Fellow travelers:
While it clearly isn't Europe, if you are planning to visit Washington DC in the near future, you might want to know that the Smithsonian Institution museums (of which there are many) will be closing on January 2nd until the partial government shut down is over. You can get updated information from https://www.si.edu/.
I'm posting this to help your trip planning. Let's leave discussion of the shutdown itself to a more appropriate forum.