Government Shutdown

Government Shutdown

 At least part of the federal government may shut down by tomorrow unless Congress extends funding by midnight tonight. Let's look at what's at stake, the key players in Tuesday's Oval Office meeting, what the public thinks and what we might expect to happen if lawmakers miss today's deadline.

The meeting

On Tuesday, President Obama held an Oval Office meeting with the following people in an unsuccessful effort to finalize a deal:

Vice President Joe Biden

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and Sen. Daniel  Inouye, D-Hawaii

If a deal can't be struck by midnight tonight, what happens? Let's look at some examples of services affected in 1996 during a 21-day government shutdown.

Parks & museums

In the 1996 government shutdown:

368 National Park Service sites closed (loss of 7 million visitors)

Museums and monuments closed (loss of 2 million visitors)

Visas & passports

In the 1996 government shutdown:

About 20,000 foreign visa applications per day were not processed

200,000 U.S. passport applications were not processed; U.S. tourism and airlines suffered major losses

Military veterans

In the 1996 government shutdown:

Services to military veterans were curtailed

Federal contractors

In the 1996 government shutdown:

About $3.7 billion in Washington, D.C., area contracts were affected

Workers were furloughed without pay

Law enforcement

In the 1996 government shutdown:

Delays in processing alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives applications

Work on 3,500 bankruptcy cases was suspended

Recruitment of federal law enforcement officers stopped

Health

In the 1996 government shutdown:

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped disease surveillance

Toxic waste clean-up at 609 sites stopped; 2,400 Superfund workers were sent home

No new patients accepted for clinical research at National Institutes of Health

Source:Specials