Recently, President Donald Trump signed a bill that reopened the government for three weeks, and retreating from his wall.

For now the government is open once again, but possibly only until Feb. 15. This also allows the 800,000 federal workers to go back to work and get paid for their work. Trump has said this according to The New York Times, “We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier… If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on Feb. 15, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency.”

Most likely, the government won’t shutdown again because Trump basically backed down from the idea of it. Although, there are three things that will likely happen instead, according to The Washington Post. The first thing that could happen is Congress makes a deal, in which Congress chooses 17 lawmakers to come up with something that everyone agrees to, either the Democrats agree to put up a wall at the border, or Trump doesn’t get his wall. The second thing that could happen is, Congress keeps funding every agency except for the Department of Homeland Security. The most likely thing to happen is, Trump declares a national emergency and funds the wall with emergency funds. However, there is a high possibility that there will be a lawsuit involved, and Trump would have to explain what the “emergency” is.

This most recent government shutdown started on Dec, 22 2018. According to www.thebalance.com, “It became the longest shutdown in U.S. history on January 12, 2019, when it surpassed 22 days.” The last government shutdown that happened on Jan, 19th, 2018, only lasted close to three days. This government shutdown started when the Senate had passed a temporary funding bill to keep the government’s funding level the same throughout February. However, President Donald Trump wouldn’t sign it because it didn’t have enough money for his wall. This government shutdown cost the economy $11 billion.

The GOP-led house cleared a bill that would meet the President’s $5 billion request for his wall. However, the Senate wasn’t able to pass the bill because they needed 60 votes but only got 51. Later, the Democratic congressional leaders met with Trump in order to negotiate key budget points and avoid a government shutdown. According to The Balance, “Trump threatened to shut down the government if they didn’t include $5 billion to build the wall.” But the Democrats didn’t feel that the wall would be effective. They told Trump that they would pay $1.3 billion for the current security that they have. Trump wouldn’t accept that and proceeded with the government shutdown. Later, Trump said that he would accept $5.7 billion for the wall.

Due to the government shutdown, 800,000 people are either taking a “leave of absence” or are still working without pay. According to www.Forbes.com, “half of these workers do not have a college education, and 14 percent make less than $50,000.” It makes this harder for these workers because now they have to live from paycheck to paycheck. Over 800,000 federal workers have either been working without pay, and others have not even bothered to show up to work, or even told not to come into work until they were needed.

Some of the places affected by the government shutdown include national parks, museums, and zoos. They will remain open to the public but won’t be cleaned up or maintained. Volunteers have taken their own time to clean up the park a little bit, throwing away the trash, and shoveling snow off the sidewalk, so the parks are being taken care of by the people. The Smithsonian museums and the national zoo will also be closed, although the animals in the zoo will still be taken care of.

This government shutdown has and is still affecting a lot of people. People are losing their paychecks which means they are losing money and it will be hard for them to take care of themselves and their families. The longer this government shutdown goes on, the more people will be negatively impacted by it. Once Trump and the Democrats sit down and talk about how to resolve this, things will go back to normal.