Updated Friday, Jan. 19 at 12:20 p.m.
Washington, DC – The latest word from Capitol Hill is that Senate Republicans likely don’t have enough votes to end the Democrats’ filibuster on a proposed stop-gap resolution to keep the federal government open until Feb. 16. The measure has already been approved by the House. If the Senate doesn’t OK the proposal, the federal government shutdown will begin one second past midnight Saturday morning, Jan. 20.
What closes?
Government functions labeled “non-essential” and “non-health-related” services are expected to be closed. Functions that would grind to a halt include Internal Revenue Service help lines, processing of passports and visas. The Federal Housing Administration will not be approving new mortgages. The National Institutes of Health won’t accept new enrollments. Federal government web sites would remain up but nor maintained or updated. Most congressional and administration staff would be temporarily laid off. National parks, monuments and museums would be closed. Non-federal workers who would be financially impacted include government contractors.
What remains open?
Military and national security, federal law enforcement, food inspectors, Transportation Safety personnel and the processors of checks for programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would also remain on the job. Federal courts are expected to remain open. Postal service will also continue.
Hogan’s comments
At noon Friday Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued the following statement in response to the potential shutdown of the federal government:
“Marylanders are sick and tired of Washington’s dysfunctional, insider blame games. I am calling on all Members of Congress and the Administration to not only continue funding the government, but to finally find long-term, common sense solutions to provide health care for our vulnerable children and to protect Dreamers.
“Let me be very clear to everyone in Washington, both Republicans and Democrats – stop the finger-pointing and do your jobs.”
Hoyer discusses government funding
Maryland Congressman Steny H. Hoyer joined Fox 5 DC Friday morning to discuss the need for Republicans to work with Democrats to fund the government and address the biggest issues facing the American people.
“There’s no doubt shutting down the government makes no sense. We don’t want to shut down the government, and we haven’t shut down the government. The Republicans have under [former Speaker Newt] Gingrich, and then just three years ago have shut down the government purposely as a tactic. We want to make sure we have an agreement so we can move forward in funding the government. [Democrats] voted for a CR [in September], that’s 134 days of additional time in order to negotiate and come to an agreement. One hundred and thirty days later, we hadn’t had that agreement. So we didn’t vote for the next two CRs, and this is the fourth Continuing Resolution because the Republicans refuse to come to the table and bargain with people they need to have votes from. It’s not like they don’t need us, they need us and we haven’t gotten an agreement on how much money we’re going to have to spend over the next eight months, and, therefore, how much we can budget and appropriate until September 30th of this year.”
“Let me tell you, the agreement we’re asking for is the agreement that [Speaker] Paul Ryan agreed to with Senator [Patty] Murray four years ago and then two years ago. All we’re asking is the same thing that Speaker Paul Ryan suggested, and the Senate adopted: for parity of spending on the defense and non-defense in terms of the increases. That’s all we’re asking for, and, unfortunately, we’ve been unable to reach that agreement. We also think that we need to reach agreement on protecting the DREAMers, people who were brought here through no-fault of their own, when they were children, went to our schools here, they know no country but the United States of America and the President said he wants to protect them. And he goes back and forth hourly on what exactly that means. But we need to reach agreement on that, too. We also, in this CR, by the way, they didn’t even deal with the emergency relief that’s needed for Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico, and the [U.S.] Virgin Islands.”
Click here to view Hoyer’s comments in their entirety.
UPDATE at 7:45 p.m.
Washington, DC – The Washington Post reports the House of Representatives have passed a short-term spending bill. The Senate must now OK similar legislation to avert a federal government shutdown at midnight Friday.
Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer issued this statement following the vote to fund the government through February 16: “Once again, Republicans have voted to kick the can down the road. Despite controlling all levers of government – the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House – Republicans continue to play politics with some of the most important issues facing Marylanders. It is absolutely incomprehensible that Republican leaders wasted the last four months passing their tax bill, which raises the deficit by $1.5 trillion dollars and raises taxes on thousands of working families in Maryland, instead of working with Democrats to responsibly fund the government.
“Governing by continuing resolution is irresponsible and puts the safety and security of our nation at risk. I will continue to urge my Republican colleagues to stop playing political games and instead work with Democrats to responsibly fund the government and address the critical issues facing our nation, including protecting DREAMers; reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program; and addressing other urgent health care priorities, including funding for community health centers.”
Washington, DC – All eyes are on Capitol Hill as a government-wide funding bill proposed by Republican leaders will be voted on by Congress. The proposed stopgap measure would avert a looming government shutdown at midnight, Jan. 19. The proposal is a four-week funding plan that keeps the federal government in full operation until Feb. 16. Congressional Democrats are attempting to use deportation protection for young immigrants as leverage in the funding bill debate.
Politico reported Thursday afternoon that the possibility “grew dramatically” earlier in the day that a shutdown would occur “as House and Senate leaders struggled to round up votes to keep government open past midnight Friday.”
If the stopgap legislation is not approved, the federal government would not be authorized to spend money. Then, many federal agencies would close and government employees would be unable to work. Necessary security and law enforcement would not be included in the layoffs. Among the federal employees barred from working would be workers at national parks, monuments and museums and technology personnel.
In October of 2013 the federal government was shut down for 16 days and approximately 850,000 workers were furloughed.
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com