The Government Shutdown: Is It Really Over?

President Donald Trump agreed on Friday, Jan. 25 to reopen nine federal agencies until Feb. 15, marking the end of the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history. Roughly a quarter of the government was affected by the shutdown, and according to a senior administration official, the potential dates for back pay and permanent reopenings depends on the type of federal agency. While Congress has approved back pay for federal workers, around 800,000 federal contractors—including janitors and security guards—are still in murky waters. Twenty-seven percent of respondents to a survey for federal worker contractors said that they were expecting little to no employees by the end of the government shutdown.Constance Summers, manager of the cleanup crew for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBP), said in an interview with News13, “I have one staffer who is a cancer survivor. She called me because she had been unable to even get her medication.President Trump’s bill hasn’t necessarily accomplished anything to help the government reopen or move forward. His plan doesn’t include any of the money for his “steel wall” that he has so vehemently pushed for. This is the exact same proposal that Democrats have been promoting since December last year—a proposal that Trump himself had rejected. According to the New York Times, Trump also conceded that “we do not need 2,000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shining sea—we never did,” and even pointed out the possibility of using technology, such as drones or sensors, instead of physical barriers. These comments, ideas and proposals are exactly what many Democrats have been arguing for since the beginning of the government shutdown.However, what’s more important and pressing than possible solutions President Trump has finally come to agree with is the already long-lasting damage he has inflicted on American citizens. In fact, government agencies like the Department of Transportation are predicted to still be affected by the shutdown even after funding resumes. For instance, flights and management of LaGuardia Airport in New York City were temporarily shut down due to a lack of employees and federal workers. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has also been experiencing problems even after the shutdown, with an accumulation of 5 million packages and mail being delayed. As the spokesperson of National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Doug Church, grimly affirmed, “It will be like starting up a 150-car freight train and getting it to full speed.” Ultimately, the federal deficit budget has hit nearly $120 million and the U.S. economy has lost around $11 billion; and, while the economy could bounce back, the budget office of the Federal Reserve has predicted that approximately $3 billion will never be recovered.Despite these innumerable problems arising from the government shutdown and his hypocrisy with the Democratic party, Trump has continued to refuse that he is in the wrong. In fact, the night he made the deal to reopen the government, he tweeted, “This was in no way a concession...in 21 days if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!”And it is true that this new bill is very much temporary. President Trump asserted in a speech given in the Rose Garden that, “We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier.” If this doesn’t happen, he will either renew his position or declare a national emergency to circumvent Congress. Meanwhile, Democrats have sought to continue negotiating with President Trump, from raising their funding for current border security to holding more stringent stances on the issue of illegal border immigration. However, under no circumstances would the Democrats concede to a compromise including any amount of money for Trump’s wall, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Even many Republicans have been exasperated with President Trump’s handling of the issue, with Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), agreeing that, “there are a lot of other strategies we could employ that would work better” than a government shutdown or a threat to declare a national emergency. It’s clear that President Trump is very much alone on this one, and his decisions only showcase the many flaws and weaknesses of him and his administration. The only hope for the government reopening permanently is if President Trump somehow finds the flexibility, sense and goodwill as President of the United States to work with Democrats, lawmakers of his own party and his administration to end this crisis once and for all. After all, in the words of Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, “We’ve already lost. It’s a matter of the extent we want to keep losing.”