The DHS shutdown is officially over. After 75 days — the longest government shutdown in American history — Congress finally passed a funding bill and the President signed it today.
Let that sink in. Seventy-five days. TSA agents missed paychecks. FEMA operations were disrupted. Coast Guard families went without pay. Border Patrol — the very agency both parties claim to care about — was operating under emergency measures. All because our elected officials couldn't do the basic job of keeping the government funded.
This wasn't a policy disagreement that required hard negotiation and a few extra weeks. This was 75 days of political theater while real people — public servants who show up to protect this country — were treated as bargaining chips.
The previous record for a government shutdown was 34 days in 2018-2019. We more than doubled it. That's not a political strategy. That's a failure of governance.
Both parties share blame. Democrats used the funding process as leverage. Republicans refused to negotiate in good faith. And in the end, the deal they struck isn't fundamentally different from what could have been reached in February if anyone had actually been interested in governing instead of posturing.
At the Common Sense Party, we believe government shutdowns should never happen. Period. If Congress can't pass a budget on time, their own pay should stop first. Let's see how fast they learn to compromise when their own mortgages are on the line.