The Times-Standard - Federal shutdown averted at 11th hour; Thompson: shutdown would have been ‘shameful'
With a principal agreement on a spending deal that would carry the federal government through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, Congress passed a stop-gap measure late Friday to keep federal departments operating for another week. The extension will allow Congress time to translate the budget deal into bill form, and put it up for a vote.
According to media reports, the new deal would cut spending by more than $38 billion. The agreement does not, however, include the $317 million cut to Planned Parenthood that was the topic of bitter partisan debate in the lead-up to Friday's deadline.
While it appeared all but certain at points Friday that the federal government would be grinding to a halt Saturday morning, the deal assures federal employees will keep working and national parks will stay open for at least another week.
“The government will be open for business,” Obama said in an address announcing the deal at about 11 p.m. EST. “In the final hours before our government would have been forced to shut down, leaders in both parties reached an agreement that will allow our small businesses to get the loans they need, our families to get the mortgages they applied for, and hundreds of thousands of Americans to show up at work and take home their paychecks on time.”
About nine hours before the deal was reached, when an agreement seemed distant, North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, seemed sickened that lawmakers still hadn't reached a compromise.
“I think it's a real embarrassment that we're in this position,” Thompson in a phone interview with the Times-Standard, as federal budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans sputtered. “We're the greatest country in the world, and we're bickering over social policy instead of getting a budget done.”
The shutdown -- which remains a possibility if something crops up in the next week to derail the agreement -- would have impacted hundreds of thousands of federal employees -- including about 1,100 in Humboldt County -- and countless people who depend on government services.
Air traffic controllers, the military, Homeland Security agents, border security guards, National Weather Service employees and other “essential” government employees would have to continue to work, though their paychecks could be delayed if the impasse stretched on. Employees deemed nonessential would be sent home during the shutdown, essentially relegated to unpaid furloughs.
National Parks -- including Redwood National Park -- would close for the duration of the shutdown and tax returns received by mail would not be processed until the government reopens, leaving taxpayers indefinitely awaiting refunds.
New passports would be available, but only in the case of emergencies. However, if history is any indication, a shutdown wouldn't last more than a few weeks.
According to Congressional Research Services, the longest shutdown in modern history spanned 22 days from mid-December 1995 into early January 1996. Another shutdown in 1995 was over in five days, and ones in the 1970s and 1980s ranged from three to 17 days.
Thompson said the longer this shutdown drags on, the more it would drag the economy down with it.
”It has huge economic impacts in a number of ways,” he said. “Just the loss of salary for people -- they're not going to be spending money and, if they're not spending money, that multiplies throughout the community. At the same time, federal facilities across the country will be shut, and that means that tourists won't be spending money in those areas.”
According to the Washington, D.C.-based, policy consulting firm Eye on Washington, the largest percentages of federal employees in Humboldt County are with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, which combine to employ 472 people.
The Department of Agriculture has said most of its operations would be shut down or significantly reduced, with most employees being sent home. However, the department said that in the case of a governmental shutdown, it would maintain operations related to law enforcement, the protection of life and property and others that are financed through user fees, like meat, poultry and egg inspection services.
At the Department of the Interior, officials said a shutdown would mean that National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management employees would close and secure parks, refuges and visitor facilities on federal lands, including the State of Liberty, Alcatraz, the Washington Monument and others. The department's fire fighting and law enforcement employees, however, would keep working.
Those serving in the military would likely see their pay put on hold, at least partially, throughout the shutdown.
“The irony is not lost on any of us that here we're asking these men and women to serve our country -- many are overseas and away from their families,” Thompson said. “Their families are probably struggling like any other American family trying to make ends meet, and they're not going to get a paycheck. I think that's shameful.”
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid recipients would continue to receive their benefits, as would veterans, though new enrollments would be put on hold for the duration of the shutdown. Post offices would remain open, and carriers would keep delivering, as the postal service is self-funding. Federal school lunch programs would also remain in operation, as the funding has been allocated well in advance.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs also eased some concerns late Friday, announcing that tribal law enforcement services and schools under the bureau's purview would remain in operation in the case of a shutdown.
While some services would continue, Thompson was plain that a shutdown would hurt the local economy, the national economic recovery and the lives of everyday Americans. At the time, with an agreement seeming distant, he also placed the blame squarely on Republicans, who hold a majority in the House of Representatives.
“I don't like the idea of trying to inject social policy into fiscal matters, and that's where we are right now,” he said. “The numbers are a pretty easy part of this. The holdup is that the majority wants to change social policy as a part of this funding bill.”
A shutdown, Thompson said, would be inexcusable.
“It's just unexplainable,” he said. “This is just not right, and it doesn't have to be. It's inexcusable.”