There have been 17 government shutdowns in modern US history - here's how they went down

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Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during the 2013 shutdown

• The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is fast approaching.
• The federal government has entered a shutdown 17 times since the modern budgeting process began.
• Most of those times the shutdown has been short and not involved employees being sent home, but that has changed in recent shutdowns.

With the Senate at an impasse and the Friday-night deadline looming, the odds of a partial shutdown of the federal government are growing by the minute.

If the federal government does enter a shutdown, it will be the 18th since the Budget Act of 1974 brought in the modern funding process.

Most of these shutdown weren't severe, with 10 of the 17 lasting five days or fewer, and eight lasting three days or fewer.

Additionally, most of these shutdowns did not affect federal employees. In the event of a shutdown, employees can be placed on furlough, meaning they do not report to work or get paid. In 10 of the previous shutdowns, employees were not placed on furlough.

Sending employees home has become more frequent in recent shutdowns, with furlough occurring during each of the last four shutdowns and six of the last seven.

Unique to the possible shutdown on Friday is the fact that there has never been a shutdown during which employees were placed on furlough while one party controlled both chambers of Congress and White House.

Republicans can't force a bill through since Democrats can filibuster any funding bill in the Senate, but the shutdown would still be historic.

Here's a breakdown of all the previous shutdowns:

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