By Ed Sterling.
At midnight on Oct. 1, the federal government shut down for the first time in 17 years, when the U.S. House and U.S. Senate did not agree on an appropriations bill or continuing resolution to fund fiscal year 2014 at an estimated cost of $3.8 trillion.
Before the shutdown, to prepare Texas, Gov. Rick Perry on Sept. 30 delivered a statement that included this sentence: “In anticipation of the federal government’s looming shutdown, I directed state agencies that will be affected by the suspension of federal funding to develop contingency plans to prioritize essential functions and use existing budget transfer authority to allow these services to Texans to continue until Washington gridlock ends.”
Now, “shutdown” suggests that whatever is federally funded would cease to function, but some federal agencies or personnel within certain agencies that are considered essential were ordered by the Obama administration to stay on the job Oct. 1, and in the days following, more were called back to work.
While the Republican Party-controlled House did pass an appropriations bill containing language to defund the Affordable Care Act, the Democratic Party-controlled Senate stripped the defunding measure from the House bill. Further negotiations proved unsuccessful.
Before Oct. 1, President Obama promised to veto legislation to defund the health care law and urged the Congress to pass a budget that funds the government “with no partisan strings attached.”
The standoff could end this week or go on indefinitely. The next big deadline facing Congress is Oct. 17, the date when the federal government reaches its debt limit of $16.8 trillion. If no deal to increase the debt limit is reached by then, the United States will default on its loans and its credit rating may be downgraded, making it harder and costlier to borrow from other nations. Two nations holding U.S. debt to the tune of over $1 trillion each are China and Japan. Some in Congress say raising the debt limit is a do-or-die issue, while others don’t seem moved by the prospect of a default.
Ed Sterling works for the Texas Press Association and follows the Legislature for the organization.
