Washington, Jan 22: Nearly 2 million federal employees of the United States will remain furloughed till the government shutdown continues. Since the Congress has blocked the federal funding to government operations, all non-essential discretionary operations have come to a halt.

What is the US government shutdown?

The government shutdown means the blockage of funds to govern various sectors of the US government. While the essential services remain functional using the emergency funds, the non-essential discretionary functions of the government are partially or completely suspended till the Congress does not approve the Bill to extend federal funding. As a result, scores of federal employees are forced to take leave without pay.

How did it happen?

The Democrats, in the midnight Congress session on Friday, moved a filibuster to block the Bill presented by the Republicans to extend federal funding till February 16. The filibuster was moved to oppose the Trump regime's immigration policy, which aims to deport over 7,00,000 immigrants who entered the US soil as minors.

While 60 votes were needed against the filibuster to defeat it, only 48 senators voted against it. Interestingly, four Republican senators switched sides and voted in its favour.

What remains closed and who gets affected?

Apart from the essential governance operations of the US government, which include overseas and homeland security, healthcare, police and disaster control units, all other sectors of the government faces a partial or complete shutdown.

- In the Justice department, about 20,000 of the 1,15,000 employees will be furloughed.

- Over 95 per cent employees of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - a key regulator of the stock market - will be sent to leave.

- The White House remains the worst affected, with over 1,000 of the 1,715 employees being furloughed till the impasse remains. However, provisions have been made for essential-service employees, including those who would be assisting President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos.

- Visitors face disappointment as most of the tourist attractions remain close under the government shutdown. In the last shutdown in 2013 which lasted for 16 days, over 750,000 daily visitors to the national parks were turned away. This led to a total loss of $500 million. Apart from the national parks, the museums in Washington DC also remained closed.

- The entrepreneurial community is likely to face issues as nearly 90 per cent staff of Internal Revenue Service are likely to be furloughed. As seen in 2013, this resulted in an unprecedented delay for loan-seekers as the government could not release the Income and Social Security numbers for verification. Over 700 applications seeking a cumulative loan of $140 million was delayed. Similarly, applications seeking tax benefits to the tune of $4 billion remained unanswered during the shutdown period.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 22, 2018 12:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).