US Government shuts down
Every year, a budget for the federal government is passed for the following fiscal year – Oct.1 to Sept. 30. This year the government failed to come to a consensus on a bill to fund the government and many federal agencies are officially shut down, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
“So what’s going on now is there is a political deadlock over whether the Affordable Care Act should be funded,” said political science professor Michael Lyons. “The Republicans have never liked the law. The Republicans are trying to block funding for the law by passing a budget that deletes the funding for the Affordable Care Act and the Affordable Care Act only by continuing appropriation for all the other programs.”
Lyons said Republicans are giving Democrats two options – funding nothing at all, or fund every other program but the ACA.
Looming threats may be in the near future for USU students and are already here for some.
The following are five ways students might be affected by the government shutdown.
1. Federal employees may be furloughed
Any non-essential employees working for federal programs were told not to come back to work until further notice.
Sadie Daniel is a cadet in the Army ROTC program and enlisted in the National Guard as a part-time employee. Because she and her colleagues are considered non-essential employees, their work has been cancelled and they’ve been left without pay.
“Drill is when I go down to my base, one weekend a month, two days out of the month,and we get about $200,” Daniel said. “A lot of us depend on that for rent.”
Daniel’s next drill was scheduled for this weekend.
2. The Women, Infant and Children program is shut down
WIC is a nutrition program under the Utah Department of Health that helps pregnant women, new mothers and young children eat well and stay healthy. Any vouchers issued before Oct. 1 will still be honored, but no new vouchers will be given until the government shutdown ends.
WIC clinics also offer food and nutritional education classes for mothers to keep their families healthy. Those classes and any other advising are closed.
3. Vacationing in a national park? Not anymore.
All national parks, including the five in Utah – Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef – are closed and no one will be admitted as long as the government shutdown continues. Anyone planning a vacation to West Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon or Washington, D.C. will have to make other arrangements.
State parks have also been affected. The majority of Forest Service employees have been furloughed – there are no park rangers on site. Campgrounds are also closed, though state parks, like Logan Canyon, are open to hunting, fishing, hiking and driving.
4. Federal loan applications may take longer to process
Common federal loans include small business loans, Pell grants, direct student loans and research grants. Money already allocated and given won’t be touched, but current applications will take longer to process because 95 percent of the Department of Education’s full-time workforce was furloughed. Should the shutdown continue for more than a couple weeks, the application process will be slowed dramatically.
“As far as I (understand), funding for things like Pell grants is not going to be touched by this – it would be down the road, I would think,” Lyons said. “USU gets tremendous amount of federal research money. Again, I think the funding for this year is already in the pipeline, so I don’t think that’s adversely affected. But the processing of grant applications and the allocation of funding for next year would certainly be on the chopping block, and that creates a great deal of uncertainty for people doing research sponsored by grants.”
5. Permits to carry a gun won’t be issued
Hunting is a popular sport is Utah, and many enthusiasts who recently applied for a permit to carry a gun will not be issued any during the shutdown.
Lyons said he doesn’t think the shutdown will last more than a couple weeks. The last federal government shutdown, in 1995 and 1996, was 28 days long.
Twitter: @daniellekmanley