The federal government is barreling toward a shutdown, the first since 2013. If Congress fails to pass appropriations legislation by its Friday midnight deadline, the process that follows could complicate many lives — those of federal workers and the millions of Americans who rely on them to experience places such as the national parks.
Here are the answers to questions you might have about how the shutdown could affect you or your neighbor.
What is a government shutdown?
Exactly what it sounds like. Much of the federal government gets its funding from annual budget appropriations decided by Congress. The legislation that decides that funding must be passed by a certain deadline — Friday at midnight — and if Congress can’t find a consensus, then the hundreds of thousands of people who work for the federal government can’t get a paycheck. Legally, many of those federal workers are obligated to stop showing up to work — known as an unpaid furlough.
Who keeps working during a government shutdown?
Some agencies, and thus the employees working in them, are “exempt” from a shutdown because they do not get their funding through the congressional appropriations process. The largest of these is the U.S. Postal Service, which operates on income from postage and the items it sells. Other agencies, or parts of them, also have funding not subject to annual appropriations — for example, through fees they charge for their services, or from trust funds or multi-year budgets. Employees whose salaries are funded in that way would continue working, and getting paid, as normal.