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| US shutdowns – a short history | US shutdowns – a short history |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| The US government has gone into shutdown after the failure to approve funding for the next financial year. Nonessential services will be closed and 800,000 federal employees will not be allowed to work – but while this is the first shutdown of the 21st century, it is far from unprecedented. Here is what has happened in the past: | The US government has gone into shutdown after the failure to approve funding for the next financial year. Nonessential services will be closed and 800,000 federal employees will not be allowed to work – but while this is the first shutdown of the 21st century, it is far from unprecedented. Here is what has happened in the past: |
| 1996 – Clinton v Republicans | 1996 – Clinton v Republicans |
| There have been 18 shutdowns since 1976 (pdf), but none for 17 years until Monday's midnight deadline to extend Congressional spending authority passed with no agreement. The last occasion was when Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled House halted services for a total of 21 days. It began in November 1995, a temporary spending bill was enacted, but then the shutdown restarted in mid-December and ran into 1996. The first shutdown resulted in 800,000 workers eventually getting paid for staying home and the second led to 280,000 workers left idle for three weeks. The Republicans took a drubbing in the polls and ended up accepting most of Clinton's conditions, making the president the adjudged winner of the tussle, even if the image of government as a whole suffered. A historic footnote is that the second day of the initial shutdown – 15 November 1995 – was when Monica Lewinsky said she began a sexual relationship with Clinton. | |
| 1981-1990 – short shutdowns | 1981-1990 – short shutdowns |
| During Ronald Reagan's two terms he regularly argued with congressional Democrats to the brink of shutdown. The first occasion was in November 1981, nine months after he entered office. With Congress having approved emergency spending to keep the government running, Reagan wielded his first veto, making a stand against "budget-busting policies". Federal workers were streaming out of offices in Washington and across the nation but it lasted only hours as Congress approved a three-week spending extension that was more to the president's liking. The estimated cost of the shutdown was more than $80m. Workers were sent home for half a day twice more during his presidency. George Bush used the tactic once, during the budget wrangling that punctured his "no new taxes" pledge, leading to a partial shutdown over the 1990 Columbus Day weekend. | During Ronald Reagan's two terms he regularly argued with congressional Democrats to the brink of shutdown. The first occasion was in November 1981, nine months after he entered office. With Congress having approved emergency spending to keep the government running, Reagan wielded his first veto, making a stand against "budget-busting policies". Federal workers were streaming out of offices in Washington and across the nation but it lasted only hours as Congress approved a three-week spending extension that was more to the president's liking. The estimated cost of the shutdown was more than $80m. Workers were sent home for half a day twice more during his presidency. George Bush used the tactic once, during the budget wrangling that punctured his "no new taxes" pledge, leading to a partial shutdown over the 1990 Columbus Day weekend. |
| 1980 – Carter and his attorney general | 1980 – Carter and his attorney general |
| When Jimmy Carter asked his attorney general for legal advice, Benjamin Civiletti told the president that government employees could not work for free or with the expectation that they would be paid at some undefined point in the future, despite a "look-the-other-way" system having worked for decades. Civiletti went further, declaring that any agency chief who broke the law would be prosecuted. When five days later funding for the Federal Trade Commission expired amid a congressional disagreement over limiting the agency's powers, the FTC halted operations, cancelling court dates and meetings and sending 1,600 workers packing, apparently the first agency ever closed by a budget dispute. Embarrassed, Congress made a quick fix and the FTC reopened the next day. The estimated cost of the brouhaha was $700,000. | When Jimmy Carter asked his attorney general for legal advice, Benjamin Civiletti told the president that government employees could not work for free or with the expectation that they would be paid at some undefined point in the future, despite a "look-the-other-way" system having worked for decades. Civiletti went further, declaring that any agency chief who broke the law would be prosecuted. When five days later funding for the Federal Trade Commission expired amid a congressional disagreement over limiting the agency's powers, the FTC halted operations, cancelling court dates and meetings and sending 1,600 workers packing, apparently the first agency ever closed by a budget dispute. Embarrassed, Congress made a quick fix and the FTC reopened the next day. The estimated cost of the brouhaha was $700,000. |
| Carter, forever stymied by his own party in Congress, ordered the whole government to be ready to shut down when the budget year ended on 1 October 1980, in case the deadline for appropriations bills was missed. It almost happened. Funding for many agencies did expire, but just for a few hours, and nobody was sent home. Civiletti later clarified that in a government-wide shutdown, the military, air traffic control, prisons and other work that protects human safety or property would continue. So would things such as social security benefits, which Congress has financed indefinitely. | Carter, forever stymied by his own party in Congress, ordered the whole government to be ready to shut down when the budget year ended on 1 October 1980, in case the deadline for appropriations bills was missed. It almost happened. Funding for many agencies did expire, but just for a few hours, and nobody was sent home. Civiletti later clarified that in a government-wide shutdown, the military, air traffic control, prisons and other work that protects human safety or property would continue. So would things such as social security benefits, which Congress has financed indefinitely. |
| Earlier 1900s – a time before full shutdowns | Earlier 1900s – a time before full shutdowns |
| Congress routinely failed to pass most of each year's dozen or so appropriations bills on time, with agencies sometimes going a full year without a budget. Usually it would be smoothed over with a short-term money approval, called a continuing resolution. Even when these got delayed due to wrangling, government agencies did not shut down. Agency chiefs might delay workers' pay and put items such as travel and new contracts on hold but they assumed Congress did not want them to turn off the lights and go home. Eventually a spending bill would be passed that retroactively papered over the funding gap. | Congress routinely failed to pass most of each year's dozen or so appropriations bills on time, with agencies sometimes going a full year without a budget. Usually it would be smoothed over with a short-term money approval, called a continuing resolution. Even when these got delayed due to wrangling, government agencies did not shut down. Agency chiefs might delay workers' pay and put items such as travel and new contracts on hold but they assumed Congress did not want them to turn off the lights and go home. Eventually a spending bill would be passed that retroactively papered over the funding gap. |
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