On Monday, Jan. 20, the United States government shut down. It was a three day shutdown, and many did not feel the effects of it, or even know exactly what was going on. A government shutdown occurs when Congress cannot get a budget passed in time to fund the federal government. There have been 12 government shutdowns since 1981, ranging in length from one to 21 days. The last shutdown was during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2013 and lasted 16 days.
The 2018 government shutdown was due to disagreements between the Democrats in congress and President Trump. Trump wants funding for a border wall in the budget and Democrats want funding for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Undecided sophomore major Cheyanne Miller said, “It’s childish to shut down over a disagreement over a wall we weren’t supposed to pay for.” This brings into question who is to blame for the shutdown. Some people are blaming the Democrats and some are blaming Trump.
So far, congress has not been able to work out a budget that will include the components that everyone wants. To end the shutdown, the House and the Senate passed a short-term spending bill that will fund the government through Feb. 8 and extend the funding for the nine million children included in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six more years. This stop-gap measure was passed under the agreement that congress will soon allow an immigration vote regarding the immigrants protected under DACA.
While the problem is solved temporarily, there could be another shutdown if there is no permanent budget by Feb. 8. A government shutdown causes all nonessential federal workers to be sent home and docked pay. These nonessential federal programs include the processing of passports and visas, national park and monument conservation and government website maintenance. The shutdown also causes the essential government employees like the military, border control, U.S. mail service, air traffic control and national security law enforcement to continue working without being paid to do so. When the government is back up and running, the workers are retroactively paid.
Those are the short-term effects of a government shutdown, but if it goes on for longer, there are more consequences and more programs that get shut down. Currently, the most direct effect on college students pertains to the students enrolled in school because of DACA. While that’s a big concern for the students affected, there aren’t many other direct effects on college students. However, according to political science professor Dr. Laura Wiedlocher, it’s still important to care about this. Wiedlocher emphasized, “The government is not providing services that people need. It creates instability in the federal government.”
Wiedlocher said the way to fix it, or at least help, is to “put pressure on legislatures. Call in, write, tweet, email, do anything to let Congress know that this is not okay.”