‘This is a Man-Made Disaster’: Mayors Escalate Their Own Shutdown Plans

A record number of city leaders convened in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual non-partisan winter meeting. Their original plan had been to focus on discussing the three “I”s that form the council’s agenda this year: infrastructure, innovation, and inclusion. But, like many things, priorities were complicated by the federal government’s partial shutdown, which, at 32 days, has stretched longer than any other in the U.S.’s history.

“We need to move beyond the political impasse,” said Steve Benjamin, President of the USCM and the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, at an opening press conference. “Every day, mayors across the country put aside partisan differences and find common ground on even the most difficult of issues … It’s time for Washington to take a page out of our playbook.”