On Oct. 1, the federal government began a shutdown due to Congress not being able to agree on passing a bill that would fund government services. According to USAFacts, “A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass or the president refuses to sign a spending bill to fund the federal government’s operations.” However, this has bled from a national scale into many local ones, such as Grosse Pointe, where community members are being affected by the shutdown in different ways.

One community member who is personally affected by the shutdown is junior Thalia Cartwright, whose father works as a TSA agent. Despite Cartwright’s personal connection with what is going on, she is just as in the dark about the shutdown as the public, due to her father not being allowed to know the specifics of it.

“How does someone who’s in it [the government] not know what’s happening, ” Cartwright said. “There’s just this mask of secrecy, and it doesn’t let you know. There’s no hint of a little bit of knowledge as to where it’s going to go. We’re just sitting at a stance and that’s scary. “

Like Cartwright, many others may face uncertainty about what is currently happening in the government. To better understand the shutdown, Bridget Cooley, US history teacher, explains the dispute that led to it.

“The job of Congress is to fund our government. That’s one of their jobs, and they appropriate funds.” Cooley said. “Under the Trump administration, Democrats were opposed to some of the cuts to healthcare payments. This was an opportunity Democrats thought to fight back on some of the cuts to healthcare funding. I think from the Republican perspective, they thought that they had a bill to continue funding the government, they were holding out for.  Both have kind of dug in on what they view as right in terms of funding.”

A local federal worker who has been directly affected by the shutdown is Amanda Gingrich, who is a business law attorney for the Department of the Army. The shutdown has caused Gingrich’s department to fall into a major backlog of work.

“I was working on several urgent contracts before the shutdown happened,” Gingrich said. “We are sitting idle with most people being furloughed. With all the paperwork being backlogged, it will delay the delivery of this equipment and supplies and services and stuff, and maintenance of facilities. It will directly impact our military service members and our Army war fighters.”

Even though the possible length of the national government shutdown is currently uncertain, many Americans, such as Gingrich, want to hope that it will be opened up again as soon as possible.

“I hope that our government leadership can sit down at the table and come to an agreement to reopen the government,” Gingrich said. “It’s costing the American people a lot of money.”