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Government Shutdown Scares No Longer Around, For Now.
Written By Landry Thompson
10/03/23
In just days our government could completely shut down. On October 1st at exactly 12:01 am the shutdown will begin if Congress is unable to pass a funding plan that the president signs into law. This has actually happened 14 times and only occurs when Congress fails to enact the 12 annual appropriation bills, federal agencies must cease all non-essential functions until Congress acts. This means that Congress must pass certain spending bills to locate funding and expenses for the year.
The reason Congress is struggling with passing these bills is because of rigid right wing demands for deep budget cuts forcing a confrontation over federal spending. When there is no decision on where funding will go this of course causes an issue. When this happens federal agencies must halt all non-essential work and will not send paychecks as long as the shutdown is in effect. For example according to CNBC, millions of federal employees will not receive pay as well as roughly 2 million military personnel, TSA, and postage workers.
However, air traffic controllers and law enforcement will still receive pay along with social security checks still being sent out. This shutdown is predicted to last potentially weeks and may put many citizens out of a job.
Fortunately we were gracious enough to avoid this shutdown as of 9/30/23. Although we’re safe for now this doesn’t mean indefinitely. The recent bill passed only postpones the shutdown for 45 days in which we’ll have to make another decision then.
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