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| Flickr CC via Keith Kissell |
The vice president was at the Environmental Protection
Agency in Washington on Thursday, offering pastries to returning furloughed
workers. Joe Biden was seen hugging and shaking hands with EPA employees and offered
hope that the pending February budget show down will not result in another shut
down.
Over 90% of the agency was put on furlough, compared with
75% of the Department of Energy and 13% of the De The administrator of the EPA,
Gina McCarthy, said that it was a real celebration because most employees see
their work as important and necessary.
Clean air and water inspections were put on hold during the shutdown,
which lasted over two weeks.
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| Flickr CC via akibubblet |
The government has not been in this much turmoil since 1996,
when President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich were at odds with
one another. The shutdown occurred when
a government spending bill needed to be put up for a vote in the house of
representatives. House speaker John
Boehner did not put the bill to a vote, claiming there were not enough
republicans willing to pass the bill unless democrats agreed to defund the
Affordable Care Act, which the party has long since attempted to prevent being
implemented.
The shutdown ended on the eve before the debt ceiling would
have reached crisis. After October 17,
the treasury department would have been forced to cease issuing bonds in order
to pay government bills.
The White House openly criticized the house for not bring
the bill to a vote and holding the U.S. economy hostage.
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