The government shutdown has entered its second week, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Federal workers have been laid off or fired from their jobs since the shutdown began, including sections of the Department of Education.
Beginning on October 1st, after House Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a bill that would fund government services, including healthcare, into October and beyond, the federal government suspended all non-essential functions until Congress approves funding and it is signed into law. Federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, and, recently, the Department of Education have laid off thousands of workers since the shutdown began.
President Donald Trump made a few comments about the impending shutdown on September 30th, the day before it began, saying, “We’re going to be laying off a lot of people,” as reported by BBC.
On Friday, layoff notices were handed out to over 4,000 federal employees as a pressuring tactic on Democrats to agree with the Republicans. Yet, this hasn’t done anything to change the Democrats’ minds as they continue to not talk to Republicans and publicly shame them.
Revealed by CNN, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly criticized Trump’s layoff notices and blasted the administration over healthcare.
“He again is trying to politicize the federal government…These are people with families, and they have mortgages and they have to pay rent,” he said.
Among the wave of firings and layoff notices, the Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Combined with these firings are the other 460 Education Department employees who have been laid off as well, coming to nearly 90% of the Education Department being furloughed, USA Today reports.
In a statement, Jodi Grant, the executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, gave her thoughts on the firings of the officials in the Office.
“Firing that team is shocking, devastating, utterly without any basis, and it threatens to cause lasting harm,” she said, AP News states.
This shutdown isn’t the only one that has occurred under President Trump’s administration. During his first term, the government shut down twice. The first shutdown lasted for three days in early 2018 due to a dispute over immigration policies, specifically the ending of the DACA program. The second time, in late 2018 into early 2019, the government shut down for 35 days due to disagreements over an immigration funding bill and garnered the acclaim of being the longest government shutdown in American history.
At the moment, the decision on the bill is at a stalemate as both Democrats and Republicans can’t seem to come together on an agreement to fund the government. A productive conversation must take place for work to be done and to get our government up and running once more.