Assuming the budget impasse is not resolved what parts of the government DON’T get shutdown, and why are they excepted? The federal government includes the federal court system, the federal prisons, the FDA, the IRS, the FEC, NASA, the national parks, the army, navy, Air force, coast guard, the service academies, etc etc etc. Which ones stay open, which ones don’t, and by what aurthority.
I know the Federal Courts and FBI stay open because you wouldn’t want them to come to a grinding halt for an unknown period of time, along with the Secret Service. Air Traffic Control and TSA have to stay open too, for obvious reasons.
The military in general stays “open,” but some soldiers may be furloughed. In fact, quite a lot, as well as a lot of civilian employees of the military. Probably the only civilian employees who will still be working are the ones in food service.
Regarding military employees: specifics can vary, depending on what Congress has specified. In general, contractors are more likely than government employees to get time off, and less likely to receive back pay when funding is restored. Civilians who work in operations are less likely to be furloughed than those in research, etc.
There is no single budget bill. It is not all or nothing. There are a dozen or more appropriation bills Congress must vote on every fiscal year. When one or more of these appropriation bills are not passed for the new fiscal year, and/or a continuing resolution (CR) is not passed (historically funded at the previous fiscal year level), those federal agencies with no budget must shut down.
A CR is often a short term funding action covering all outstanding appropriation bills not yet passed. That can vary from fiscal year to fiscal year. In this case, the House failed to pass the DoD appropriation bill. That means the military is unfunded. The military will continue to function with unpaid employees, but the real issue is it screws up federal military contractors and obligations. In other words, the Army has bullets (in stock) but cannot order more from the suppliers.
Personally I wouldn’t want any part of the government to come to a grinding halt.
Well, despite the fact we disagree on almost everything (and of course this means you are almost always wrong 
, ) this is because you are still basically sane (does this mean I am not? ) , unlike the wing of the Congress who want a shut down.
Law Enforcement still works. Retirement and Soc Sec checks still go out. Critical things.
But parks are closed, and may other things we- as Americans- have come to enjoy as fruits of democracy and liberty- are also shut down.
Two questions:
In these situations is it restricted to government departments and agencies, such as those just mentioned? Are political staff in congressional offices considered to be paid from the same pool or are they insulated from the shut-down to that degree?
If this messes badly with taxpayers’ lives, as it very likely will, do they have any power of redress or compensation? If I was a teacher and my planned school excursion to Jellystone National Park just went bung does my school wear the loss or is there a path to claiming lost costs?
For what it’s worth, Katie Hobbs pledged to keep the Grand Canyon open with state funding. October is a the best month for hiking the North Rim. The plan was - no new backcountry permits, but existing permitholders can enter. Hopefully this is now moot.
With the caveat that it looks like this will all be moot for at least 45 more days. . . .
As mentioned, there are 12 annual appropriations bills that each fund a slice of the federal government – e.g. Defense, Commerce/Justice/Science, Homeland Security, State and Foreign Operations, etc. Legislative Branch operations is one of these appropriations bills. Any federal governmental agency or department that has not had its appropriations bill signed into law by the start of the fiscal year (i.e. October 1) is subject to shut down. This year, NO appropriations bills have yet been signed.
For Congress, this would mean that Members’ staff cannot be paid (although like other federal employees they can be required to work without pay if deemed “essential”). It also shuts down agencies that support Congress like the Capitol Police, Architect of the Capitol, Senate/House Sergeants-at-Arms, Library of Congress, etc. Representatives and Senators themselves continue to receive their salaries due to the 27th Amendment.
I am pretty sure that all Law Enforcement agencies continue.
“Shuts down” in the sense that the agency will not have a budget and staff will have to work without pay or be furloughed for the duration of the shutdown. Capitol Police officers will likely be required to work, but their human resources staff will be sent home.
Some things would be able to continue longer than others, but in a long shutdown would run out of their reserves. From what I’ve read, SNAP benefits would have continued into October, but probably not after that – which would have left an awful lot of people hungry. I think some other benefits might give out even sooner. Standard Social Security apparently has separate funding and would be OK at least for quite a while. I don’t know about SSI (additional Social Security payments for the very low income who also get very little from standard Social Security.)
I stopped at the post office yesterday to mail my gf’s passport renewal papers. She paid extra for expedited service, but she’s a bit nervous. She’s talked to others in her situation and has heard conflicting things.
I told her, absolute worst case scenario, I’ll travel so and text her daily pictures of the Caribbean.
The continuing resolution (CR) makes part of your comment moot. Government operations will function at FY2023 appropriation levels for 45 days. Then another CR is required, or the full budget, or the government shuts down. A problem with this Congress, or more accurately a few House Republicans, is they want CRs to cut previously agreed to budget levels. This almost happened to this CR. In this case they wanted an across the board eight percent cut (except for DoD and VA). Had this current CR contained that cut, federal agencies would have scrambled to meet that cut and the best possible way to do that would have been RIFs (reductions in force). But that takes time, and money. A budget cut in a CR would have resulted in drastic cuts to services, making a bad scenario much, much worse.
I did say part of comment is moot. The US Passport agency forecasted extensive delays earlier this year with standard and expedited services. You can see the projected times here, depending when the application was lodged: Processing Times for U.S. Passports
If your GF is nervous, call (not email) the US Passport agency. Don’t listen to third parties. Get the straight dope from the agency.
Thanks for the e information. She’s nervous the same way I was nervous the last time I renewed mine. I paid for expedited service and overnight mailing. Mine showed up on 2 weeks. I had 11 weeks. She has 14 weeks before things get tense.
Most government functions that are funded by user fees, such as most USCIS processing, will continue as normal. However, applications like asylum that don’t carry fees will not be adjudicated.
When we renewed out passports two years ago, we were told to wait three months (standard service). We were not going anywhere; jut renewing passports (and passport cards).
We received new passports, and passport cards, in two weeks. Go figure.
As I understood from the news, truly essential services that continue include the House members’ pay. Something about “goose, gander” not applying to them…
Most Congresscriters are millionaires, they dont really care. A few actually live on their pay. And note that the shutdown is the cause of a handful of GOPers.