A Day-to-Day Tracker of the Government Shutdown

Since December 21, 2018, the US government has been in a partial shutdown. This means that some workers will work without pay while others take the days off. National Parks and all Smithsonian Institutions are closed and the government must now work on a bill that will end the shutdown. This shutdown has felt like it has been so long that in order to keep up with everything that has happened, a day-to-day tracker is needed.

Day 1, December 23, 2018: The shutdown begins, this shutdown could go on for two weeks says Mick Mulvaney, the acting Chief of Staff. Regardless of the situation, Mr. Mulvaney also comments that discussions are going to move very slowly in the nation’s capital.

Day 2, December 24, 2018: Donald Trump accuses the Democrats of hypocrisy towards the border wall. The hypocrisy was that the Democrats had strong support for a border wall until Donald Trump made it an important part of his presidential campaign because of the drugs and illegal immigrants entering the country.

Day 3, December 25, 2018: Christmas occurs and Donald Trump still has a border wall on his wishlist.

Day 4, December 26, 2018: Donald Trump claims he will do whatever necessary to secure the funds for the border wall. The funds are over $5 billion.

Day 5, December 27, 2018: Donald Trump tries to move the focus of the shutdown to the finance realm for Democrats. By this, Donald Trump means that the impact of the US economy falls in the hands of the Democrats, the party where most people are not getting paid.

Day 6, December 28, 2018: The ACLU and a combination of groups leaning left towards immigration, the environment, and labor push Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to find an end to the shutdown. These groups encourage the Democratic leaders to fight off each border fence offer from Donald Trump.

Day 7, December 29, 2018: Negotiations to reopen government have occurred on Trump’s twitter account. Tweeting is going to be the tactic of President Trump during the span of the shutdown, bringing up questions about if the president is hiding away from the epicenter of the shutdown, the wall. Since December 11, 2018, President Trump addressed Democratic leaders by tweeting only, a potential positive step towards ending the shutdown.

Day 8, December 30, 2018: Senator Richard Shelby (Republic, Alabama) comments that the shutdown talks appear to be at some sort of standoff. Senator Shelby plays the role of top appropriator of the Senate and he says the shutdown remains at a standoff, as he told CBS during Face the Nation. He feels that the government should focus more on funding than the blame game.

Day 9, December 31, 2018: A Federal Employee Union sues the Trump Administration over the Government shutdown. This Union is led by Justin Tarkovsky and Grayson Sharp, who are high-security prison workers for a prison run by the Justice Department. As of this moment, there probably will be a payment but the price has yet to be announced.

Day 10, January 1, 2019: Donald Trump invites the congressional leaders to the White House to discuss the border wall.

Day 11, January 2, 2019: Donald Trump meets with Democratic leaders and the end result is no progress.

Day 12, January 3, 2019: The House votes to end shutdown, but Congress is no closer to actually ending the shutdown.

Day 13, January 4, 2019: President Trump comments that the shutdown could last months or even years.

Day 14, January 5, 2019: At this point, officials to President Trump will not receive their raises during the span of the shutdown.

Day 15, January 6, 2019: Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington comments Donald Trump could use his emergency powers to build wall.

Day 16, January 7, 2019: Donald Trump starts a PR War as the shutdown talks appear to diminish.

Day 17, January 8, 2019: President Trump makes a nine minute speech about the current state of the government shutdown. During this speech, President Trump discusses the government shutdown, the crisis at the Mexican border, the amount of drugs and people entering illegally through said border, the effects of the drugs entering the country, the Democrats request for a steel barrier, Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) support, and the reason why the government is shut down. The only problem with this speech was the amount of misleading information he spoke about. One example is when Trump says that many Americans have been killed by illegal immigrants. However, illegal immigrants are less likely to kill Americans than Native Americans are.

Day 18, January 9, 2019: President Trump walks out of shutdown meeting with Democrats

Day 19, January 10, 2019:  People take to the streets to protest the government shutdown and how some people are either not getting paid or are not working.

Day 20, January 11, 2019: President Donald Trump holds back on declaring a national emergency for the border wall.

Day 21, January 12, 2019: Donald Trump appears to have a plan to end the shutdown, but, White House advisers and some White House Staff members said that no one really knows how the shutdown will end.

Day 22, January 13, 2019: Senator Ted Cruz (R- Texas) comments that the Democrats are responsible for holding the Federal Workers hostage because they refuse to vote on issues from the past. These issues include the length of the border wall and border control

Day 23, January 14, 2019: While some Republican Senators show anger at Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), he says he is not being pressured to change his viewpoint on the president. Some people say Mr. McConnell’s game plan is to not go through the struggles of a bill that could be rejected by the President and lead to an override in the Congress.

Day 24, January 15, 2019: A federal judge rules in favor of President Trump and his administration. This means that the administration can require government employees to work without a paycheck. Some people argued that if workers were forced to work without pay, the value could be lost.

Day 25, January 16, 2019: Democrats in the House demand that the Department of the Interior cease their actions to call back their workers for offshore drilling while the government remains closed. The House democrats believe this action was in favor of the drilling companies and not of the workers in said companies.

Day 26, January 17, 2019: Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says she will cancel the State of the Union for President Trump. He retaliates by revoking her private plane that she would have taken to Afghanistan and bans her from going.

Day 27, January 18, 2019: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accuses the Trump team of a security threat following the leaking of new plans on Afghanistan. These plans included Nancy Pelosi flying commercial to Afghanistan and leaking these kinds of actions could lead to dangerous effects such as death.

Day 28, January 19, 2019: President Trump goes on live TV and states his offer to the Democrats to end the shutdown. His offer includes providing temporary protection to some illegal immigrants and bring back DACA in exchange for the $5.7 Billion for the wall. The Democrats swiftly refuse this offer and the shutdown drags on.

Day 29, January 20, 2019: After days of consideration, President Trump is still considering whether to give the State of the Union or not. This comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) asked President Trump to cancel his State of the Union address until the government is open.

Day 30, January 21, 2019: President Trump wants the GOP to take back the House in 2020. The party already has control of the Senate, but lost their House control on election day of 2018. President Trump also rattled Democrats a little on Twitter by asking how progress is coming along.

Day 31, January 22, 2019: A lot of action occurs regarding ending the shutdown, but leaders from either party are not willing to back in or surrender at this point. Democrats want Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to come up with a counter proposal to Trump’s ideas.

Day 32, January 23, 2019: President Trump’s economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, comments that the chance for a zero percent growth exists, but would not have a disastrous effect on the US economy.

Day 33, January 24, 2019: The Senate rejects to two proposals that could reopen the government. On one side, there is giving President Trump the $5.7 Billion he needs for the border wall. On the other side is opening the government for three weeks so discussions can occur about the border wall. Both votes failed despite getting more yeas than nays because neither bill had the required sixty votes needed to go to the White House.

Day 34, January 25, 2019: President Trump announces live on television that he has reached a deal to temporarily end the shutdown. This deal does not involve any money for the border wall President Trump wants. During his speech, President Trump comments on why a wall should be needed and promises the federal workers will get their money.

So this might be a temporary ending, but an end to the shutdown is a good ending. Workers can now get paid again and programs will be able to resume their business without worrying about being tight for money. For now, it will be interesting to see what happens within the government to prevent another shutdown from happening in the near future.

https://www.politico.com/latest-news-updates/government-shutdown-2018/1