Here's Everything You Need To Know About the Government Shutdown
By: Kayla Pasacreta
“In fact he said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time. Months or even years,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated today.
ICYMI, the government has been partially shutdown for 14 days because of Congress’ inability to come to an agreement to Trump’s demands for his border wall. If you remember, Trump promised on his campaign trail that Mexico would pay for his lavish wall - but now, he’s asking Congress to shell out $5 billion to fund the wall. Overcoming this shutdown will be difficult, as Trump still isn’t giving into Democrats’ demand to bring back DACA. This has led to the second largest government shutdown in 20 years, and has potential to impact thousands of American workers - here’s how.
The IRS is in struggle mode, according to Market Watch,
“The Internal Revenue Service is one agency currently strained. Less than half (43.5%) of the agency’s roughly 80,000 workers are expected to work at the beginning of this year, under the IRS’s contingency plan. (Before the end of 2018, only 12.5% of the workforce were working). Their jobs will include designing and printing upcoming tax forms, overseeing electronic returns processed through the system, continuing IRS computer operations to prevent loss of data and conducting criminal investigations.”
Tax refund season is also at a halt until the shutdown is over. Brace yourselves: the IRS will still be collecting their coins.
What government agencies are affected?
Essential government agencies, like the FBI, TSA, Social Security, Border Patrol, and the Coast Guard are still open. The US Post Office is also still delivering mail as an independent agency. Several parks and museums have been closed as a result of the shutdown, and the National Park Service warned that “access may change without notice.”
Due to the partial government shutdown, the IRS is only operating with 12.5% of its employees. The shutdown has also led to 38,000 furloughed workers and 420,000 workers forced to work without pay.
In short, Trump expects to get what he wants (a wall), but Democrats, who have a fresh majority in Congress, aren’t ready to cave in just yet.
