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The United States government shutdown has now reached its thirty-sixth day, making it the longest duration of government closure in the nation's history.

This shutdown, which started on October 1st, was caused by Congress's inability to agree on a new funding deal. This has resulted in government workers missing salaries and millions of Americans without essential services.

Political parties have been deadlocked for weeks without indications of agreement - although faint signs of progress are beginning to show.

"My feeling is, from my intuition of how these things operate, I believe we're getting close to an solution here," the Senate's top Republican commented.

The previous closure milestone happened under President Trump's initial presidency and continued for thirty-five days before concluding in the year 2019.

Increasing Consequences on Americans

In the weeks following the shutdown's start, the consequences on ordinary citizens have intensified.

Thousands of federal workers have not received paychecks, and there are growing fears about impacts to aviation nationwide as air traffic controllers and airport staff work without pay.

"Should we reach a week from today, you will see mass chaos," the Transportation Secretary warned. "Expect mass flight delays. You'll see mass cancellations, and we might need to shut down sections of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it as we lack sufficient air traffic control staff."

Food Assistance Crisis

The impacts have also been felt by low-income Americans who rely on federal assistance programs.

Approximately 12.5% of Americans are reliant upon nutrition benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but just part of that assistance is being paid out this month due to lapsed funding.

The previous administration had - at first - announced no Snap funds would be distributed in the month of November but a US court mandated that emergency resources be used to provide citizens some assistance.

"Food assistance will be provided only when the opposition party reopen federal operations, which they can easily do, and not prior to that," the previous administration leader posted on his preferred platform.

Legislative Deadlock

Members of the US Senate have considered the same short-term funding bill to reopen the government repeatedly with unsuccessful results. They tried again on Tuesday to no avail.

That proposal passed the lower chamber in the previous month.

Democrats have thus far refused to support the temporary funding on government funding except if Republicans consented to continue medical coverage assistance for economically disadvantaged citizens. The governing party have resisted, claiming their counterparts of using government operations as leverage over unrelated policy priorities.

"If we don't start seeing some progress or some evidence of movement by no later than the week's midpoint, it becomes difficult to imagine how we would finish any agreement by the end of the week," the legislative leader told reporters. "And I think that represents the goal here, is to try and get something that might be forwarded to the lower chamber that would restart the federal operations."

In recent days, there have been signs that centrist opposition members and governing party members are eager to negotiate and find a deal before the holiday on November 27th.

• Comprehending the US Government Shutdown: Reasons and Results
• SNAP Benefits: When Will Assistance Persist Through the Government Shutdown?
• Five Ways the Federal Closure is Impacting Americans - And How It Might Worsen