The Government Shutdown in United States

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The Government Shutdown In United States

• In U.S Politics, a government shutdown is the name for the process the Executive Branch must enter into, when the Congress creates a "funding gap" by choosing not to or failing to pass legislation funding government operations and agencies. If interim or full-year appropriations are not enacted into law, the U.S Constitution and the Antideficiency Act require the federal government begins a "shutdown" of the affected activities.


•During the Ford and Carter administrations, funding gaps caused 6 partial shutdowns that affected only the departments of Labor and Health,Education and Welfare. These lasted from 8 to 18 days and the primary issue of dispute was federal funding for abortion.


The U.S Federal Government Shutdown in 2013 ran from September 30 to October 16, 2013. The primary issue of dispute between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic Senate was the Republicans' desire to delay or defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), signed into law in 2010, A bill to end the shutdown and fund federal agencies through January. 15, 2014, passed the Senate and the House and was signed into law on Oct. 17, 2013.


•Mechanism of a shutdown•Under the separation of Powers created by the U.S

Constitution, the U.S Congress has the sole power of the purse and responsibility for appropriating government funds. The appropriations bills must start in the House of and then be approved by the Senate, which upon passage of a final version by both houses then go to the President of The United States.


• If the President signs or ignores the bills, they become law. If the President vetoes the bills, they go back to Congress, where the veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote. Government shutdowns tend to occur when the President and one or both of the chambers of Congress are unable to resolve disagreements over budget allocations before the existing budget cycle ends.


•Effects•The exact details of which government

functions would stop during a shutdown is determined by the Office of Management and Budget.

•For the Department of Defense, at least half of the civilian workforce, and the full-time, dual-status military technicians in the US National Guards and traditional Guardsmen.


•List of United States Government Shutdown

•The United States federal government shutdowns of 1995 and 1995–96 were the result of conflicts between Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and Public Health in the 1996 federal budget.


•The government shut down after Clinton vetoed the spending bill the Republican Party-controlled Congress sent him. The Federal government of the United States put government workers on furlough and suspended non-essential services from November 14 through November 19, 1995 and from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996, for a total of 27 days.


•Sept. 30 – Oct. 18, 1978•Length: 18 days•Major players: President Jimmy Carter, House

Speaker Tip O’Neill, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd


•The House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, disagreed on using Medicaid funding to pay for abortions concerning when the mother’s life was at stake: The Senate wanted to allow it, and the House did not. The issue was related to funding for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare, which complicated the issue and led to the shutdown. In the end Congress agreed to continue the ban on Medicaid funding for abortions temporarily, which gave everyone more time to work out a longer deal.


•Sept. 30 – Oct. 12, 1979•Length: 11 days•Major players: President Jimmy Carter, House

Speaker Tip O’Neill, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd


• Abortion emerged again as a contentious issue in another shutdown during Carter’s tenure (he had five total), along with Congressional pay. The House wanted to increase pay for Congress and senior civil servants by 5.5 percent, but the Senate opposed. The House also wanted to limit federal abortion funding in cases where the mother’s life was in danger, while the Senate did not.

• The shutdown ended when houses agreed on pay increases, but they disagreed on abortion – the House had to allow abortion funding in cases of rape or incest, but not when the mother’s health (rather than life) was at stake.


•Sept. 30 – Oct. 11, 1976•Length: 10 days•Major players: President Gerald Ford, House

Speaker Carl Albert, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield


•The biggest budget conflict of this first shutdown stemmed from Ford’s veto of a funding bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare. He thought the bill presented by the House and Senate, both of which were controlled by Democrats, failed to cut spending enough. Congress overrode Ford’s veto on Oct. 1, allowing the bills to become law. But it took more than a week for the shutdown to end because that’s when the continuing resolution for other parts of the budget officially became law. Source: Http/Wikipedia/com

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The Government Shutdown in United States