Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
When the government shuts down, it doesn't just stop. We who work for the government must actually do the work of shutting it down. That means that we all go into the office today, despite the lapse in funding, to put up the appropriate out of office messages on our phones and emails, to file continuance motions, and generally to tie up all the loose ends so that everything will be semi-okay while we are out for however long we are out. A skeletal crew is left in charge of each office to address emergencies, but we're literally, by statute, not allowed to do any work during the shutdown once we've completed our "orderly shutdown."
So I did that, the orderly shutdown. It was confusing -- I think partly because no one expected the government to really shutdown. People weren't as prepared as we were in 2013. And it was stressful. We had to request continuances of matters set for today, tomorrow, the rest of the week. We didn't know what would happen. I still don't know whether the continuance motion I filed was granted or denied. But we had to do it and then leave and just kind of hope that everything turned out okay, and that the attorney in charge didn't find that she needed to be in three different courts at once.
After I orderly shut down my business, I came home and walked the dog. I was very tired. And hungry. Orderly shutdowns are exhausting, at least mentally.
My fellow federal worker husband arrived home soon after I did, and we had lunch. Then we folded all that laundry that I washed yesterday. Then we waited. (Oh, and ate some Milk Duds.) I tried to have a nap, but all of the lawn equipment operating in our neighborhood made that difficult, though not impossible, because I did sleep a little, dreaming of leaf blowers (the best kind of nap, noted my lovely spouse, ruefully).
The Boy, by the way, went to school today, as it is a Monday.
As of mid-afternoon, the Senate had reached a deal to fund the government through February 8th (so, you know, about two and a half weeks), with the promise to the Democrats that DACA legislation would be taken up by mid-February (so, you know, not within the period between now and when funding would run out again on February 8th).
That doesn't seems like much of a deal to me, but, on the other hand, I think that the Senate Democrats have made the political calculus that shutting the government down over immigration is not as popular as they may have thought. While it's true that a majority of Americans want something done to help the children brought to this country outside of proper immigration procedures, a majority of Americans also do not believe that it is worth shutting the government down. In a midterm election year, the Senate Democrats may have determined that the political risk to themselves of continuing the shutdown is just too great. So I surmise that they probably accepted the promise of a vote on DACA "soon," versus continued negative headlines.
That's all just conjecture on my part, of course, but it stands to reason . . . .
Around 4:00 p.m. Central, the very, very short CR passed the Senate and moved to the House for consideration. Since it's not exactly the same bill they sent to the Senate Thursday/Friday of last week, they have to vote on the new deal.
I actually turned on C-SPAN to watch some of the debate in the House (wondering what in the world, really, there was to debate). Here's my summary:
Republican: Your fault.
Democrat: Nuh-uh.
Republican: Uh-huh!
Democrat: Nuh-uh!
Republican: Uh-huh-infinitity!
Democrat: Nuh-uh-infinity-plus-one!
They fortunately completed this very important discussion before the day was over -- it took less than an hour, really -- and the bill was sent to the President for signature.
The orderly shutdown today was, mercifully, mostly unneeded, and we should be back to work in earnest tomorrow.
Until next time, folks! (Say . . . mid-February? 😁)
