After 17 days of gridlock and inactivity, Congress finally reached a compromise to end the federal government shutdown on Oct. 17. The agreement consisted of policies that would fund the government through Jan. 15, 2014 and suspend the debt limit until Feb. 7. The shutdown was ultimately a losing battle for the Republican Party, who did not succeed in stripping the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) of federal funding, as they originally intended.
The government shutdown began midnight Monday, Oct. 1 after Congress failed to reach a compromise regarding the government’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget included funding for the Affordable Healthcare Act, which the Republican Party is firmly against. Republicans demanded that the program be defunded, or even better, repealed. Democrats refused to compromise on any possible defunding, leaving the two parties at a stalemate with the deadline for the budget bill quickly approaching.
Obamacare, which was set to be implemented on Oct. 1, would attempt to increase the quality and reduce the costs of health care for individuals. The law requires insurance companies to cover all applicants with new minimum standards and provide the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or gender.
As a result of the shutdown, 800,000 federal employees were furloughed indefinitely without pay, while another 1.3 million, deemed “essential personnel,” were required to work without immediate pay. Still others, such as the President and members of Congress were still receiving their paychecks despite the shutdown.
A WJ parent who was furloughed as a result of the shutdown, was Maria Fergusson. She is a biologist for the Heart Lung and Blood institute at NIH.
“[The shutdown was] awful,” said Fergusson. “It is incredible that a few guys can decide that thousands of people are not going to work and they won’t get paid. They don’t have any respect for other peoples’ jobs.”
Former student James Duncan, who graduated in 2013, also felt the effects of the shutdown, but in a different context: at his school West Point Military Academy.
“West Point was hit fairly hard initially,” said Duncan. “All of the civilian workers, including one of my professors, were sent home on furlough for a little over a week. Many of the buildings here were temporarily shut down, like the post office, library and supply store. Luckily, some of the active-duty professors were able to reopen some of these buildings and ran them personally, which is very unusual.”
When asked about how the shutdown affected his college experience, Duncan said, “It hasn’t impacted my education in any negative fashion whatsoever. Actually, after seeing how hard the professors worked to get everything back in order, the shutdown increased my confidence in the West Point system and faculty.”
This is the first time since 1996 that the federal government experienced a shutdown. The 1996 shutdown was the result of similar conflicts between the Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican dominated Congress regarding the federal budget, especially funding for Medicare, education, and the environment. In 1996 workers were furloughed for a total of 21 days.
Arlene Lerner is another WJ parent who was furloughed as a result of the shutdown. She is a lawyer for the Small Business Administration, but she says that as a result of the shutdown, she was technically unemployed and did not know if she would be receiving any pay.
“I’m not allowed to do any work,” said Lerner during the shutdown. “Only essential employees can report to work.”
The shutdown impacted many federal employees personal lives as well, limiting their access to government subsidized cell phones, laptops, and email accounts.
“I’m allowed to check [my email] once a day to see if there’s any emergency,” said Lerner.
Lerner also experienced the 1996 shutdown, 17 years ago, but she was considered “essential” to the Small Business Administration, so her experience was very different.
“Last time I worked every day,” said Lerner, “so this is definitely different, [but] I’m sure it was just as frustrating [for those who could not work].”
The looming issue of the debt ceiling, and Congress’ inability to compromise, was also becoming tied to the shutdown.
As of Thursday, Oct. 17 the United States would have reached the deadline for the debt ceiling, meaning it would be unable to borrow any more money and may default on any loans owed to companies or other nations unless the debt limit could be raised. House Republicans had come forward with proposals to open the government, compromise on the budget bill and also take care of the debt ceiling. They included changes to Obamacare, despite the fact that these changes have been rejected by Democrats multiple times in the past weeks. Luckily a temporary compromise was eventually reached.
“I feel terrible for those who don’t [have jobs] and especially for all the contractors that lost their jobs and have no job security at all,” said Fergusson during the shutdown. “At least we federal workers will go back to our jobs and have some security about it.”
Lerner agreed. “It’s frustrating,” she said of the shutdown and Congress’ inability to compromise. “I feel like it’s manufactured…it’s not a real problem.”
Both agreed that Congress needed negotiate and listen to each other in order to resolve their issues.
