Government Shutdown by the Numbers

With the government closed, some 800,000 employees won’t get their paychecks. That number includes 420,000 who will continue working because their jobs are considered essential. They include:

42,000

Coast Guard employees

41,000

federal law enforcement and correctional officials

54,000

Customs and Border Protection workers

53,000

Transport Security Administration employees

More than 380,000 will be placed on furlough, meaning they will stop working and receive no pay. Those in this camp include:

16,700

workers at NASA

41,000

Department of Commerce employees

16,000

people at the National Park Service

28,800

staff members of the Forest Service

18,300

employees of the Department of Transportation

7,100

HUD workers

52,000

IRS employees

This is Trump’s third government shutdown. Before 1980, a government shutdown was extremely rare, occurring only a few times since the founding of the United States. Since 1980, when shutdowns became more common as a result of a change in legislative policy, there have been two lengthy shutdowns, one during the Clinton administration that lasted 27 days and another during the Obama administration that lasted 16 days. (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 742)