Shutdown history is clear: Public pressure on Congress leads to a short

WASHINGTON — More than 40 years of government shutdowns show that the path to reopening the government usually follows a familiar path.

Congress, responding to public pressure, ultimately passes a short-term spending deal to fund the government, usually without meeting the demands of the minority party or sitting president, even as both parties rush to sell the reopening as a victory.

There have been more than a dozen federal government shutdowns since 1981, when a Carter-era legal opinion asserted that any lapses in government funding would force the closure of unfunded agencies. Before the memo, agencies remained open as lawmakers hashed out an agreement, but the closures forced a new era of partisan brokering as both parties sought concessions from the funding negotiations.

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