07 Oct 2013

Lost Capitol Hill: The Shutdown of 1980

tnThe shutdown currently keeping us out of our local parks and giving many of our neighbors unpaid vacations is hardly a new phenomenon. Most people can point to the shutdown of 95/96 as a precursor. However, 15 years before that, a similar battle had ensued, with some – minor – effects on governmental operation.

As the 1980 fiscal year came to a close, anxiety in federal circles began to rise. Once again, it looked as if differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives would block the passage of a continuing resolution to keep the lights on. This was far from being a new problem: in previous years the government had simply kept spending money, even without a budget deal or a continuing resolution. However, earlier in the year, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, had declared that, according to his reading of an old law, the government could not, under any circumstances “incur obligations after their appropriations expire.”

This meant that, without an agreement between House and Senate, the government would shut down on the morning of October 1. All through September 30, the two chambers attempted to work out a compromise. As 5:00 PM rapidly approached with no agreement in sight, “there were hastily called meetings, blizzards of memos about ‘orderly termination of operations’ and finally a decision at the Office of Management and Budget that common sense dictated that all federal employees be told to report to work” the next day.

The dissension that day was not about levels of funding, but instead was about abortion. While the House wished to institute further restrictions on abortion, and particularly those paid for by Medicaid, the Senate refused. After midnight, and well after the House had gone home, the Senate passed a bill that did restrict Medicaid-paid abortions, though far less than the House had wanted.

In the end, it was the House that blinked, and “within minutes after convening” they had “without debate or recorded vote, accepted a Senate compromise on abortion funding and whisked the huge stopgap spending resolution off to President Carter, who signed it later in the day.”

The scene at the World War II Memorial on October 1 of this year (RSP)

The scene at the World War II Memorial on October 1 of this year. Photo by Robert S. Pohl

With this, Congressmembers were free to head home to campaign for the upcoming elections. The continuing resolution they had voted on pushed the new fiscal year to the middle of December. As it was, the Republicans not only won the presidency, but a majority in the Senate. This was the first time they had controlled either House since 1954.

As far as impacts on the Government, the OMB decision kept those to a minimum. Nonetheless, the Washington Post reported that while the Pentagon made no changes, the Justice Department “responded to callers to its public affairs office with a prepared statement to the effect that only questions involving protection of life and property or agency shutdown could be answered for the time being” and over at the Agriculture Department, the press secretary was quoted by UPI saying that “Nobody’s doing anything – business as usual.”

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