Starting on October 1st the US Government entered its 15th shutdown since 1980. Over the course of these 43 days many parts of the US’s non essential parts of the government were closed down and left without pay.

Some branches of the government that were shutdown include the National Parks, NASA, Transportation, and the Treasury. While these branches were shut down the employees who were out of work were left unpaid.

This shutdown, which was the longest in US history at 43 days was the 4th one to take place under president Trump’s two presidential terms. The others taking place during his first term in 2018 and 2019 respectively. With the second longest being around 30 days in 2018.

Other branches of the government remained paid and in operation during this time, these branches include Congress, and the branches that remained in operation were: Border Border Protection, Law Enforcement, immigration and customs enforcers, and in-person medical care

On November 13th after 43 days of being closed down the Government was reopened, with many of the companies selling and collaborating with the government resuming their pre shutdown operations.

This shutdown was caused due to a The Democratic members of Congress seeking to extend certain tax credits that help make health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. However, the Republican-led House opposed this proposal. As a result, Democrats fell short of the number  of votes needed needed to pass the spending bill they were trying to get approved. This disagreement is what caused the shutdown to go into effect.

In addition to this end of the shutdown president Trump passed a new law that has changed many Americans will be getting food stamps, starting on September 1st any American’s who wish to receive food stamps must prove that they work for at least 20 hours a week, can’t afford food, and are below the poverty line. Those who do not will only receive them for three months of the year.