"Government Shutdown" by Kaz Vorpal (https://www.flickr.com/people/169738192@N02) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The government shutdown on October 1. This resulted in non-essential government employees being furloughed, essential government employees working without pay, and federal payouts being frozen.
The Trump administration has begun what it calls “substantial” federal worker layoffs.
Every October, Congress is in charge of figuring out government funding and sending money to each department. The government shuts down when Congress fails to reach an agreement on the budget. This happens because instead of having to have a simple 50% majority, to approve funding congress has to have a 60% majority vote.
This marks the eleventh shut down in US history. The longest lasting government shut down was 35 days in 2018.
The Senate will be leaving town until Tuesday, meaning that the government will stay shutdown until at least then.
Arkansas is currently preparing for the shut down to continue, preparing food banks for more people to need them.
*As updates are forthcoming this story will be updated.