US govt shutdown: How the logjam affects different departments, services

Visitors to national parks will be prevented from using the full-service restrooms. Tourists won’t be able to get into the National Air and Space Museum after Sunday. The Internal Revenue Service will stop issuing refunds, but it will also stop conducting audits.

At first glance, the tangible consequences of the latest government shutdown may seem less than overwhelming. After all, the mail will still get delivered, airport control towers will still be staffed and the border patrol will continue to guard the country. But in ways large and small, the shutdown that began at midnight Friday could touch almost every aspect of American life.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will stop investigating new victim complaints and taking fresh action against suspected wrongdoers. The National Labor Relations Board will stop investigating charges of workers’ rights being violated. The Bureau of Land Management will stop issuing permits for oil and gas drilling. The Federal Aviation Administration will stop issuing approvals for drones. 

The Justice Department will suspend civil litigation. The government will stop issuing Social Security cards, and anyone trying to visit a US military cemetery overseas will find themselves barred at the gate.

Agencies have no shortage of options for declaring some of what they do exempt from the shutdown. Government functions that don’t depend on annual appropriations from Congress, for example activity financed by user fees or multi-year funds, will continue; so will activity that Congress has specifically exempted. Perhaps the largest exemption is any function deemed “necessary for safety of human life or protection of property”.

For as long as it continues, the shutdown demonstrates the nearly endless ways in which the federal government has come to affect the economy, the financial sector, the workplace and the environment.

Treasury

The Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, will send home more than 83 per cent of its 88,268 workers.

About 1,000 employees will stay in place to manage debt, monitor domestic and international financial markets and policy coordination. Another 2,800 workers are exempt from the shutdown to avoid any disruptions with debt borrowing functions, debt collection, investment, debt accounting and Social Security disbursements.

White House

The Executive Office of the President will be dramatically pared down, according to a memo released on Friday night. The memo called for reducing the total number of workers in the office to 659, out of about 1,715 people on staff.

Securities and Exchange Commission

Operations at the Securities and Exchange Commission are set to be sharply curtailed. 

Despite collecting fees from participants in the markets it regulates, Wall Street’s main regulator will shrink its staff to about 300 employees from almost 4,600, according to an agency plan posted in December.

The SEC plans to keep operating its Edgar corporate-filing system. But it won’t approve registrations for investment advisers, issue interpretive guidance, or review many pending applications or registrations for new financial products.

At the 675-person Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the country’s main swaps regulator, the vast majority of activity will likewise grind to a halt. 

Business and economy

The shutdown is likely to postpone the release of market-moving economic data.

Workplace safety and labour

Many programmes at the Department of Labor designed to help workers will stop. Other federal offices designed to protect workers’ rights will also close their doors.

Energy and environment

Oil, gas and coal companies should see little impact on day-to-day operations, as several federal agencies dip into non-lapsing appropriations and use exemptions to ensure most permits keep flowing and inspectors don’t stop examining drilling rigs and coal mines.

Transportation

The transportation system will function at close to its normal level, at least initially.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s air-traffic division will continue guiding flights and the Transportation Security Administration will operate airport security checkpoints, according to the agencies’ plans.

Health

About half the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services will be furloughed, according to a plan posted on the department’s website Friday. The resulting changes will reverberate across a range of functions that affect the average person.

Law enforcement, courts

The law exempts from the shutdown those employees who are deemed necessary to protect life or property. Most types of law enforcement and criminal justice fit into that category.

National security and foreign affairs 

At the Defense Department, military personnel are expected to report for duty, but won’t get paid until the shutdown ends. As for civilian workers, those performing activities excepted from the shutdown, such as protecting property or lives or supporting combat operations, will likewise have to work; the rest can stay home. That doesn’t mean the department isn’t affected.

A shutdown can mean halting maintenance of weapons and other defence systems. Payments also stop for a range of services, including everything from money to contractors to death benefits for families of those killed in the line of duty. Another casualty of a shutdown: at military bases around the country, so-called commissaries — what civilians might call grocery stores — will shut down, a complication for families at remote locations.

The effects of a shutdown on foreign and trade policy may be minimal.