Federal government shutdown would be felt here
Stoppage would hit hardest Monday morning
Thursday, April 7, 2011 03:10 AM
BY JACK TORRY
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
WASHINGTON - If last-minute budget negotiations fall through and the federal government shuts down, you might not notice it right away if you live in central Ohio. That's because the shutdown would begin late Friday, and probably few people would even be aware the government had closed during the weekend.
But if a government shutdown lasts until Monday, it would begin to affect thousands in the Columbus area. Every federal worker as well as civilian employees at the U.S. Department of Defense not involved in national-security duties would be furloughed, which could include more than 8,000 civilian workers at the three defense agencies in Whitehall.
That takes in more than 3,000 at the Defense Supply Center, Columbus (which also includes more than 600 contractors and 80 military personnel), 3,000 at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and 2,400 at the Defense Logistics Agency.
While the four branches of the armed forces and workers at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would continue to work, a White House official said yesterday that furloughs are likely for civilian workers with the Department of Defense not involved in the "safety of life or protection of property."
"We expect that a significant number of (defense) civilian employees would be furloughed if the government shuts down," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters on a conference call.
The fate of workers at the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center on James Road is unclear. It appears that hospitals will remain open, but officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs and its Columbus offices would not say whether VA clinics would stay open during a shutdown.
A shutdown could affect a long-awaited announcement by NASA on whether it will send one of the three retired space shuttles to the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden had planned to announce on Tuesday at the John F. Kennedy Space Center which communities will receive the three space shuttles when they are retired this summer. The announcement was timed for the 30th anniversary of the first space flight of an American shuttle.
But it appears as if NASA will be among the shutdown's victims.
Other areas where Ohioans and others would feel the pinch: the Internal Revenue Service would stop processing paper income-tax returns; the Small Business Administration would make no loans; the Federal Housing Administration would stop issuing home-loan guarantees; and passport applications would grind to a halt.
Those are just some of the consequences if Congress and President Barack Obama cannot forge an agreement on a spending bill to keep the federal government open through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
The National Institutes of Health would begin no new clinical trials. A number of congressional staffers would be temporarily out of work - and those who do work would have to de-activate their government-issued Blackberries.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could not issue permits for air-, land- and water-pollution limits. A White House official said that "EPA will continue to do what is essential to protect life and property, but all of the other operations will cease."
Some key government operations would continue. Retirees still would receive their Social Security checks, Medicare payments would continue, the post office would deliver mail, the federal courts would stay open and those filing income-tax returns electronically would get a refund.
But more than 800,000 federal workers across the country would be furloughed, a White House official told reporters yesterday on a conference call.
The official said that those in the military "will continue to earn money during this period of time. But given that we don't have any money to pay out ... they would not receive their paychecks until we have money again and Congress appropriates."
The nation's capital would feel the brunt of a shutdown. Federal agencies would shut down, the Smithsonian Institution and national parks would close, and the celebrated Cherry Blossom Festival parade this weekend would be scrapped.
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