Wondering about a government shutdown? First thing to know: It all won’t disappear. By Lisa Rein and Eric Yoder, Published: September 20 E-mail the writers With no deal in sight between the House, Senate and White House to pay the nation’s bills after midnight on Sept. 30, much of the federal government is set to run out of money 10 days from now, and large functions of the federal world could shut down Oct. 1. What might this mean for you, your family and for the people who keep the government running day to day — even as Democrats and Republicans in Congress bicker over whether to stop funding President Obama’s health-care law and other fiscal issues they cannot seem to resolve? A step-by-step guide to what’s next in the shutdown showdown Here are some basics of what a government shutdown might look like: 1. What got us to this point, and who’s at fault if the government closes? As with most things in Washington, naming who’s at fault would likely depend on your political persuasion. Under a budget law passed 39 years ago, the House and Senate must approve 12 appropriations bills funding the federal government by Sept. 30, the last day of the fiscal year. It almost never happens. In the past 17 years — in 10 of which Congress was controlled by Republicans, four by Democrats and two with mixed leadership in the chambers — Congress did not meet its statutory deadline for approving the spending bills. This year’s confrontation is over the conservative Republican effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. On Friday, the House approved a stopgap bill to fund the government that would strip all funding for the law, large parts of which are set to take effect Oct. 1. The bill is considered to have no chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate. 2. Is the government making preparations to close on Oct. 1? Yes. The Obama administration told agencies this week to begin planning for a partial shutdown. A memo issued to agencies said that “prudent management requires that agencies be prepared for the possibility of a lapse.” Federal managers must review which of their employees would be essential and required to come to work, and which would be nonessential and sent home during a shutdown. Agencies are notifying their employees to expect some chaos: On Thursday, for example, State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy issued a memo making clear that a lapse in funding to keep the government running could mean that “a number of employees may be temporarily furloughed.” 3. Does the entire government close? Will anyone patrol the borders? Will services disappear and benefits such as Social Security checks stop? What about services to veterans? Can I still see the panda cub at the National Zoo? In any shutdown, the government does not stop functioning completely. By law, certain agencies must be allowed to operate with unsalaried employees. According to the Office of Management and Budget, those are employees who: ●Provide for national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property. ●Provide for benefit payments and the performance of obligations under no-year or multi-year contract or other funds remaining available for those purposes.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 23:29:02 +0000
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