{"id":10217,"date":"2019-02-14T11:25:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T17:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/di.owensboro.kyschools.us\/digitaldevil\/?p=10217"},"modified":"2019-09-18T19:41:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T00:41:58","slug":"the-government-shutdown-is-over-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/?p=10217","title":{"rendered":"The Government Shutdown is Over\u2014For Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10223\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10223\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10223\" src=\"http:\/\/di.owensboro.kyschools.us\/digitaldevil\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/closed-150x150.png\" alt=\"sorry we are closed sign\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/closed-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/closed-144x144.png 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another government shutdown is pending<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The government was partially shut down from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019. At just over a month in duration, this was the longest government shutdown in US history. The government was temporarily reopened on in late January in an attempt to sort out financial disagreements, but another shutdown in February seems imminent. According to Market Watch, it began because of a \u201cdispute over money for President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed wall at the southern border,\u201d and millions of people have been put at risk because of the president\u2019s strategy on the issue. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees were working without pay, the majority of food and food facilities went uninspected, and the economy may be in danger if the government shuts down again in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>The FDA (Food &amp; Drug Administration) obtains most of its funding for food safety inspections from the Department of Agriculture, which was heavily impacted by the shutdown. The FDA recommenced inspections of food facilities on Tuesday, January 15, but the workers were not paid until the government reopened ten days later. Countless employees who had been furloughed (temporarily laid off) voluntarily came back and keep the US population safe and healthy, and even more were legally required to return to their jobs without being paid.&nbsp;Those who didn\u2019t return to their jobs were forced to rely on unemployment to pay their bills and feed their families. With staff in low numbers and spirits, the FDA was only inspecting high-risk foods like dairy products and fresh produce. They continued to respond to health emergencies like food borne illnesses and the flu and recall \u201cany foods, drugs, and medical devices that pose a high risk to human health,\u201d according to NPR.<\/p>\n<p>The shutdown halted the business of many government-run and government-funded organizations, like museums, zoos, and national parks. They can\u2019t afford to stay open without the resources that are usually provided by the government, which means millions of dollars were lost to the shutdown every day for over a month. According to the New York Times, \u201cSome economists are already predicting that a shutdown lasting longer than February would harm the broader economy.\u201d The shutdown will not continue into February, but it may continue in February, so government-run and government-funded organizations might have enough time to recuperate from the long period of lost income before the next one hits.<br \/>\nCongressional negotiators reached an agreement on the night of February 11, according to CNN. Very little information about this agreement has been released, but it could prevent another shutdown\u2014if the president takes the deal. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said, \u201c[President Trump] would be out of his mind and irresponsible [to not go through with the agreement]. I think the President has no choice. If he is the least bit sane and responsible. In fact he should thank the Congress for taking the lead. The President ought to lead or get out of the way and enable this country to move forward with everything that\u2019s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of now, no one knows where Trump stands on the deal, but his allies are publicly unsupportive. Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina said it\u2019s \u201chardly a serious attempt to secure our border or stop the flow of illegal immigration,\u201d and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio considers it \u201ca bad deal on immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government was partially shut down from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019. At&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10225,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10217\/revisions\/10225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}