Government shutdown: Potential furloughs for 800k federal workers, disruption of D.C. services
Gallery: Government shutdown: Democrats and Republicans have so far failed to reach an agreement on the 2011 federal budget, increasing the likelihood of the first government shutdown in more than 15 years.
Washington braced Wednesday for a far-reaching federal government shutdown and a potential stop to everything from local trash collection and the writing of some parking tickets to Saturday’s annual Cherry Blossom Parade.
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The closure of the government, the chief industry of Washington, would affect tourists, the Mall and its museums, hundreds of thousands of federal workers and government contractors across the country, and thousands of D.C. residents who would lose city services.
Nationwide, about 800,000 federal employees could be furloughed, some deprived of their BlackBerrys and other devices, according to senior Obama administration officials familiar with the plans.
National parks and Smithsonian museums would shutter. Ford’s Theatre, a national historic site, would be closed to the public and its programming canceled. The Washington Monument would also be closed.
Federal agencies began Wednesday to release their plans for a potential shutdown.
Many government Web sites would stop updating information, and many White House staff members would be sent home. Taxpayers submitting income tax returns through the mail would not immediately receive refunds, and federal small-business loans would stop. But current Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security beneficiaries would continue to receive payments.
As congressional negotiators pushed last-ditch effortsto agree on a 2011 budget and prevent a shutdown, the National Cherry Blossom Festival announced that its annual gala parade, scheduled for Saturday along Constitution Avenue, will be canceled if lawmakers do not reach an agreement.
Even with the bleachers in place and parade-goers en route, festival officials said late Wednesday that the National Park Service could not honor the group’s parade permits if a shutdown occurs.
The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, said in a statement: “Visitor activities that require a permit, including public events, will not be allowed or will be canceled or postponed. Visitor centers will be closed and access to park areas denied, including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Independence Hall, Alcatraz, and the Washington Monument.”
The shutdown will begin on Saturday morning if no budget agreement is reached.
The District would be hit hard.
The city, considered in a shutdown to be a federal agency, would face $1.5 million to $5.5 million in losses per week.
Along with trash collection, most parking enforcement would be suspended, and D.C. libraries and Department of Motor Vehicles offices would be closed.
Street sweeping would be suspended for the duration of a shutdown, city officials said. Trash pickup could resume, because federal shutdown laws permit government services that deal with property and public safety, they said. But that wouldn’t happen for at least a week.
“That’ll be a treat, won’t it?” Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) remarked sarcastically about possible piles of trash around the city.
He said he thinks the potential shutdown is more evidence of the unfair treatment of the District by Congress.
“This is a concrete example of what it means to be treated like a second-class citizen,” he said.
Public and charter schools would remain open, but the University of the District of Columbia would close.
Police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians would remain on duty. The Board of Elections and Ethics would maintain its staff to prepare for the April 26 special election.
A key question for hundreds of thousands of Washington area federal workers is whether they would have to work through an impasse — without pay. Departments began answering such questions on Wednesday.
In an e-mail, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she and President Obama “are very much aware that a shutdown would impose hardships on many employees as well as the groups and individuals our department serves.”
But “prudent management requires that I plan for an orderly shutdown should Congress fail to pass a funding bill.”
In messages sent to all employees, administration officials promised to inform people of their fates no later than Friday. But employees would be expected to report to work Monday to assist with any shutdown-related tasks, senior administration officials said.
When they arrive Monday, workers with government-issued BlackBerries and other devices would have to surrender them to agency bosses.
At the Education Department, 4,150 out of 4,465 full- and part-time employees would be furloughed under a shutdown, according to an agency contingency plan. And federal statistical agencies, including the U.S. Census Bureau, would close on Monday, meaning that economic indicators scheduled for release would not be available. National security and law enforcement functions would continue at the Justice Department, but civil litigation and outreach to crime victims would stop or be curtailed.
Rep. James P. Moran (D), whose Northern Virginia district is home to thousands of federal employees, has scheduled a town hall meeting with federal workers for Thursday evening at Francis C. Hammond Middle School in Alexandria.
Smaller agencies would close almost completely. At the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency, a spokesman said that about 1 percent of personnel would be allowed to work.
Overseas, the overwhelming majority of U.S. diplomats are considered essential personnel and are expected to remain at their posts, according to officials familiar with the plans. Exceptions include lower-ranking administrative embassy staff members, many of whom are not American. Many U.S. Agency for International Development operations are expected to continue as normal, because the agency relies on many contractors.
Several fee-based government operations and agencies funded through multi-year budgets are expected to stay open, including the Veterans Health Administration, elements of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and theFederal Highway Administration. Energy Department employees would have to report for work as scheduled, because that agency maintains enough funding not linked to the fiscal calendar to continue operating for at least a few days.
In the federal courts, trials would continue and lawsuits could be filed, said David Sellers, spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
If a shutdown lasted longer than two weeks, payments would be delayed for jurors and for lawyers appointed to represent indigent defendants. “You won’t have any contracts moving ahead, new equipment, advances in technology,’’ Sellers said. “The behind-the-scenes things that support the courts.’’
Meanwhile, Saturday’s Cherry Blossom Parade could feel the earliest effects of a shutdown.
“The word came down from the National Park Service officially that they will not be able to honor our permits if the government is shut down,” said Diana Mayhew, president of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which concludes this weekend.
As many as 500,000 people normally attend the parade and the festival’s closing weekend, festival officials said.
“There are people coming from Japan to participate in the parade,” Mayhew said, as well as 14 marching bands from across the country.
“There are people coming to watch the parade,” she said. “What a shame that would be [for] those people, as well as the thousands of people participating in it who saved and earned their money all year round to be in this parade.”
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Staff writers Nick Anderson, Peter Finn, Al Kamen, Lyndsey Layton, Carol D. Leonnig, Jerry Markon, Steven Mufson, Lisa Rein, Nikita Stewart, Michelle Singletary, Carol Morello, Karen Tumulty and Brian Vastag contributed to this report.
