The federal government shutdown of 1995 was a major political crisis in which the United States federal government, as a result of a failure to pass a budget bill, shutdown nonessential services from November 14 through November 19th, 1995 and from December 16, 2005 to January 6, 1996. The major players were Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. Later polling suggested that the event badly damaged Gingrich politically. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... Newton Leroy Gingrich (born June 17, 1943), Ph. ...