Why did the US almost shut down?

It's been like the nail-biting climax of a Hollywood thriller. You know how it goes: the bomb squad arrives when the bomb is less than a minute from exploding. Vital seconds go by as they try to spot the right wires to snip. Soon, it's only 10 seconds, then 9… 8… 7… and voila! The right wires are snipped, the bomb is defused, and the world is saved.

In a surreal case of life imitating art, with just three hours to go before the federal government was about to shut down, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution on September 30 to avoid a shutdown, which was promptly passed by the US Senate and sent to President Joe Biden's desk. Biden signed it and the US avoided a shutdown once more.

Many outside the US (and not just a few inside, truth be told) are bemused and appalled by what seems to be almost an annual feature of the US.

So, here's a brief Q&A-style explainer to help you understand the peculiar quirks of US politics that have led to this situation:

I heard that the US government was about to shut down because it was running out of money. How is that possible?

The main reason for this is US law. Like all countries, the US has to pass a budget to fund itself, and the deadline for that is September 30. US law requires that, unless Congress passes a law to fund US federal agencies, the federal government runs out of money.

Hold on. This is weird. How come I've never heard of this happening in any other country?

Even in the rare case that any country fails to pass a budget, all countries have backup workarounds which temporarily fund the government. Oddly enough, the US does not.

Doesn't Congress know this is about to happen?

Like clockwork, the US fiscal year begins every year on October 1. So, Congress knows all along what's going on.

Then how come Congress has this mad scramble at the end of the fiscal year?

That is unfortunately how it goes quite often in Congress. The US Congress is made up of disparate political players, many of whom are at loggerheads with each other, and it takes all the pressure of being on the verge of an impending political disaster to thrash out an agreement.

But, coming back to the US shutdown, isn't a lot of it just media hype? I mean, the US does not really come to a standstill, does it?

Well, yes and no. It is true that much of US life continues to function. It is also true that the entire federal government does not shut down, just the parts which haven't been funded by an appropriation bill.

Still, the effects can be substantial.

So what kind of damage can a shutdown cause?

Take for example the longest ever shutdown in 2019, which lasted 35 days. Around 800,000 federal employees got no paycheck for 35 days. To add insult to injury, more than half of them, such as air traffic controllers and airport security personnel, still had to work because the attorney general considered them essential employees.

National parks lost $11 million in entry fees. The 35-day shutdown cost $11 billion, including a $3 billion permanent loss. The effect was nationwide because only 15 percent of federal employees work in Washington, DC.

Now, federal employees did get back pay when funding was restored, but thousands of federal contractors (and other services which depended on federal employees) took a financial hit.

Somehow, it seems to be getting worse.

That is absolutely true. In the 1800s, there were no shutdowns. As late as in the 1970s, despite funding gaps, federal agencies kept going. In the 1980s, the attorney general tightened the system.

The first big shutdown happened in 1996 and lasted for three weeks. Then, there was the big one in 2019.

Why is it getting worse?

One reason is that the laws are stricter now. But the other big reason is extreme partisan polarisation that has made politics particularly acrimonious. That's always bad news for Congress, which, like the nation it represents, reflects widely diverse political viewpoints. Legislation demands a collegial atmosphere with a readiness for a give-and-take approach, and that is increasingly hard to find in today's shrill political schisms.

So, is this what happened this time around? How did Congress avoid the shutdown in the end?

Well, this time there was another political wrinkle. The US House is controlled by Republicans, but they have such a slim majority that it gives right-wing members an opportunity to throw a spanner in the works. Try as he did, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy failed to pass appropriation bills with his Republican caucus. Ultimately, he did what he had vowed he would never do – he passed a stopgap continuing resolution with the backing of Democrats.

Some of his more partisan Republican colleagues are crying bloody murder and threatening to dethrone him as speaker.

The Republican House caucus has become increasingly unmanageable in recent years, with a rump group of shrill partisans often making it impossible to pass legislation, leading two of McCarthy's predecessors – John Boehner and Paul Ryan – to quit in disgust.

Well, despite all of that, at least folks in the US can heave a sigh of relief. This year's shutdown drama is over. One can certainly hope Congress behaves more responsibly next year.

Not so fast. Congress hasn't passed federal appropriations for the entire year. It just passed what's known as a continuing resolution, a temporary stopgap measure which gives itself 45 days to get its act together and do the job.

My goodness! You mean that, after 45 days, we're going to see the same drama again?

You got it. Congress has just kicked the can forward. To paraphrase baseball player Yogi Berra, it's going to be deja vu all over again.

Hang on to your seats, folks. It's going to be another rollercoaster ride.

Ashfaque Swapan is a writer and editor based in Atlanta, US.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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