What’s Open and What’s Closed in a Partial Government Shutdown – Wall Street Journal

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For instance, more than 80% of National Park Service staff would be furloughed, as would 95% of Housing and Urban Development Department employees, according to information released by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Furloughed employees are generally allowed four hours to clean off their desks, put up “out of office” notices and turn in mobile devices, according to agency contingency plans. After that, workers aren’t supposed to send email or do any type of work until their office reopens.

More than 420,000 people are set to be deemed essential workers, such as air-traffic controllers, prison guards, weather-service forecasters and food-safety inspectors, and would continue coming to work. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Forest Service firefighters, Border patrol agents and TSA workers would also keep working through any temporary closure. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe wouldn’t be affected.

Congress in the past has voted to pay both furloughed and essential workers’ back pay once funding is restored.

A shutdown wouldn’t affect the mail or the delivery of Social Security checks. Some national parks may still be open to visitors, but workers could stop providing visitor services, including trash collection, campground operations and road maintenance. Visitor facilities—including restrooms—will be closed.

The Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, said Friday that the trails and tourist facilities at the Grand Canyon will remain open in the event of a shutdown, due to a plan by the state to temporarily fund federal park operations.

Museums in Washington, D.C., are set to be affected by the shutdown. The Smithsonian said in tweets Friday that its museums and the National Zoo will be open through Jan. 1 no matter what using available funds, but will be closed Christmas day as usual. It said it would provide an update beyond that “as soon as we know.”

The agencies facing a shutdown include the Justice Department; Homeland Security Department; State Department; Housing and Urban Development Department; Transportation Department; Treasury Department; Agriculture Department; Commerce Department; and the Interior Department.

Many federal agencies and programs, including the Defense Department, Energy Department, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, are fully funded and won’t be affected by the shutdown, and operations would continue as usual.

Agencies facing shutdowns have released some details on their plans.

At the Internal Revenue Service, which is preparing for the start of the tax-filing season in the coming weeks, nearly 10,000 employees—or 12.5% of the agency’s workforce—will continue working on tax collection and investigations, but the agency wouldn’t process any refunds until after the shutdown ends. The IRS may have to tweak its plans if a shutdown drags into late January or early February, when Americans start filing their 2018 tax returns.

At HUD, emergency maintenance requests at HUD-owned properties would continue, as well as urgent housing services for homeless people and routine Section 8 housing payments. But housing counseling services will stop, and mortgage loan processing may be delayed.

Some agencies may have unspent funds that will allow them to keep operating for a brief period after the shutdown begins.

Federal courts, for example, are able to continue operating for some time using fees they collect. At the State Department, consular services would continue as long as there is money available, but passport agencies may be closed if they are located in a government building affected by the shutdown.

A partial shutdown wouldn’t change the release date of December jobs report, due out Jan. 4, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

Because President Trump declared Christmas Eve a federal holiday along with Christmas Day, the effects of the shutdown may not be noticeable until next Wednesday. Federal workers are still expected to show up to work that day, when they will receive notices from supervisors informing them whether they will be furloughed, or whether they need to keep working.

Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-agencies-prepare-for-a-possible-shutdown-11545415407

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