Former President George W. Bush thanked his personal Secret Service detail on Friday afternoon by delivering pizzas to them during the partial government shutdown.
The shutdown of the government began at 11 p.m. CT on Dec. 21, and it looks like it will zoom past the four-week mark Friday night. The former president posted a photo of his delivery on Instagram, and urged leaders on both sides of the political aisle to set aside their differences and end the shutdown.
Bush wrote this on his Instagram account:
"Laura Bush and I are grateful to our Secret Service personnel and the thousands of Federal employees who are working hard for our country without a paycheck. And we thank our fellow citizens who are supporting them. It's time for leaders on both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown."
United States presidents are given Secret Service protection for life.
Bush and his wife, former First Lady Laura Bush, live in Texas, which shares nearly 1,200 miles of border with Mexico. The top reason the government is in a shutdown is because of a budget stalemate in Washington, where President Donald Trump wants approximately $5.7 billion for a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border, whereas the Democrats haven't budged on their stance against it.
Ever since the government went into a partial shutdown, about 800,000 federal employees have either been furloughed or forced to work without pay during the shutdown.
Some national parks have temporarily closed or haven't had staff on site, members of the U.S. Coast Guard have already missed a paycheck, security-check lines at major airports are backed up because of TSA workers either calling in sick or simply not showing up, museums have closed, the IRS might be late getting out refund checks and now people are worried about security at the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 in Atlanta.
The current shutdown is the longest in U.S. history, surpassing the 21-day shutdown from late 1995 to early 1996 under President Bill Clinton.
According to Congressional Research Service, this is the 21st government shutdown in history, with the first happening in 1976 for 10 days under the Gerald Ford administration.
There were five partial shutdowns under President Jimmy Carter, eight under President Ronald Reagan, one under George H.W. Bush, two under President Bill Clinton, one under President Barack Obama and now three under President Trump.
President George W. Bush, who delivered pizzas on Friday, is the only commander-in-chief since 1976 to not have a shutdown on his watch.
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