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Unless Congress reaches a consensus on new spending bills, there may be another partial government shutdown in the US later this week.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden will hold a meeting at the White House with the leading members of Congress in an effort to jumpstart negotiations. This comes after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Mike Johnson accused each other’s parties of causing a delay.
Unless a consensus is reached before March 1st, the funding for agriculture, energy, housing and urban development, transportation, and veterans affairs departments will end.
Additionally, the departments of justice, state, and defense will be without funds starting on Friday, March 8th.
After a short break, senators reconvened in Congress on Monday, while their counterparts in the House are not expected to return until Wednesday evening. This adds more urgency to the approval of funding bills and makes it more likely that a temporary spending measure or continuing resolution will be needed.
The possibility of a government shutdown is a constant concern for Congress, particularly when opposing political parties cannot agree on how to fund important government positions.
According to the Antideficiency Act of 1884 and its 1950 amendment, departments and agencies of the US government are prohibited from using or allocating funds without the consent of Congress.
The House and Senate must review the budget proposals from various departments and agencies and come to a consensus on the 12 bills that allocate funding for the entire year to these offices. This must be done before a specific deadline and the spending packages must be approved by both the House and Senate before being signed by President Biden at the Resolute desk.
If the appropriation bills are approved by Congress, the clock will be restarted for another year, granting everyone a sense of relief.
If it is not possible, the impacted departments and agencies must halt any non-essential operations until an agreement is reached.
If the twelve bills are involved in political disagreements, a full government shutdown occurs. However, if a few agreements can be made, resulting in only a few offices needing to close, a partial shutdown occurs.
During instances of federal shutdowns, government personnel are instructed to refrain from showing up for work and are put on unpaid leave. However, starting in 2019, they are compensated for the period of time they were not working once the deadlock is resolved, as opposed to forfeiting their wages entirely.
This rule does not affect individuals who hold critical roles in ensuring public safety, including law enforcement, military personnel, air traffic controllers, medical workers, power grid technicians, and social security, Medicare, and Medicaid administrators.
Employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), fall into this group and are obligated to report to work as per usual in case of a shutdown, to ensure uninterrupted travel services. However, it is important to note that they will not receive immediate compensation and this will only be resolved once Congress successfully negotiates and ends the shutdown.
Such a demoralising and dysfunctional situation is far from ideal, of course, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre moved to warn the public last autumn that such an eventuality was likely to result in “significant” delays to journeys, advising travellers to plan their trips accordingly.
According to the US Travel Association, each day of a government shutdown can result in a loss of approximately $140 million for the American economy. This is due to increased pressure on vital services.
Source: independent.co.uk
