The United States Government: Closed for Maintenance
Happy winter quarter everyone! I’m Meg and I’m a fourth year Global Studies major and English minor from the United States. I’d like to talk about the current US government shutdown and how it may affect you as an international student. I am going to be as impartial about this subject as I can, to give you a neutral initial understanding of the issues going on right now. Congrats on being in the US during a historic event – the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history! (This is not a happy thing but I was trying to make it sound exciting!)
First, a brief summary of our government structure. Skip this if you’ve heard it before. In the United States, we have three branches of government – the Executive branch (President), Legislative (Congress), and Judicial (the Supreme Court). Each of these branches have distinct powers to prevent one branch from having too much power and taking over. Our Congress is divided into the Senate (there are 100 Senators, two from each of the fifty states), and the House of Representatives (there are 435 members of the House). The House can get pretty confusing, because each state gets a different number of Representatives based on the population of the state. For example, California has the highest population in the country (because CA is bae) so we have the most Representatives – 53 to be exact. Some states have so few people who live there that they only have one Rep – Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota are some examples (it’s ok if you haven’t heard of those states, nobody lives there).
We elect Representatives (also called Congresswomen or Congressmen) every two years (2014, 2016, 2018…). Senators are elected every six years. Presidents are elected every four years. The last presidential election in the United States was in 2016 and – FUN FACT – Donald Trump did NOT win the popular vote! More people actually voted for Hillary Clinton, but because of the way our government structure works, Trump still won. If you want more details on that, look up the Electoral College. It’s totally bonkers.
In November 2018, you may have heard that “Democrats took back the House”. There are two political parties in the United States – Democrats and Republicans. I will not be sharing my personal opinion about the parties here. Trump is a Republican. Republicans have had more Senators and Representatives in office since 2008, so they have been in control of Congress for a decade – but Democrat Barack Obama was president from 2008-2016. When Trump won in 2016, Republicans had control of the Senate, House, and Executive Branch. But in 2018, more Democrats were elected into the House, and now Democrats have control of ½ of the Legislative branch. Democrats do not like Republicans, and they do not like the wall (generally speaking).
So anyway. One of Trump’s favorite things to talk about is the border between the United States and Mexico. The border exists in a desert with mountains and valleys and there is not a barrier or wall in the desert, but there are walls where the border runs through cities, like between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. Trump doesn’t like when people cross the border illegally (he says they are stealing our jobs) and he wants to build a 20 foot (6 meter) tall wall all along the border. Nobody knows how much this will cost, or who is going to pay for it. Before he was elected, Trump said Mexico was going to pay for it. But Mexico does not want to build a wall because it is a desert, and a wall is not going to stop people who want to cross the border. So now Trump says that American citizens have to pay for the wall. But Democratic Senators and Representatives do not want to agree to the wall because generally speaking Democrats do not like the wall. Democrats think that immigrants should be able to come to the US if they want to. So, the Democrats in the House (Nancy Pelosi is the House majority leader, or Speaker of the House) and President Trump do not agree on the wall and therefore they cannot find a compromise.
At the end of every year Congress has to pass a budget proposal for the next year and the President has to approve it. But at the end of 2018, President Trump said he would not approve a budget that did not have funding for the border wall. Democrats in the House, led by Nancy Pelosi, refused to write a budget proposal that included funding for the wall. Democrats believe that because the wall would not actually stop people from crossing into the United States, it is only a symbol of anti-immigrant attitudes. So now the money has run out and the government has shut down because Democrats and Republicans refuse to back down.
The government is partially shut down, which means elected officials and a small number of essential federal employees are still working. The country is obviously still running, but hundreds of thousands of Americans who work for the federal government either cannot work, or have to work without pay, because the federal government does not have an approved budget for 2019. Those who are working received a paycheck of $0 last week, and there is no guarantee that they will ever be paid for the hours they have worked in the past month.
How might this affect you? People who work for national parks cannot come to work because they will not be paid. As a result, about half of the national parks throughout the country – like Joshua Tree – are completely closed. That isn’t stopping people from coming onto the land and littering and chopping down trees and doing other irreparable damage to our special areas that are supposed to be federally protected. Other parks and monuments, such as Yosemite, are still open but have much fewer workers.
If you’re planning on flying soon, you should arrive at the airport much earlier than you’d think. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created after September 11, 2001 – they’re the people who make you take off your shoes and go through the metal detector before you get on the plane. Only a very small number of TSA agents are considered “essential employees” so instead of having 20 people working in the security line, expect closer to 4. This will make the lines considerably longer, and everyone’s travel experience will be even more frustrating than normal.
The only way our UCSB campus is being affected is through the CalFresh program, because that comes through the Santa Barbara County and is federally funded. Follow UCSB Associated Students (AS) on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their website for more information on that. Also, stop by OISS if you need help.
There is so, so much more to talk about concerning this issue. If you are interested in talking to me about the government shutdown, my office hour this quarter is 10-11am on Wednesday, February 27th. Or you can follow me on Instagram (@meglikeanegg) and message me any questions you have. I am really passionate about this because I eventually want to work in Washington. D.C. and I interned in my Congressman’s office last year. I encourage you to talk to your American friends and professors to find out more about this shutdown that as of right now has no end in sight!
First, a brief summary of our government structure. Skip this if you’ve heard it before. In the United States, we have three branches of government – the Executive branch (President), Legislative (Congress), and Judicial (the Supreme Court). Each of these branches have distinct powers to prevent one branch from having too much power and taking over. Our Congress is divided into the Senate (there are 100 Senators, two from each of the fifty states), and the House of Representatives (there are 435 members of the House). The House can get pretty confusing, because each state gets a different number of Representatives based on the population of the state. For example, California has the highest population in the country (because CA is bae) so we have the most Representatives – 53 to be exact. Some states have so few people who live there that they only have one Rep – Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota are some examples (it’s ok if you haven’t heard of those states, nobody lives there).
We elect Representatives (also called Congresswomen or Congressmen) every two years (2014, 2016, 2018…). Senators are elected every six years. Presidents are elected every four years. The last presidential election in the United States was in 2016 and – FUN FACT – Donald Trump did NOT win the popular vote! More people actually voted for Hillary Clinton, but because of the way our government structure works, Trump still won. If you want more details on that, look up the Electoral College. It’s totally bonkers.
In November 2018, you may have heard that “Democrats took back the House”. There are two political parties in the United States – Democrats and Republicans. I will not be sharing my personal opinion about the parties here. Trump is a Republican. Republicans have had more Senators and Representatives in office since 2008, so they have been in control of Congress for a decade – but Democrat Barack Obama was president from 2008-2016. When Trump won in 2016, Republicans had control of the Senate, House, and Executive Branch. But in 2018, more Democrats were elected into the House, and now Democrats have control of ½ of the Legislative branch. Democrats do not like Republicans, and they do not like the wall (generally speaking).
So anyway. One of Trump’s favorite things to talk about is the border between the United States and Mexico. The border exists in a desert with mountains and valleys and there is not a barrier or wall in the desert, but there are walls where the border runs through cities, like between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. Trump doesn’t like when people cross the border illegally (he says they are stealing our jobs) and he wants to build a 20 foot (6 meter) tall wall all along the border. Nobody knows how much this will cost, or who is going to pay for it. Before he was elected, Trump said Mexico was going to pay for it. But Mexico does not want to build a wall because it is a desert, and a wall is not going to stop people who want to cross the border. So now Trump says that American citizens have to pay for the wall. But Democratic Senators and Representatives do not want to agree to the wall because generally speaking Democrats do not like the wall. Democrats think that immigrants should be able to come to the US if they want to. So, the Democrats in the House (Nancy Pelosi is the House majority leader, or Speaker of the House) and President Trump do not agree on the wall and therefore they cannot find a compromise.
At the end of every year Congress has to pass a budget proposal for the next year and the President has to approve it. But at the end of 2018, President Trump said he would not approve a budget that did not have funding for the border wall. Democrats in the House, led by Nancy Pelosi, refused to write a budget proposal that included funding for the wall. Democrats believe that because the wall would not actually stop people from crossing into the United States, it is only a symbol of anti-immigrant attitudes. So now the money has run out and the government has shut down because Democrats and Republicans refuse to back down.
The government is partially shut down, which means elected officials and a small number of essential federal employees are still working. The country is obviously still running, but hundreds of thousands of Americans who work for the federal government either cannot work, or have to work without pay, because the federal government does not have an approved budget for 2019. Those who are working received a paycheck of $0 last week, and there is no guarantee that they will ever be paid for the hours they have worked in the past month.
How might this affect you? People who work for national parks cannot come to work because they will not be paid. As a result, about half of the national parks throughout the country – like Joshua Tree – are completely closed. That isn’t stopping people from coming onto the land and littering and chopping down trees and doing other irreparable damage to our special areas that are supposed to be federally protected. Other parks and monuments, such as Yosemite, are still open but have much fewer workers.
If you’re planning on flying soon, you should arrive at the airport much earlier than you’d think. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created after September 11, 2001 – they’re the people who make you take off your shoes and go through the metal detector before you get on the plane. Only a very small number of TSA agents are considered “essential employees” so instead of having 20 people working in the security line, expect closer to 4. This will make the lines considerably longer, and everyone’s travel experience will be even more frustrating than normal.
The only way our UCSB campus is being affected is through the CalFresh program, because that comes through the Santa Barbara County and is federally funded. Follow UCSB Associated Students (AS) on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their website for more information on that. Also, stop by OISS if you need help.
There is so, so much more to talk about concerning this issue. If you are interested in talking to me about the government shutdown, my office hour this quarter is 10-11am on Wednesday, February 27th. Or you can follow me on Instagram (@meglikeanegg) and message me any questions you have. I am really passionate about this because I eventually want to work in Washington. D.C. and I interned in my Congressman’s office last year. I encourage you to talk to your American friends and professors to find out more about this shutdown that as of right now has no end in sight!
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