall, which was a key promise made during President Donald Trump’s campaign. The bill passed through the House on January 18th, but was stopped at the Senate with a 50-49 vote, 10 votes short of the 60 needed to pass it through. Senate Democrats later compromised to end the filibuster, on the condition that Republicans would further discuss and allow debate on the DREAM act. The new temporary spending bill left out some of the key disagreements between both parties and passed through the Senate with a large majority of 81-18. The bill was to end on the 8th, but negotiators agreed to be meet during the weeks after to advance on various stalled issues within the Senate. The two-day shutdown resulted in a few consequences occurred nationwide. National parks stayed open for the most part, but some were closed due to lack of staffing. About a third of NPS’s 417 monument sites were completely shut down, including the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell.
The United States Patent and Trademark Of office was only able to stay open thanks to a reserve of funds collected from the previous year. EPA announced it would only be able to stay open for a week after shutdown, and workers from the Department of Energy and the Department of State were told to stay home from work.