Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

Get ready for another weird ride in America.

Thanks to the partisan divide and even a divided party, citizens will likely see a government shutdown next week.  We remain hopeful that much of the impact could still be avoided, but we certainly aren’t betting on it.

There have been 20 government shutdowns since 1976, according to Politifact, a non-profit, non-partisan fact-checking website operated by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists.

After 17 years without a shutdown, President Barack Obama, a Democratic-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled House failed to reach an agreement on spending, resulting in a two-week shutdown in 2013.

During the presidency of Donald Trump, there were two shutdowns, a two-day gap in January 2018 and a 34-day closure from late December 2018 to late January 2019. The latter was easily the longest on record. In the 2018-2019 shutdown, some departments and agencies were able to continue their work because their funding had already been enacted, but most saw funding lapse and went into shutdown mode.

Why are we facing a shutdown this time?

The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed all 12 standard appropriations bills with bipartisan support. But the House has not, despite the efforts of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

So far, McCarthy has been unable to find a solution that can win near-unanimous support among Republicans. The House Republican majority has a five-seat edge, and a relatively small band of the most conservative members is seeking deeper cuts than more moderate members of their conference are willing to support. In a law enacted earlier this year, McCarthy and Biden agreed to set spending caps, but some conservatives rejected that agreement and have said they want to lower those caps further.

McCarthy could probably pass legislation with the support of both House Republicans and Democrats, but doing so could put his speakership at risk. Members of the conservative wing could put his continued leadership up for a vote at any time, and he might not have the votes to survive it.

President Joe Biden is opposed to deep federal cuts, and even many Senate Republicans are skeptical of the House conservatives’ approach. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Republicans to come to an agreement, saying Sept. 19 that government shutdowns have “always been a loser for Republicans, politically.”

And so it goes…politics in our times.

Meanwhile, what does a shutdown mean for us?

During a shutdown, some government functions may continue, either because Congress has already passed a spending bill for a particular department, an agency relies on funding other than congressional appropriations or a function is considered vital for the safety of human life or the protection of properties.

However, many activities cease for as long as a shutdown lasts. Here are just a few activities that have stopped during one or more of the past shutdowns, as collected by the Congressional Research Service and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

•New patients were not accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, and hotline calls about diseases went unanswered.

•The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ceased disease surveillance.

•Recruitment and testing of federal law enforcement officials stopped, in one case including the hiring of 400 border patrol agents.

•National Park Service sites and national museums and monuments closed to visitors.

•Visa and passport services stopped.

•Inspections for food, consumer products, workplace safety, hazardous waste sites and drinking water infrastructure could not be carried out.

•The Internal Revenue Service couldn’t verify income and Social Security numbers, potentially delaying mortgage and loan approvals.

•Travelers faced longer waits at airports as unpaid security screeners and air traffic controllers exhibited higher absentee rates.

The mail will keep coming because the U.S. Postal Service is not dependent on federal appropriations for its day-to-day operations.

Because of a constitutional prohibition against cutting judicial pay, judges and Supreme Court justices would keep collecting paychecks. Other court staff may need to wait for their paychecks until the shutdown ends.

Oh, and our congressional and senate leaders will continue to get paid.  Go figure.