How effectively would you do your job if you knew that you were going to be waiting for a paycheck indefinitely? I wouldn’t do well or even be effective at all, in fact – I’d be panicking. This feeling of panic is a reality to thousands of Americans who have fallen victim to one of the longest and latest government shutdowns.
As a little more than 800,000 Americans who are federally employed suffer from the consequences of what seems to be a stalemate between the House, the Senate, and Donald Trump on his request to provide $5.7 billion dollars to build a wall on the United States-Mexico border, those who rely on the services provided by these workers suffer alongside them.
So, what exactly happens during a partial government shutdown and who is affected? A partial government shutdown, according to The Washington Post, is what happens when government agencies that were operating on temporary extensions are temporarily closed or “shut down” because the extensions have expired and the funding was never put into place to keep the agencies running into the new year. The employees of these agencies that have been shut down are immediately affected as they are either furloughed or working without pay depending on how essential they are to the agency. The programs and agencies affected by the government shutdown include, but are not limited to: Department of the Treasury, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, Homeland Security, The Violence Against Women Act, and WIC/Food Stamps.
Unexpectedly, the implications of the government shut down have taken their toll on the women of the United States. The Violence Against Women Act, an act passed by Bill Clinton in 1994, is a powerful piece of legislation that was put in place to build on and improve the responses of both the community and criminal justice system in instances of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in the United States. The Violence Against Women Act is federally funded and it grants and administers various programs and protections for abuse and assault survivors; while the programs that have already been awarded grants under the law will be safe, requesting future payments will be delayed until the law has been reauthorized, according to the National Public Radio, Inc. The message that this sends to women who have braved traumatic experiences is the most concerning because no one seems to be concerned about the lapse in the Act at all. The idea is that the urgency and delicacy that should be afforded to women who depend on certain programs to make their futures brighter than their past is not being treated that way because, as a community, we aren’t grasping the severity of the problem and how, like other major agencies or programs affected by the shutdown, it affects so many lives.
The lives and wellbeing of many of the citizens of the United States are in danger as the government shutdown charges forward well into the double digits. The pieces of the population that are dependent on WIC and Food Stamps are not in danger this month, but if the shutdown lasts for months, as Trump is prepared for – it could be detrimental to babies, the unemployed, and the elderly. The WIC and Food Stamps programs are funded with an extension until February 8, 2019, hopefully it won’t take until then for the government to be back to “normal” … but who knows?
Source: CBS News
Lastly, if no one is getting paid to defend and protect, how long does Donald Trump believe they will defend and protect? The Department of Justice and all of its agencies are going without pay and have been through the holidays until present day. How long could you ask someone to be unable to pay their bills or buy food for their children under the guise of protecting the country? Also, Customs and Border Patrol are also going without pay in this government shutdown, so why would “we” build a wall for the greater good if he can’t see the good in paying the people who risk their lives protecting the border on a daily basis?
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was right: it’s impeachment time.