If President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders in Congress don’t come to an agreement over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall before midnight on Friday, a partial government shutdown could leave hundreds of thousands of federal employees without their paychecks over the holidays.
The House yielded to Trump’s demands late Thursday night, passing a short-term spending bill that included more than $5 billion to fund the barrier between the United States and Mexico by a vote of 217-185. The Senate unanimously approved a short-term spending bill that didn’t include border wall funding on Wednesday night. It will meet on Friday afternoon to vote again.
“If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time,” Trump said in a tweet before urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to use the “nuclear option” in the event a Senate majority is not reached. “Going nuclear” means changing the Senate’s filibuster rules by allowing a simple majority of 51 versus 60.
McConnell has advocated against changing filibuster rules in the past. Changing the filibuster rule over this one spending battle could change the way the Senate works in unforeseen ways, even giving an advantage to Democrats who have proposed programs like Medicare for All. It is opposed by institutionalists like Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
Several departments and agencies, such as the Departments of Education, Labor and Defense, have already received funding for fiscal year 2019, hence the reason any shutdown would only be a “partial” one.
Among those that have not finalized funding, and thus would be affected by the shutdown, include the Departments of State, Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice and Housing and Urban Development, plus a few smaller agencies, like NASA and the U.S. Postal Service.
Though government activities deemed vital, like the TSA, have historically remained functioning during shutdowns, other services — like those offered by the National Park Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency — have all had their capacities limited or temporarily halted in the past.
According to a fact sheet released by Democrats from the Senate Appropriations Committee, more than 420,000 essential government workers would have to work without pay until the partial shutdown is resolved. Thousands of employees from the FBI, DEA, TSA and Customs and Border Protections would be among them.
Another 380,000 employees would be placed on furlough, which essentially means mandatory unpaid leave. Though Congress can act to provide them backpay after the shutdown ends, it’s not a guarantee. The majority of employees at NASA, the Department of Transportation, the IRS and Housing and Urban Development would likely be among those waiting at home to resume work, and waiting to find out if they’d be paid for doing so.
It would also be bad for business, the fact sheet indicates, citing potential delays in loan processing, hindered local economies in the areas immediately surrounding national parks and shuttered local and state farm service centers.
Lawmakers from both the left and right have condemned the hold up.
“Some things are reachable and some things aren’t,” Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he told Trump. “I’m committed to securing the borders, whatever it takes in this country; it’s something we haven’t done. But I’m also committed to funding the government.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s threats a “temper tantrum.”
“The Trump temper tantrum will shut down the government, but it will not get him his wall,” he said, denouncing the wall as “ineffective, unnecessary and exorbitantly expensive.”
