The US government has shut down for the first time in over six years after the Senate failed to agree on a new spending bill. With the Republicans and the Democrats both pointing fingers as to who’s responsible for the shutdown. While democrats and Republicans fighting is a daily occurrence, a government shutdown isn’t, so let me break it down.

What is a government shutdown and why did it happen?

When the government shuts down, all federal employees that are deemed non-essential are put on leave without pay. 

So why did it happen? Well, it’s about money. Every financial year, which runs from 1 October to 30 September for the US government, a spending bill needs to be passed. That bill determines how much the government is going to spend on federal services. 

The bill has to pass the House of Representatives and the Senate before being signed into law by the President. If a new bill isn’t passed before the previous one expires, the federal government shuts down. This is what happened just under 24 hours ago.

To pass a spending bill, it needs bipartisan support. That means that both Democrats and Republicans need to agree on it. The Republicans control both chambers of Congress but needed seven Democrats to vote with them in the Senate to pass the spending bill.

Even though it’s called a shutdown, essential workers will continue working but won’t be paid until the Senate has passed a new spending bill. This means that postal services, the police and immigration personnel will still be working.

Political science professor at the University of Iowa, Tim Hagle, told ABC that it’s “more like a pause” than a total shutdown.

“The government by and large will continue on; certain aspects of it will stop temporarily,” he said.

Both parties tried to pass a stop-gap bill that would see funding continue for a short period in a late-night vote, but both proposals were rejected, resulting in the government shutting down at 12:01am 1 October, local time. 

What are they disagreeing on?

The main thing the parties disagree on is health care. 

The Democrats want to extend health care benefits that they say make life easier for Americans. They also want to reverse Medicaid cuts made by President Donald Trump. Democratic Senator for Connecticut Chris Murphy said that the proposed Republican bill could raise health care premiums. 

“We’re not asking to fix every problem in a broken health care system,” he said.

“Just don’t increase people’s premiums by 75 per cent.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Republicans won’t go along with the Democrats proposed changes to the bill because they refuse to “force American taxpayers to pay for free healthcare for illegal aliens”.

“We can not afford to provide taxpayer funded, free health care to illegals who broke the law to enter our country,” she said.

Is this normal?

While it’s definitely not normal, it does happen from time to time. There have been 11 government shutdowns in the US since the first one in 1981 including the current one. 

The last time the US government shut down was in 2018 under Trump’s first presidency. The shutdown lasted for 35 days after Democrats opposed Trump’s proposed US$5 billion funding of the US-Mexico border wall.

Similar shutdowns have occurred under the presidency of Obama, Reagan, the first Bush and Clinton.

Here’s a timeline of every government shutdown from Al Jazeera.

What happens now?

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed for the entire shutdown. The lost wages could amount to US$400 million per day. 

During previous shutdowns, these services have had workers furloughed:

• National parks and monuments
• Federal museums
• Federal research projects
• IRS taxpayer services

Essential federal agencies and functions will continue to operate, but employees won’t receive any pay before a new spending bill is in place. These include:

• Social Security and Medicare workers
• The military and federal law enforcement
• The US Postal Service
• Air traffic control

Photo: by Mark Stebnicki found HERE and used under a Creative Commons licence. The image has not been modified.