THE US Federal Government’s partial shutdown is now the longest in American history. Currently, a total of nine Federal departments and several smaller agencies; that mean 25 per cent of the Federal Government remain closed as no end of crisis is in sight. Though it’s nothing new in American history, this time the shutdown entered its 22nd day on Saturday. Previously, there was a record for 21-day standoff in late 1995 and early 1996 during the regime of Bill Clinton.
The present situation arises from a budget battle between the White House and Congressional Democrats over the construction of US-Mexico border wall costing $5.7 billion. It’s not so easy to build a wall on the 1,933 mile-border, of which 1,279 miles is unfenced and crosses through arid desert, rugged mountains, and winding rivers. But President Donald Trump threatens to declare a national emergency to have access in federal funds to build the wall.
It seems that, there is no remedy ready in hand to overcome the situation shortly. For that reason, Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate both went home to their districts on Friday and reportedly won’t return until Monday. So, it’s damn sure that one-fourth of the US government will remain closed at least through early next week.
The situation is so critical that about 800,000 workers missed paychecks on Friday. Many working in emergency services like police, airport and fire department are working without money. In other services, most of the workers refused to work showing them ‘sick’. Online selling section is now flooded with the household items of these unpaid workers. They are selling them in low prices to bear the expenditures.
As Mr Trump is facing tremendous opposition from Democrats in getting fund for wall, he has stopped signing other budgetary documents which forced the departments concerned to keep shut. It’s not yet sure whether Mr Trump would declare an emergency but it’s quite sure he is adamant to build the Mexico wall and so, he threatened to continue shutdown until he gets the funding. He thinks, the shutdown is necessary to get an approval from Congressional Democrats in favour of his plan. But this unbending attitude will certainly invite more chaos.
