On 12 January, the US government shutdown entered its 22nd day, making it the longest in American history. Prospects for an end to the political deadlock remained distant. President Donald Trump has refused to pass any bill to reopen the government that does not allocate $5.7bn for a border wall (or “steel fence”) with Mexico; the Democrats have said they will not fund a project they consider profligate and immoral; nor do they want to reward Trump’s political brinkmanship by ceding to his demand now.
By day 23 of the shutdown, a blizzard over Washington, DC had dropped more than ten inches of snow on the capital and thousands of federal government workers queued in the forbidding cold to collect food from five pop-up food banks established in the wake of the crisis. Around 800,000 federal government workers have missed at least one pay cheque; by 25 January many will have missed two. The average take-home pay of a federal government worker is $500 a week, which means few have a financial buffer against a protracted pay freeze.
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