Congress is careening toward another government shutdown deadline.
Without new legislation, crucial services and legions of federal workers will be sidelined or go unpaid as soon as 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The White House and Congress have agreed on spending laws for the rest of the fiscal year, but they may not have time to enact all the legislation before the deadline, so a short partial shutdown might be hard to avert.
Here's what you need to know about a possible shutdown.
The federal government can only spend money that's appropriated by Congress -- that is, spelled out in a funding law. When those laws expire, Congress has to approve new funding or agencies have to shut down. That's what lawmakers are facing this week: Congress needs to approve new funding legislation for parts of the government because the existing spending laws for those agencies are set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
A shutdown could be relatively short, though it's nearly impossible to know in advance. Congress has been setting its spending deadlines on Fridays, so if the government does shut down, lawmakers have the weekend to try to resolve things while most federal workers are already off the clock. If lawmakers miss the midnight deadline, they could still pass funding legislation over the weekend and have the government open again Monday like nothing ever happened. In this scenario, a partial shutdown might only last a few hours, if final passage of new funding legislation comes Saturday morning, or about a day, if it happens Sunday.
The shortest government shutdown lasted just a few hours.
Lawmakers are set to leave Washington for 16 days at the end of the week, so the prospect of cutting into that break might also encourage them to wrap up speedily.
The funding that expires Saturday covers a number of agencies that represent roughly 70 percent of the federal government:
Other important agencies are also funded in these appropriations, including the Small Business Administration, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and Consumer Product Safety Commission. Resources for congressional offices and the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, are also provided through these bills.
Not all of the agencies and departments whose funding will run out would see the same effects -- and most wouldn't shutter completely. Activities that are considered essential to public safety, economic stability and the president's constitutional authority continue during a shutdown. For example, Transportation Security Administration officers would stay on the job, but go unpaid, as would the United States' roughly 1.3 million active-duty military service members.
A partial government shutdown that lasts past the weekend would affect a wide range of crucial federal services and thousands of employees.
The IRS -- which historically has been among the most aggressive federal agencies in curtailing operations when federal funding lapses -- says it will furlough more than half of its nearly 90,000 employees if the shutdown happens. That move would affect vital services to taxpayers during the height of tax filing season.
Most government employees who are crucial to travel safety would continue working without pay during a government shutdown, but that designation varies by agency.
All but about 3,000 of the Transportation Security Administration's more than 60,000 employees will stay on the job, according to the agency's most recent shutdown plan.
The State Department will continue issuing passports and visas in the United States and abroad, the agency said, because the work is considered essential to national security, and most funding is covered by the fees that passport applicants typically pay.
Some passport locations, however, are located in government buildings run by agencies more deeply affected by a government shutdown. If those buildings are closed, the State Department might suspend consular and passport services, it said in its contingency plan.
Social Security recipients will continue to receive payments because the program is funded by a payroll tax, not annual appropriations. Medicare and Medicaid are also funded separately from annual appropriations, so those benefits will continue uninterrupted.
Closed national parks and Smithsonian museums in Washington are often the most visible early signs of a government shutdown. But in this case, a partial shutdown this weekend wouldn't affect them: Legislation to fund the Interior Department, which includes parks and federal museums and other sites, was enacted about two weeks ago, ahead of the last deadline.
Federal funding for these agencies expires on Friday, March 22, so a shutdown would begin at 12:01 a.m. on March 23.
Congress already passed the first leg of a government funding package worth $459 billion earlier this month. But the spending laws that are set to expire this weekend are the latest round of short-term extensions, known as continuing resolutions or CRs, that lawmakers have enacted to push deadlines off.
Congress passed the first one in late September after then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) relied on Democratic votes to push the stopgap bill through, prompting GOP rebels to oust him from the speakership.
Those rebels have been upset over an agreement last spring between President Biden and McCarthy to suspend the U.S. debt limit in exchange for limiting federal discretionary spending in the 2024 fiscal year -- the current one, which began Oct. 1.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was elected to succeed McCarthy, but he's stuck to the spending caps that McCarthy and Biden agreed on. He promised the rebels he'd try to win GOP policy provisions -- on issues ranging from restricting abortion access, limiting LGBTQ+ rights, promoting fossil fuels, instituting harsh restrictions on immigration and more -- in the funding bills. But with only a two-vote margin in the House, and little support from Senate Republicans, Johnson hasn't had much leverage to force Biden to agree to such proposals.
Now Congress is considering the remaining six funding measures all rolled into one bill. Five of those measures were worked out before Monday, and the White House and lawmakers agreed Monday night on how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, too, after long delays over how to regulate immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border.
But House rules require 72 hours between when legislation is made public and when members can vote. So if the spending bills are released Tuesday, the House couldn't vote before Friday -- which would mean the Senate would have to work fast to follow suit, which it can only do if all 100 members give their consent. Any delays past Tuesday would almost guarantee at least a short partial shutdown, because lawmakers wouldn't be able to enact the legislation and send it to Biden to sign before the deadline.
This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/19/government-shutdown-deadline-affected-2024/
Previous | Articles | Sections | Next |