With a federal government shutdown possible at the end of this week, a lot of information is being released about who would get furloughed and which agencies would shut down. During a shutdown, the government “must discontinue all non-essential discretionary functions until new funding legislation is passed and signed into law,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said. But what does this mean for our military, mail, and national security?
Essential services and mandatory spending programs continue to operate as normal, like our national security. Within the agencies that have yet to be funded, about 350,000 employees would be furloughed and 420,000 forced to work without pay. This would mean:
- FBI, DEA agents and correction officers continue to work but don’t get paid.
- Active duty military members don’t get paid but are required to keep working.
- Death benefits aren’t paid to military survivors.
- Air traffic controllers and a lot of Transportation Security Agency employees continue working but don’t get paid.
- Mail is delivered, so are Social Security checks and Medicaid payments.
- Some national parks may stay open.
- NASA is closed as well as the Department of Commerce.
- Congress still gets paid.
- Payments to 3 million households in public housing are suspended.
Who knows what will happen Friday, but it’s nice to know where you would stand if a shutdown does occur.
