San José, CA – At 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, December 22, nine of 15 agencies of the federal government will shut down over President Trump’s demand for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Almost 400,000 federal workers would be furloughed, and another 400,000 so-called essential workers will have to go to work without pay. This comes to about 40% of the 2 million federal government workers. In past shutdowns, federal workers got backpay at a cost of billions of dollars to the government. But there are millions of contractors and contract workers who will probably not be paid, right in the middle of the holiday season.

San José, CA – A partial government shutdown is possible Friday night, Jan. 19. This would be a first – where one party controls the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency, as the Republicans do today. The latest sign that the Republicans continue to squabble is that President Trump tweeted a criticism of the Republican temporary funding bill that passed in the House of Representatives.