1995–1996 United States federal government shutdowns

When the previous fiscal year ended on September 30, 1995, the Democratic president and the Republican-controlled Congress had not passed a budget. A majority of Congress members and the House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, had promised to slow the rate of government spending; however, this conflicted with the President's objectives for education, the environment, Medicare, and public health. According to Bill Clinton's autobiography, their differences resulted from differing estimates of economic growth, medical inflation, and anticipated revenues. When Clinton refused to cut the budget in the way Republicans wanted, Gingrich threatened to refuse to raise the debt limit, which would have caused the United States Treasury to suspend funding other portions of the government to avoid putting the country in default. ==Events==

'' cover illustrated by Ed Murawinski On November 14, major portions of the federal government suspended operations. The first budget shutdown concluded with Congress enacting a temporary spending bill, but the underlying disagreement between Gingrich and Clinton was not resolved. The government shut down again on December 16 after Clinton vetoed a Republican budget proposal that would have extended tax cuts to the wealthy, cut spending on social programs, and shifted control of Medicaid to the states. After a 21-day government shutdown, Republicans accepted Clinton's budget, as polling showed that many members of the public blamed Republicans for the shutdown. During the crisis, while being questioned by Lars-Erik Nelson at a breakfast held by The Christian Science Monitor, Gingrich made a complaint that, during a flight to and from Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in Israel, Clinton had not taken the opportunity to talk about the budget and Gingrich had been directed to leave the plane via the rear door. The perception arose that the Republican stance on the budget was partly due to this "snub" by Clinton, and media coverage reflected this perception, including an editorial cartoon which depicted Gingrich as an infant throwing a temper tantrum. Opposing politicians used this opportunity to attack Gingrich's motives for the budget standoff. Later, the polls suggested that the event damaged Gingrich politically and he referred to his comments as his "single most avoidable mistake" as Speaker. Affected agencies ==Response==

In Arizona, where Grand Canyon National Park was closed for the first time in its history, governor Fife Symington ordered the Arizona National Guard to reopen the park due to the shutdown's effects on local tourism revenue. On November 17, Symington arrived at a closed gate for the park with 50 members of the Arizona National Guard to demand its reopening. State Park Director Ken Travous came as well to help negotiate a plan to keep the Park open. All the State Park managers arrived as well to help manage the park if it reopened. John F. Long contributed $55,000 to keep the park open for three days. A budget agreement was later passed to reopen the National Park with State Parks Heritage Fund monies. The Federal Rangers kept the Park open. Funds remained in place through the December shutdown. State Parks funds and John F. long funds were returned. News stories around the country were written about the amazing Park and why it was still open using extraordinary measures to visitors. ==Result==

A 1995 ABC News poll had Republicans receiving the brunt of the blame with 46% of respondents compared to the 27% that blamed Clinton. Clinton's Gallup approval rating stood at 51% in the early days of the December shutdown, but fell significantly to 42% as it progressed into January. The shutdown also influenced the 1996 Presidential election. Bob Dole, the Senate Majority Leader, was running for president in 1996. Due to his need to campaign, Dole wanted to solve the budget crisis in January 1996 despite the willingness of other Republicans to continue the shutdown unless their demands were met. In particular, as Gingrich and Dole had been seen as potential rivals for the 1996 Presidential nomination, they had a tense working relationship. The shutdown was cited by Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos as having a role in Clinton's successful 1996 re-election. According to Gingrich, positive impacts of the government shutdown included the balanced-budget deal in 1997 and the first four consecutive balanced budgets since the 1920s. In addition, Gingrich stated that the first re-election of a Republican majority since 1928 was due in part to the Republican Party's hard line on the budget. The Republican Party had a net loss of eight seats in the House in the 1996 elections but retained a 227-206-seat majority in the upcoming 105th United States Congress. In the Senate, Republicans gained two seats. A 2010 Congressional Research Service report summarized other details of the 1995–1996 government shutdowns, indicating the shutdown impacted all sectors of the economy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped disease surveillance; new clinical research patients were not accepted at the National Institutes of Health; and toxic waste cleanup at 609 sites was halted. Other impacts included: the closure of 368 National Park sites resulted in the loss of some seven million visitors; 200,000 applications for passports were not processed; and 20,000–30,000 applications by foreigners for visas went unprocessed each day; U.S. tourism and airline industries incurred millions of dollars in losses; more than 20% of federal contracts, representing $3.7 billion in spending, were affected adversely. Military pay and benefits however were not adversely affected as resolutions were imparted to ensure payments were received as scheduled. ==See also==