The longest government shutdown the United States has ever experienced has affected federal employees in all 50 states. On Dec. 22, President Donald Trump demanded $5.7 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and as a result of Congress not passing a bill on it, many agencies were shut down.
According to The Washington Post, there were 380,000 employees furloughed, sent home without pay, and 420,000 employees who worked without pay.
Last week, hundreds of thousands of employees were given their first partial paychecks and furloughed employees were slowly called back to work but it doesn’t change the fact that bills and other fees piled up for these workers.
Some employees had to turn to fundraising sites just to provide for their families.
Not only have federal workers been affected by the shutdown, national parks such as Joshua Tree were vandalized, and damages to natural resources could take hundreds of years to restore.
On Jan. 25, Trump agreed to temporarily reopen the government until Feb. 15.
Yet he threatened lawmakers with another government shutdown by giving them only three weeks to come up with an immigration deal.
Trump expects the deal to include funding for the wall.
There is a chance the Democratic Party will not come to an agreement to fund the wall because it believes the money should be used on other measures included in border security.
Rather than a wall, the funds could be used for scanners at the border, other technologies, and to address humanitarian concerns.
On Tuesday night, Trump will present his State of the Union Address where he is likely to discuss border security and mention his threat for another shutdown or a national emergency.
It is now less than two weeks until a decision will be made and in the case he declares a national emergency at the border, he would be able to take funding from other departments, which could lead to legal challenges.
At this point, Trump will probably take any chance he can take in order to get the funds he needs.
With anything to expect, the only thing we know for sure is the clock is ticking for both parties.