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Past government shutdowns never did any significant damage but a case can be made for claiming the shutdowns helped more than they hurt.[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.history.com/news/us-government-shutdowns-facts[/URL]Both shutdowns and federal funding gaps are modern phenomena. Funding gaps only began happening after Congress gave itself deadlines to pass federal budgets via the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. The first federal funding gap occurred two years later in 1976 when President Gerald Ford vetoed a bill to finance the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare. After that, there were five more funding gaps under President Jimmy Carter. However, neither Ford nor Carter’s budget gaps triggered any shutdowns.Carter’s attorney general, Benjamin Civiletti, was the man who changed all that. In 1980 and 1981, he issued legal opinions arguing that when there is a gap in federal funding, the affected parts of the government needed to stop all non-essential functions. Since then, the government has shut down 10 times in response to funding gaps.
Past government shutdowns never did any significant damage but a case can be made for claiming the shutdowns helped more than they hurt.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.history.com/news/us-government-shutdowns-facts[/URL]
Both shutdowns and federal funding gaps are modern phenomena. Funding gaps only began happening after Congress gave itself deadlines to pass federal budgets via the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. The first federal funding gap occurred two years later in 1976 when President Gerald Ford vetoed a bill to finance the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare. After that, there were five more funding gaps under President Jimmy Carter. However, neither Ford nor Carter’s budget gaps triggered any shutdowns.
Carter’s attorney general, Benjamin Civiletti, was the man who changed all that. In 1980 and 1981, he issued legal opinions arguing that when there is a gap in federal funding, the affected parts of the government needed to stop all non-essential functions. Since then, the government has shut down 10 times in response to funding gaps.
