On December 21, 2018, the Federal Government of the United States temporarily shut down. The third shutdown of the year, this particular shutdown was caused by a failure by Congress to pass a spending bill regarding the border wall by Friday at midnight exactly. This failure is a result of Democrats resisting to passing the bill, while Republicans and Donald Trump believed they should. The bill Donald Trump wants to use to fund the wall will costis more than $4 billion.

“On January 12, 2019, it became the longest shutdown in U.S history, lasting 22 days with no end in sight.” said Kimberly Amadeo, writer of the article, ‘Government Shutdown 2019 and 2018 Explained.’.

The second longest shutdown was a 21 day shutdown from December 1995 to January 1996, caused by a clash between Bill Clinton and the GOP Ccongress. 2018 is also the first year in 40 years that there have been three government shutdowns in a year.

The day prior, January 11, marks the day where about 380,000 workers were sent home with no pay, and more than 400,000 federal employees were forced to continue their jobs with no pay. Departments affected by the shutdown included sectors like Aagriculture, Ccommerce, Jjustice, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, State, Transportation, and Treasury.

“The workers being furloughed [are], they’re definitely the ones that are the most affected by the shutdown…… they’re going to work unpaid, which is totally unfair.…” government teacher at San Pasqual High School government teacher Tiffany Phillip said.

The federal workers have been furloughed for 20 days, but recently have returned to work, with questions of whether or not they will get back pay. The shutdown has also officially come to an end on January 25th, on Friday, lasting more than a month. However, even though the shutdown is over, the dispute over the border wall continues, leaving America uncertain about where this path will take us.

“I think it’s all negative. Honestly, I don’t see any good coming from the shutdown,” Phillip said. “There are so many families losing money because of the shutdown.”

Whether the shutdown is negative or positive, good or bad, or something that lasts more than a year, we know that our 2018 – 2019 government shutdown is something that will be remembered for a long time in America.

“The shutdown affects the government, then the federal workers, then is eventually something that trickles down to everyone in America,” said Phillip.