The U.S. Federal Government has shut down after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a budget agreement before Wednesday’s deadline. For now, it affects only non-essential services, but it could compromise other functions of the central administration if the legislative deadlock continues. For their part, Democrats also failed to obtain the 13 votes required for their budget proposal, which allocated more funding to healthcare and, like the Republican bill, was lastly rejected in the upper chamber. However, concerns remain that employees in these sectors will go without pay until Congress resolves its differences and passes a new budget. That wave of air travel disruption ultimately proved decisive in pressuring both parties to reach a deal that ended the shutdown in January 2019.