On Oct 1, 2013, the United States federal government entered in to a partial shutdown of all non-essential government personal. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will be directly affected, 800,000 workers have already been forced on furlough (a forced leave of absence without pay until the government reopens) and another 1.3 million others are required to, by law, to perform their jobs without pay.
There is no exact science behind who gets furloughed during a shutdown and who does not. Each agency of the government decides that for themselves, based on a general opinion of Jimmy Carter?s attorney general of 1980, which is, ?anyone involved in protecting life and property works.?
In the government shutdown of 1995-1996 a House sub-committee convened a council to try and decide which parts of the government are considered essential and non-essential, but they never reached a conclusive answer.
As to the council?s failure to decide which parts of government are considered essential. Our leaders must now decide which parts of government must remain active based on an opinion from an attorney general that was given more then thirty years ago.
Americans are lucky that the government does not provide most of the services and products they consider to be essential to their way of life. Food, water, and Internet access will remain untouched during the shutdown, as most of these services are provided by private enterprises, not the government.
Though a government shutdown is serious, it is not as terrifying as the media tends to portray it. Immediate affects of the shutdown are that financial regulators, tax collectors, some social programs, parks and museums will not be funded; therefore they will not be able to operate.
Schools, sadly, will remain open as most of their funding does not come from the government. Students will continue on through their studies, even in the midst of a shutdown.
The reason why the shutdown was initiated was that congress was unable to approve a budget by the deadline, in large part to the Republican Party’s inaction. Republican and democrats are currently negotiating on the budget, and republicans have already caved in on the main reason they started this shutdown.
Listen to my podcast to learn more about why the government shutdown happened and what our house leaders are negotiating about.
PODCAST: Cause of the government shutdown: Oct. 13, 2013–
For further information on who decides who is essential during a shutdown and who is not, see The Fresno Bee, October 10, 2013 pg. A12.
Visit websites to learn more about the shutdown itself, such as
CNN Politics and USA Today
Remember to avoid biased websites that churn hysterical, and untrue stories that are designed to strike fear and panic into the public. Such as Wall Street Daily.
Front featured photo credited to John Sonderman via Creative Commons 3.0.
This author can be reached via Twitter: @RRoggenstein. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.
For more opinions, read the Oct. 11 article, Journalism offers media advancements, skills.
