First Amendment:
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be laid off and a wide range of services, from financial oversight to medical research, suspended if Congress does not provide funding for the new fiscal year that begins on October 1.
“Funding the government is one of the core responsibilities of Congress. It is time for Republicans to start doing the job that America elected them to do.” With these words, the President of the United States, on Saturday, September 23, put pressure on opposition lawmakers to avoid a federal administrative shutdown.
US government services will be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed without pay if Congress does not provide funding for the fiscal year that begins October 1. Workers deemed “essential” will remain at work, but without pay.
The task, initially, will be up to the House of Representatives – which is closely controlled by Republicans – to approve spending bills for the next fiscal year. The debate threatens to harden as the opposition party attempts to press ahead with deep spending cuts.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to avoid this scenario when he reached a spending agreement with President Joe Biden last spring. However, some members of his own party have threatened to remove him from office if he does not support deeper cuts that are certain to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
If Congress fails to provide funding for the new fiscal year that begins on October 1, the administrative performance of the federal government will be subject to numerous and drastic cuts.
What services will be affected?
Active-duty military personnel and federal law enforcement personnel will have to work without pay until the money is allocated, while about half of the Pentagon's 800,000 civilian employees will be laid off.
On the other hand, payments to defense contractors like Boeing could be delayed and scientific research disrupted as agency employees would be sent home and about 10,000 children would lose access to preschool. “precedence” Food aid may be suspended.
In addition, national parks and national monuments could see their services interrupted, as has happened in previous years.
The longest government shutdown began in December 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump sought funding to build his border wall. The closure lasted five weeks and is estimated to have cost the economy about three billion dollars.
With Reuters and EFE
