Trump already has the power to reopen the government

The federal government is 22 days into its current shutdown. Unless you or someone you know works for it, you’re probably unaware, but in the media and in Washington, it is the big story and the only story.

Democrats are demanding their way, or else they’ll keep the government closed. Republicans won’t discuss the Democrats’ demands until they agree to reopen the government. It’s a real Mexican standoff.

But it does not have to be, as President Trump could simply order the bills to be paid and end political shutdown theater once and for all.

Did you know that the government never shut down before 1980? Sure, there were lapses in appropriations authorizations — what the fight is over right now. But government went on with business as usual, because everyone knew the intention was to pay the bills, on both sides of the aisle.

Then, in 1980, a House member from Maryland asked whether the government could continue to operate without a renewed authorization. This ultimately led to the U.S. attorney general discovering an 1870 law that he said required a shutdown. 

The Washington Post, on November 23, 1981, reported that Jimmy Carter’s appointed attorney general, Benjamin R. Civiletti, declared “that the Antideficiency Act requires that ‘federal agencies may incur no obligations that cannot lawfully be funded under prior appropriations’ unless they could cover the obligations with other funds not dependent on congressional appropriations.”

Moreover, Civiletti created a penalty “of $5,000 in fines and two years in jail for agency heads convicted of violations. The Justice Department, Civiletti said, would prosecute violators.”

The Reagan administration followed the new precedent in 1981, as has every administration since. In any given case, if they had not chosen a shutdown for the sake of political advantage, they could have simply had their attorney general reinterpret the law and revert back to what had previously been the operating theory of government for decades. 

President Trump could do just that. He could ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into this and offer a contrary opinion to Civiletti’s that authorizes the payment, at a minimum, of essential personnel and the military. 

This would, of course, cause outrage on the left. But Democrats would be screwed — presented with the choice between running to court to argue that the military and essential workers should not be paid, or else just passively letting it happen. Politically, could Democrats afford to due to prevent active-duty military and air traffic controllers from being paid? You can just imagine the memes that would result — the Democratic Party, after all, once started a civil war to make sure people would keep working for them without pay.

Meanwhile, the money is there to make they payments. The IRS is still collecting tax revenues. The only thing preventing the bills being paid is a former attorney general’s 45-year-old interpretation of an 1870 law. That which can be imposed by decree can be undone the same way.

Trump should simply ask Bondi to reverse the opinion issued by Civiletti — which the Washington Post noted even at the time was “regarded as extremely strict by many government attorneys.”  

After that, Trump should order essential personnel paid for the work they are forced to do, thus destroying the threat of a shut down for the rest of his administration. Let Democrats sue, if they dare, and bask in the victory, no matter which way they go. 

Derek Hunter is a former Press Secretary for the late Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and the host of The Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington.