Government shutdown

A Government Shutdown ( English for "government shutdown", "closure of the [federal] administration") is in the United States the situation in which the authorities of the Federal Government cease its activities to a large extent and only the carry regarded as indispensable tasks. In the event of such a shutdown, the state and administrative apparatus shuts down if the previous legal basis for the approval of budget funds expires and the Senate , House of Representatives and President do not agree on additional budget funds in good time by passing a corresponding law.

The legal basis for the shutdown is the Antideficiency Act of 1884, which was last amended in 1982.

The longest budget freeze in the history of the United States was 35 days at the turn of the year 2018/2019 during the presidency of Donald Trump because of his demand for state funding of a wall or a fence on the border with Mexico . It reached the 22nd day on January 12, 2019, surpassing the 21-day deadlock between December 1995 and January 1996 in the presidency of Bill Clinton , which had been sparked by a tax dispute. Trump declared the budget freeze temporarily ended on January 25, 2019 (Washington time) and signed a transitional budget until February 15, which the Senate and House of Representatives had previously approved.

Approval of the state budget

The United States Constitution , Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 stipulates that money “may only be withdrawn from the state (federal) treasury on the basis of legal approvals”. The Congress must resolve the annual use of the federal budget in good time at the beginning of the new budget year on October 1 in the form of an Appropriation Bill or temporarily extend the existing approval at a lower, same or higher level (Continuing Resolution) .

The President has a suspensive veto right against laws of the Congress, which can be overruled with a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Congress. If neither a new authorization law is passed nor the previous authorization is temporarily extended, a shutdown will occur.

Indispensable tasks

In 1980 and 1981, then Justice Minister Benjamin R. Civiletti issued two legal opinions on a strict interpretation of the Antideficiency Act , which still shapes practice today: Anyone who heads a government agency must stop work if budget funds are not approved until a permit has been granted. As a result, exceptions are only permitted for activities that have a justifiable connection with the safety of human life or the protection of property. In addition, it must be sufficiently likely that these legal interests would be significantly jeopardized if delayed.

In the event of a shutdown, federal government employees who do not perform essential services are sent on unpaid leave. Activities that remain untouched during a shutdown include, for example, the police , including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the emergency services , the United States Border Patrol , the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the air traffic controller and the penal system. The military personnel of the Ministry of Defense and the US intelligence National Security Agency (NSA) also remains in service while civilian employees are sent on unpaid leave without essential tasks. Also excluded from the shutdown are employees who are necessary for the fulfillment of the constitutional duties and responsibilities of the president. They do not receive a salary during this time, but they will be paid after the shutdown has ended.

Certain state social programs such as pension insurance are permanently approved, but the budget of the responsible social insurance authority has to be approved every year. In the event of a shutdown, the employees who are necessary to process the claims are allowed to continue their work. Employees whose work is not linked to annual permits, such as employees of the United States Postal Service, are not affected by a shutdown .

A shutdown therefore affects authorities very differently: While according to the emergency plans of 2013 almost all employees of the aerospace authority NASA have to take unpaid leave, only one in seven employees of the Ministry of Homeland Security is affected. The monitoring of food safety, for example routine inspections of food manufacturers, is partially suspended. The salaries of congressmen are not affected by the shutdown, as they cannot be changed for the current legislative period according to the 27th Amendment to the Constitution .

history

Between 1976 and 2018 there were 20 government shutdowns, four of which were for one day only. While the six government shutdowns during the Ford and Carter terms only affected the Department of Labor and the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare , the government shutdowns during the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama's administrations were full government shutdowns.

The longest confrontation to date took place since December 22, 2018 and lasted until January 25, 2019. President Donald Trump was unable to agree with the Democrats, who have had the majority in the House of Representatives since January 2, 2019, about funding of the House of Representatives Wall on the border with Mexico promised to agree on election campaigns.

year	Beginning	The End	Days	president	Senate (seating arrangements)	House of Representatives (based standards)	Remarks
1976	30. September	October 11th	10	Gerald Ford	Democrats (62:38)	Democrats (291: 144)	President Ford did not sign parts of the new budget law, and Congress overruled this decision on October 1st. On October 11th, both sides agreed on a new draft.
1977	30. September	October 13th	12	Jimmy Carter	Democrats (59:41)	Democrats (292: 143)	The reasons for the government shutdowns during Carter's tenure are explained below the table. See # Presidency of Carter
1977	October 31	November 9th	08th	Jimmy Carter	Democrats (59:41)	Democrats (292: 143)
1977	30th of November	9th of December	08th	Jimmy Carter	Democrats (59:41)	Democrats (292: 143)
1978	30. September	October 18	18th	Jimmy Carter	Democrats (59:41)	Democrats (292: 143)
1979	30. September	October 12th	11	Jimmy Carter	Democrats (58:42)	Democrats (277: 158)
1981	20th November	November 23	02	Ronald Reagan	Republican (53:47)	Democrats (244: 191)	Reagan asked both chambers to cut budgets and otherwise threatened to veto them; The Republican-dominated Senate followed suit, but not the House of Representatives, which called for even more cuts. The compromise between the two chambers, in turn, was $ 2 billion over Reagan's line, so he failed to sign the bill and put the administration on compulsory leave.
1982	30. September	October 2nd	01	Ronald Reagan	Republican (53:47)	Democrats (244: 191)	The new budget law was passed by the House of Representatives a day too late.
1982	December 17th	21st December	03	Ronald Reagan	Republican (53:47)	Democrats (244: 191)
1983	November 10th	14th November	03	Ronald Reagan	Republican (55:45)	Democrats (271: 164)
1984	30. September	October 3	02	Ronald Reagan	Republican (55:45)	Democrats (270: 165)
1984	October 3	5th October	01	Ronald Reagan	Republican (55:45)	Democrats (270: 165)
1986	October, 16th	October 18	01	Ronald Reagan	Republican (53:47)	Democrats (253: 182)
1987	December 18th	20th of December	01	Ronald Reagan	Democrats (54:46)	Democrats (258: 177)
1990	5th October	9th October	04th	George HW Bush	Democrats (55:45)	Democrats (258: 176)	The shutdown took place on the weekend before Columbus Day . President George HW Bush had promised in the election campaign: " Read my lips: no new taxes ". His package to reduce the deficit also contained tax increases, so that he suddenly even had his own party with minority leader Newt Gingrich against him.
1995	November 13th	November 19th	05	Bill Clinton	Republican (53:47)	Republican (233: 199)
1995/1996	December 16	6th January	21st	Bill Clinton	Republican (53:47)	Republican (235: 198)
2013	30. September	October, 16th	17th	Barack Obama	Democrats (54:46)	Republicans (232: 200)
2018	January 20th	January 23	3	Donald Trump	Republican (51:49)	Republicans (240: 194)
2018	February 9	February 9	0	Donald Trump	Republican (51:49)	Republican (236: 197)	A “mini shutdown”, since Donald Trump's signature was only missing for a few hours to lift the budget lock.
2018/2019	December 22	January 25th	35	Donald Trump	Republican (51:49)	Republican (236: 197)	until January 2, 2019
2018/2019	December 22	January 25th	35	Donald Trump	Republican (53:47)	Democrats (235: 199)	from January 3, 2019

statistics
Surname	Shutdowns (total)	Days (total)
Gerald Ford	1	10
Jimmy Carter	5	57
Ronald Reagan	8th	14th
George HW Bush	1	04th
Bill Clinton	2	26th
Barack Obama	1	17th
Donald Trump	3	38

Ford Presidency

The first government shutdown occurred when President Gerald Ford vetoed a law in 1976 that regulated the funding of the Department of Labor and the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare . This resulted in a partial government shutdown. On October 1, 1976, the veto was lifted by Congress, but the Continuing Resolution did not come into force until October 11, 1976.

Carter's presidency

In the government shutdowns during the time of Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), one party - the Democrats - held a majority in both chambers and also provided the president.

The reasons for the government shutdown were mostly internal party disputes; in the case of the first three shutdowns in 1977, it was about a change in the law to finance abortions through the Medicaid program. The House of Representatives only wanted to allow this in the event that the mother's life was in danger, while the Senate called for it to be extended to include pregnancies against the mother's will, for example in the case of incest or rape . The two chambers quarreled over this detail of the Medicaid program. Carter was initially only able to avert the shutdown for a few days through brief compromises before the administration was forcibly brought to a standstill again. Between September 30th and December 9th the administration was shut down for a total of 30 days. After more than three months, the House of Representatives finally approved the financing of abortions in the event of incest, rape or danger to the mother's life.

In the case of the two other shutdowns in Carter's tenure, 1978 and 1979, each from September 30th, the issue of abortion continued to play a role, in addition there were disputes over laws proposed by Carter in 1978 and in 1979 over the increase in diets for MPs.

Clinton Presidency

The starting point for the political crisis was the success of the Republican Party in the 1994 congressional election. The Republican Party won a majority in Congress . They wanted to reverse the tax hikes under President Bill Clinton in 1993 and a balanced budget through deep cuts in social spending. Bill Clinton also wanted a balanced budget, but rejected the Republicans' requests for changes. Beginning on November 14, 1995, there was a seven-day shutdown that left 800,000 government employees at home. On December 16, 1995, another shutdown began, which lasted until January 5, 1996. When it turned out that the citizens largely blamed the Republican Party for the shutdown, an agreement was reached in the budget dispute. Most pollsters saw the budget controversy as a turning point, and since then the approval ratings for President Clinton have risen again. The Republican-dominated Congress avoided such confrontations with President Clinton in the years that followed.

Obama Presidency

As the new fiscal year began on October 1, 2013 without Congress approving the budget, shortly before midnight the Office of Management and Budget of the White House instructed the authorities to implement their contingency plans for a government shutdown. Around 800,000 state employees were sent on unpaid leave, and more than a million continued to work - initially without pay. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives had passed a counter-proposal to the budget approval, which would exclude President Barack Obama's health insurance reform (Obamacare) from budget approval, which was rejected by the Democratic majority in the Senate .

The Congressional Budget Office calculated that the health insurance reform will reduce the budget deficit by approximately $ 50 billion a year in the long term. The conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer , on the other hand, saw Obamacare as a financial burden because health spending would rise. He rejected the tax increases decided on with the health reform.

Affected by the shutdown were the Library of Congress , which ceased operations including all websites with the exception of two platforms with information on legislation on October 1, NASA and the national parks . The National Park Service's temporarily closed facilities included national parks, sites like the Statue of Liberty and the Smithsonian Institution .

The government shutdown also affected the economy. Since the customs offices in the ports and airports only worked with reduced staff, there were major delays in the handling of goods. Approval procedures, court hearings, etc. were postponed. According to various estimates, the US economy sustained damage of between 300 and 550 million dollars a day.

The continuation of the shutdown also had an impact on US foreign policy.

In addition to the government shutdown due to a lack of budgetary resolution, the debt ceiling of $ 16.7 trillion would have been reached on October 17, 2013 . If the debt ceiling had not been increased by then, no new loans would have been allowed to be taken out. National bankruptcy threatened , which would have had a very negative impact on the financial system and the economy. The Republicans made an agreement to increase the debt ceiling by the shift of Obamacare dependent.

On October 17, 2013, President Obama signed the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, which kept the US liquid until February 7, 2014.

Play media file

Barack Obama's address on September 29, 2013
Letter from President Barack Obama to government officials regarding the shutdown
Library of Congress shutdown message dated October 1, 2013
Play media file

Barack Obama's address on October 16, 2013

Trump presidency

There have been three budget freezes so far during Donald Trump's presidency , all of which came into effect in 2018.

First budget lock

The US Congress had granted the Trump administration funding up to and including April 28, 2017; if an agreement had not been reached by then, there would have been a partial government shutdown from April 29, 2017. A few hours before the deadline, both houses of Congress approved an expenditure bill that granted several federal institutions the money they needed to do their work for an additional week. To accommodate the Democrats, Trump had agreed to remove funding for the wall he had announced on the border with Mexico from the bill. On April 30, 2017, representatives of both parties agreed on a draft law that would allow the government to finance their expenses until the end of September 2017. Part of the agreement was increased funding for the Department of Defense and border security, but also for the National Institutes of Health . Local authorities should get compensation for their increased security costs since Trump took office. This was especially true for the city of New York because of the Trump Tower there .

On January 19, 2018, the Senate rejected a compromise passed in the House of Representatives. There was a shutdown from January 20, 2018 (12:00 a.m. Washington time) to January 22, 2018. Around 800,000 US government employees were affected by the shutdown. Federal museums and other recreational facilities remained closed, as did parts of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Second budget lock

In February 2018, the budget freeze lasted only a few hours. It automatically came into effect on February 9, 2018 at midnight Washington time due to a deadline being exceeded and ended five and a half hours later with Trump's signature on a budget law. The Senate and House of Representatives had previously struggled hard to find a compromise. Among other things, it provided for higher expenses for defense. The raising of the debt ceiling met with rejection from Trump's own party. Republican Senator Rand Paul criticized the fact that the bill, by increasing the debt burden, ran counter to Republican fiscal policy. Paul refused to vote in the Senate for hours, causing the Senate to miss the deadline. Both Democratic and Republican politicians opposed the blockade with which Paul had provoked the shutdown.

Third budget lock

Play media file

President Trump's speech to the nation on January 8, 2019 on the budget and securing the southern border (9:32 min)

Notice on the government website usa.gov during the shutdown.

On December 22, 2018, the third shutdown in President Trump's tenure went into effect after a budgetary agreement was not reached to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Trump asked for $ 5.7 billion to keep his election promise. The budget lock blocked the work of nine ministries, among other things. On December 20, 2018, the House of Representatives with its Republican majority approved a bridging budget with the barrier financing requested by Trump after Trump had declared that he would only approve if it was included. In the Senate, however, the bill did not find the necessary super majority to abolish the democratic blocking minority. On December 24, Trump single-handedly awarded a construction contract for a construction section of the wall to Mexico of 185 kilometers in length. On December 27, he threatened to close the border with Mexico completely if the Democrats refused to give him the money to build the wall.

After the Democratic Party took over the majority in the House of Representatives in early January 2019, it passed a budget without earmarking funds for the construction of the Wall. Trump made his approval dependent on it again. The budget would have secured funding for the Ministries of Agriculture, Home Affairs and others until September 30, 2019 and the Ministry of Homeland Security until February 8, 2019. After an unsuccessful top meeting with Democrats and Republicans, Trump threatened on January 4, 2019 to keep the budget freeze in place for months or years. If he imposes a national emergency over the security of the country, he could build the wall without the approval of Congress.

In a speech to the nation on January 8, 2019, Trump blamed the Democrats alone for the budget freeze because they did not want to fund border security. The Democrat Nancy Pelosi , chairwoman of the House of Representatives, held misinformation before him and urged him not to hold the people hostage any longer . You and Chuck Schumer , Democratic parliamentary group leader in the Senate, called the building of the wall a waste of money. A peak meeting with Democrats on January 9, 2019, Trump abruptly broke off and called it a "waste of time" when he received no approval for funds to build the wall. During a visit to the McAllen border station in Texas, he explained that the United States needed a barrier to protect against people smugglers. Meanwhile, union members called for payment and an end to the budget freeze in a march to the White House; There were demonstrations in other cities as well.

The shutdown became the longest in the history of the United States on January 12, 2019, with a total of 22 days. Several unions, including those of air traffic controllers, filed lawsuits against the government for lack of wages. 800,000 employees were directly affected by the blockade, a total of a quarter of all federal employees. Around 380,000 were initially on compulsory leave. 420,000 had to continue working without paying a salary because their work is considered indispensable; After the budget blockade has ended, the outstanding salaries will be paid. As the shutdown continued, tens of thousands of workers who were on compulsory leave were forced back to work, but remained unpaid. Employees of thousands of service and supplier companies as well as freelancers with whom business relationships were discontinued were also affected. You cannot count on subsequent payments.

On January 19, 2019, Trump renewed his call for $ 5.7 billion to build the wall. In return, he offered to protect the immigrant group of so-called Dreamer from deportation for three years. People with a temporary protection status who fled their homeland due to conflicts or natural disasters should also not be deported. Nancy Pelosi called Trump's proposal a " pipe bug ". A proposal by the Democrats in the House of Representatives called for more than half a billion dollars to be budgeted for border security, which, however, could not be used for building a wall. A separate proposal they offered him funds for a "smart wall" ( smart wall ) to. No stone or steel wall should be built for the money; instead, the borders of the United States could be secured with the use of drones and sensors, and border officials and immigration judges could be suspended.

On January 25, Trump reached an agreement with the Democrats on interim funding until February 15. After 35 days of budget lockdown, he signed a bill previously approved by the Senate and House of Representatives. The compromise provides for a three-week opening of the government at the federal level. The time is to be used for negotiations to secure the southern border. Trump did not receive a commitment to provide funding to build a wall on the border with Mexico. His own conservative camp interpreted his giving in as a weakness because one of his most important election promises remained unfulfilled. At the beginning of February 2019, the government sent an additional 3750 soldiers to the border with Mexico for three months. Among other things, they are supposed to lay 240 kilometers of barbed wire and install a system for monitoring mobile communications. A few days before February 15, 2019, the last day of transitional financing, a compromise emerged between the parties' negotiators that could prevent another shutdown. The compromise plans to allocate $ 1.375 billion for border fortifications. According to the New York Times , the amount would cover 55 miles.

The shutdown had an impact on the economy and led to a reduction in the growth rate by 0.13 percentage points per week. Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers , did not rule out a temporary economic downturn in the second half of January if it persisted. Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi assumed that growth in the first quarter of 2019 could be below two percent. According to calculations by the rating agency Standard & Poor’s , the budget freeze cost the American economy around six billion dollars.

Because of the budget freeze, Trump's polls also fell in a survey conducted on behalf of the radio station cooperation NPR , including his own voter base. Overall, 57 percent of those surveyed said they would vote against him in the 2020 presidential election. In contrast, approval for Nancy Pelosi grew. In a poll by the American Broadcasting Company and the Washington Post five weeks after the budget freeze began, 53 percent of respondents in the United States blamed Trump and the Republicans, while 34 percent saw the Democrats as responsible.

On February 15, 2019, Trump declared a national emergency to gain access to a total of $ 8 billion. On February 18, 2019, 16 states filed an anthology against the Trump administration in a federal court in San Francisco . Xavier Becerra , Attorney General of California, wants to use Trump's own words in court to prove that there is no state of emergency on the border with Mexico. Trump had declared the state of emergency: "I didn't have to do that, but I wanted to do it much faster." On February 22, 2019, the Democrats brought a resolution in Congress against the national emergency to stop it. Trump threatened to veto the resolution.