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Shutdown (originally aired November 19, 2003)
Bartlet's refusal to accept the House Speaker's three-percent cut in temporary government spending shuts down the federal government for three days (1). Bartlet is largely blamed for the shutdown but begins to turn things around with a dramatic walk (or stunt), and he finally negotiates with the Speaker one-on-one in the Oval Office.
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Government Shutdown (last updated November 20, 2003) (back to top)
A three-day shutdown? Come on. That's nothing.
In 1995, budget disputes between the Clinton administration and the Republican Congress resulted in two government shutdowns totaling 27 days. The first lasted six days in November, and the second lasted 21 days beginning in mid-December and ending in early January.
Then again, President Bill Clinton had an easier time making his case because at least during the first shutdown in part because of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's statement that he had helped provoke the shutdown because of what he took as a snub from Clinton during a trip to the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Israel shortly before the shutdown. Gingrich was upset that Clinton did not negotiate the spending bill with Gingrich and Dole during the trip, and was also upset that he had to leave the plane from the rear upon returning to the United States. Days into the first shutdown, Gingrich said that he sent the White House a "tougher" continuing resolution than he might otherwise have because of these apparent snubs.
The budget dispute continued for three more months after the second shutdown, with Congress and the White House enacting continuing resolutions to keep the government funded during the interim. The FY 1996 budget was not fully enacted until April 24, 1996, almost six months (or 206 days) late. By comparison, enacting the FY 2001, 2002, and 2003 budgets did not involve any government shutdowns and took 81 days, 101 days, and 142 days respectively.
Procedure
How does a government shutdown happen? It requires a massive, two-step political breakdown and does cause a lot of disruption.
First, Congress and the White House must fail to enact the 13 required authorization bills (or an omnibus bill covering the same subject areas) before October 1 in order to fund the discretionary parts of the federal government in the new fiscal year beginning on that date. Missing this deadline is quite common, even when the same party controls both the executive and legislative branches (as of mid-November 2003, only three of the 13 bills had been enacted).
Second, Congress and the White House must fail to enact temporary "continuing resolutions" that allow for more time to pass the necessary authorization bills and that keep the government going in the interim. CRs usually keep temporary funding going at a level similar to or slightly less than the previous year's authorization and are very common; the United States was on its fourth CR as of mid-November 2003.
Here, the White House and the Republicans were already past October 1 and were near the end of the second CR-authorized extension. The White House and the Republicans agreed to give themselves more time by passing a third CR, but then the Speaker of the House demanded deeper temporary cuts. Bartlet refused to go along and effectively vetoed Congress's proposed continuing resolution, and the government shut down hours later when the prior extension ran out.
Without an appropriations bill or a CR in force, the federal government cannot spend any discretionary funds and thus must shut down all non-essential functions. Government offices, parks, museums, and laboratories will shut down and employees will be furloughed. People cannot get passports and cannot apply for Social Security benefits. A shutdown does not affect essential functions like national defense and law enforcement and it does not affect government functions that are funded on a mandatory basis, such as the issuing of Social Security payments.
Sources: Todd S. Perdum, Federal workers go home as budget impasse stiffens, New York Times, November 15, 1995. Todd S. Perdum, A Washington potboiler steals budget's thunder, New York Times, November 17, 1995. Todd S. Perdum, President and G.O.P. agree to end federal shutdown and to negotiate budget, New York Times, November 20, 1995. Todd S. Perdum, Political leaders make no progress on a budget deal, New York Times, December 18, 1995. Jerry Gray, Congress and White House finally agree on budget, 7 months into fiscal year, New York Times, April 25, 1996. The Library of Congress has information on the status of the 13 appropriation bills for FY 2004 and the related continuing resolutions on-line here and information on the appropriations legislation for prior years on-line here.
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By Stephen Lee
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