Government shutdown how long last

October: 16 days. Congressional disputes over budgets and funding the Affordable Care Act led to the only shutdown under President Barack Obama.

December-January: 21 days. Just a month after resolving a prior shutdown, President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich ran into a stalemate over a 7-year budget plan. Thus began the longest shutdown in U. The shutdown went on so long that museums relied on private funds to reopen, and therapists said they were getting crisis calls from out-of-work civil servants.

November: 5 days. The first of two shutdowns under Clinton started over budget disputes largely centered on Medicare and environmental regulations. December: 1 day. If there is any lesson from the past shutdowns, it would appear that a resolution comes when public frustration with the inaction begins to boil over. So, keep an eye on the polls to see whether the public sides with Trump or congressional Democrats. Here is a look at the four longest government shutdowns, why they happened and the fallout from each.

It was the second standoff between the two, both over taxes, and came just a month after a five-day shutdown from Nov. More : What to know about the shutdown. Gingrich and other congressional Republicans wanted to reduce spending. Clinton refused to make the cuts they wanted.

Gingrich then refused to raise the debt limit. The shutdown ended when the two sides agreed to a seven-year budget plan with some spending cuts and tax increases. In fiscal years , , , , , and , CRs were used to fund the government for roughly a quarter of each year.

FY funding negotiations necessitated three CRs before the passage of an omnibus appropriations bill in May , and FY negotiations required five CRs before the passage of an omnibus in March In FY , a CR was used for seven of the 12 appropriations bills for more than one-third of the year before the enactment of an omnibus in February , while the remaining five appropriations bills were funded before the fiscal year began. The most recent year when a full-year appropriations bill passed before the fiscal year began and no CRs were necessary was FY Finally, the use of continuing resolutions disrupts activities within agencies, makes it difficult to plan or start future projects, and costs staff time to revise work plans every time the budget changes.

Although Congress has not yet enacted any appropriations bills as of mid-September, the House has passed nine out of 12 appropriations bills. The full Senate has not yet taken any action on appropriations for FY , despite the Senate Appropriations Committee reporting out three of its bills.

The House and Senate would have to agree on and pass the same versions of the bills before they are presented to the President for his signature. Congress is expected to consider a continuing resolution that would extend funding, largely at current levels, to allow more time to complete appropriations. In a shutdown, the federal government temporarily stops paying employees and contractors who perform government services, whereas in a default the list of parties not paid is much broader.

In a default, the government exceeds the statutory debt limit and is unable to pay some of its creditors or other obligations. While a government shutdown would be disruptive, a government default could be disastrous. A government shutdown closes down non-essential government operations due to a lack of funding, whereas a sequester or sequestration is shorthand for the reductions in discretionary spending caps that were in place up until the most recent fiscal year that constrained the total amount of funding for annually appropriated programs.

The most recent version of sequestration, a product of the Budget Control Act BCA of , resolved the debt ceiling negotiations. The failure of the Super Committee triggered sequestration, causing discretionary spending caps to be automatically lowered for both defense and non-defense. Congress has never allowed the full sequester to take effect, passing partial sequester relief in and , and more than fully reversing the sequester in and If appropriations bills violated the increased spending caps, then across-the-board cuts would have been triggered.

What is a government shutdown? What services are affected in a shutdown and how? Is the government preparing for a shutdown? How would federal employees be affected? How and why do mandatory programs continue during a shutdown? How many times has the government shut down? Does a government shutdown save money?

How can Congress avoid a shutdown? What is a Continuing Resolution CR? One area of particular concerns is restaurants. When people tighten their purse strings, eating out is one of the first things to go. Given the challenging times the restaurant trade has had during the pandemic, any additional disruption would come as a further blow. Read more: What's the economic impact of a government shutdown? This manifested in a number of ways during the shutdown. Disaster preparedness was one of the areas affected.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was forced to cease working on a several projects, and even those that continued were impacted by staff shortages as a result of federal furloughs. Among those temporarily sent home in that shutdown were hurricane modelers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Similarly, government employees tasked with managing forests prone to fires were affected by the shutdown.