Cover news reporter Ning Ning Xue Weirui
On January 22, the U.S. federal government remained closed. On Friday, the US Senate failed to pass the temporary appropriations bill on the evening of the 19th, and the non-core departments of the federal government officially closed their doors from 00:00 on the 20th.
Last Sunday was the government's second shutdown day, compromises remained unreasoned and Parliament remained deadlocked, according to the BBC. On Monday, local time, tens of thousands of government officials will not be able to go to work to report on their work, and they will be in the unpaid waiting period.
The vote to end the shutdown was delayed until noon on Monday, meaning many government departments would remain closed until then.
But Democrats and Republican lawmakers blame each other, and it's hard to find a sign that a compromise is about to be reached.
An impasse is formed
At 12:01 p.m. on Saturday, the government shut down as short-term spending plans expired and senators blocked a short-term appropriations bill. Democrats refused to provide the votes needed to restart the administration until they reached an agreement with President Trump on a solution to the DACA plan.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats were willing to allocate money to build a wall on the southern border, but Republicans and the White House had rejected the idea.
The House and Senate resumed work on Sunday afternoon, and Senate Majority Leader John McConnell urged Democrats to support the short-term spending bill, saying, "The government shutdown will get worse tomorrow, and today is a good day to end." This shutdown is a major political error in estimation and cannot be continued."
This is the first time in U.S. history that a single party has closed its doors while controlling both Congress and the White House.
On Saturday, Trump tweeted a call on Senate Majority Leader McConnell to invoke the so-called "nuclear option" (simple majority) to eliminate the role of Senate Democrats.
"It's great to see Republicans fighting for our military and border security, Democrats just wanting to get illegal immigrants into our country without inspection." If the impasse continues, Republicans should use 51 percent (the nuclear option) to handle the long-term budget," Trump wrote.
That's because, under Senate rules, a proposal needs to get 60 out of 100 votes to pass over the opposition. Republicans currently have 51 seats, which means at least 9 more Democratic votes are needed to ensure the budget passes.
"I hope it's just a matter of hours or days, but we need to have substantive answers, and the only person who can lead us is President Trump, whose administration is shutting down," democratic rep. Dick Durbin said.
But Vice President Pence said, "We won't restart negotiations on illegal immigration until we reopen."
What is a government shutdown?
The U.S. budget must be passed by Oct. 1, the starting point of a new federal fiscal year.
But Congress often could no longer complete the budget deadline, so it moved into the next fiscal year with new negotiations and the interim appropriations for federal agencies in the previous year. Because Congress can't agree on an extension, many agencies have been closed since the early hours of Last Saturday morning.
However, essential services that protect life and personal property, such as national security, postal services, air traffic control, ward care, emergency care, disaster relief, prisons, taxation and power generation, are not affected.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing also tweeted that during the pending funding issue, all regular and emergency consular and U.S. citizenship and immigration services will be implemented as usual, but the U.S. Embassy's social media feed will not be updated regularly.
But the Department of Veterans Affairs will not process new claims from veterans. The National Park Service issued a notice noting that some parks "may have areas that visitors can visit, but areas visited may change without notice, and some parks are closed altogether."
Areas of the Statue of Liberty and the American Independence Memorial in Philadelphia are also closed. But the Trump administration says it will plan to keep the national park open. In 2013, the government's closure of the national park led to a strong public outcry.
The Obama administration shut down for 16 days
The U.S. government has "shut down" 12 times since 1981, the vast majority of which have occurred when the White House and Congress are controlled by two parties, respectively.
The last time was four years ago, when the U.S. government was also forced to shut down because of a budget impasse.
In October 2013, the U.S. federal government partially closed its doors, and the Statue of Liberty in New York was temporarily closed
In October 2013, during Obama's presidency, the government was partially shut down for 16 days, during which time many federal government employees were forced to take vacations, and at most 850,000 people were not working each day. The U.S. Bureau of Management and Budget (OMB) estimated losses of about $2 billion at the time, not including the impact on the economy.
In January 2013, the Obama administration was forced to halt operations because the budget was stranded in Congress
Trump, who had given a media interview at the time, put the blame on Obama, arguing that the problem originated at the top and therefore had to be addressed at the top, "The president is the leader, he has to bring everybody together, he has to do what the leader should do." ”
During the 2013 government shutdown, the most notable sign was the closure of national parks and monuments everywhere.
In 2013, the U.S. Military Cemetery on the outskirts of Paris, France, was closed like other U.S. Military Overseas Cemeteries
In addition, there are a series of unexpected consequences, such as:
U.S. military cemeteries in Europe are closed. About 125,000 U.S. service members died overseas and are buried in 24 U.S. military cemeteries around the world, 20 of them in Europe. These cemeteries were also closed during the U.S. government shutdown.
The implementation of one of the sanctions against Iran was suspended because most of the staff of the Treasury Department responsible for overseeing the implementation of the sanctions were on holiday, and the intensity of the sanctions was severely weakened.
Public museums in Washington, D.C. are closed. Because tourists and civil servants who cannot work can only visit private museums and galleries, it has also greatly increased the number of visitors to private museums and galleries, and unexpectedly profited.
Civil servants eat free of charge. Some restaurants offer free or discounted meals to government civil servants who are "forced to rest," calling them "government-closed sandwiches." At that time, a store in St. Louis distributed 50 free sandwiches on the first day and 100 the next day.
"Government Shutdown Sandwich"
Trials of new drugs to treat cancer are suspended. The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) clinical research center in Maryland was forced to stop accepting new patients for trial treatment, numbering about 200 per week, including children. Clinical trials of new therapies at other cancer centers have also been suspended due to reasons such as the inability to register and document, and the centers must wait for the government to reopen before they can resume accepting new patients.
Supermarket meat products at a military base in Kentucky were snapped up. The government shutdown has made people worry that supermarkets will also close for a few days, so they prepare early.
Many public events have been cancelled or rescheduled. These include the Ku Klux Klan's planned parade in Gettysburg, a scheduled wedding on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., rowing and water activities on the Georgetown Riverfront, and barbershop services in the Capitol.
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