Changes

Since the presidency of Barack Obama, shutdowns have emerged once again as a phenomenon of US politics. In 2013, Congress, this time divided between a Democratic-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled House, came to major disagreements on the 2014 Continuing Appropriations Bill. Before 2013, shutdowns were often avoided, sometimes at the last minute, using short-term continuing appropriation bills or continuing resolutions (CRs), which effectively allowed government to operate using the previous fiscal year's budget levels. These were short-term solutions that often created uncertainty for government employees but were often resolved because both parties saw shutdowns as too politically costly. However, on October 1, 2013, a 16-day shutdown occurred due to many appropriation disagreements, in particular funding and timing of funding for the 2013 Affordable Care Act being a major source of contention. This bitterness over the new health bill and increased pressure from political groups to try to stop appropriation for this and other funding in the government led to the a stalemate in Congress that led to the eventual shutdown. One key source of contention was the debt ceiling that can only be lifted by Congress. Since the 1990s, the US government spending debt has increased substantially and there was increased concern on expiring debt that would cause the US government to default in its debt obligations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and Harry Reid (D), Senate Majority Leader, eventually agreed to lift the debt ceiling and increase income verification in relation to health insurance. Nevertheless, hostility during this time lingered and increased partisanship often made appropriation bills put the government close to a shutdown from year to year. <ref>For an analysis on the 2013 shutdown, see: Lundy, R. C. (Ed.). (2014). <i>The government shutdown of 2013: perspective and analyses</i>. New York: Nova Publishers. </ref>

In 2018, the first shutdown of President Trump's tenure occurred on January 20th and lasted to January 23rd. The main dispute revolved around immigration, with Congressional disagreement on funding for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which would prevent the deportation of individuals brought to the United States illegally as minors. Congressional Democrats mostly wanted DACA fundedas official policy, while many Republicans did not. The dispute ended when Republicans agreed to talks on DACA and Democrats removed their filibusterto Republican legislation. The eventual passage of the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act allowed funding to continue through most of 2018. However, things would change in December 2018. For the appropriation of 2019, President Trump and some Republicans sought to have funding included in the appropriation for a protective wall along the US-Mexico border. Continuing resolutions that did not include funding for the wall were refused by Trump with Democrats also refusing to include any funding. The lack of compromise created the longest-lived shutdown. From December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, the government shutdown affected more than 380,000 through furloughs and 420,000 works being workers were asked to work without pay. The shutdown mostly came to an end due to increased security and safety concerns due to the record shutdown period affecting the FBI and Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including many unpaid workers calling in sick.<ref>For more recent politics and government shutdowns, see: Kruse, K. M., & Zelizer, J. E. (2019). <i>Fault lines: a history of the United States since 1974 </i>(First edition). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.</ref>