Mother Jones
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The government will shut down at midnight unless President Obama and Congress can agree on a temporary resolution to continue funding federal agencies. (Spoiler: They probably won’t.)
Here’s a quick guide to who and what will be most affected:
Anyone who might get sick: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would lack funding to support its annual flu vaccination program.
Military personnel: Barring last-minute congressional action, members of the armed forces would have their paychecks put on hold while they continue to work.
People who use boats: The Coast Guard will cut back on routine patrols and navigation assistance.
Civilian defense employees: 400,000 Department of Defense employees will be given unpaid vacations.
Family members of fallen soldiers: Death benefits for military families will be delayed.
Gun owners: During the 1990s shutdown, applications for gun permits were delayed due to furloughs at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Trees: Hundreds of US Forest Service workers face furloughs in California during peak forest fire season.
Visa applicants: Furloughs at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs mean tens of thousands of visa applications are put on hold.
People traveling abroad: A shutdown would cause delays in the processing of passport applications.
Sick people: The National Institutes of Health will not admit new patients unless ordered by the director.
Factory workers: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will halt regular inspections.
Hikers: All 401 National Park Service sites will be closed.
People who make money off tourists: Shuttered national parks are bad news for the hotels, restaurants, and other attractions that feed off them.
Small business loan applicants: The Small Business Administration will furlough 62 percent of its workforce.
Employers: The Department of Homeland Security’s e-Verify program will be offline for the duration of the shutdown.
Fountains: 45 of them will lose water.
People applying for mortgages: The Federal Housing Administration and the USDA won’t guarantee new loans.
Oil and gas exploration: The Bureau of Land Management will stop processing permits for oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
Chemical site facility security: Funding for Department of Homeland Security regulatory program ends October 4.
FOIA requests: The Social Security Administration says it won’t respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests during the shutdown.
Docents: All Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, DC, will be closed.
@CuriosityRover: 98 percent of NASA’s staff will be furloughed, and the agency’s website and live-streams will go dark.
Renewable energy permits: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will stop all new offshore renewable-energy projects.
Campers: People living (or vacationing) in national parks and forests will have 48 hours to relocate.
Animal voyeurs: Watch the National Zoo’s Panda-cam while you still can.
Native Americans: The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement will suspend oversight of active and abandoned coal mines “primarily in Tennessee and on Indian lands.”
Pesticide regulators: The Environmental Protection Agency will all but shut down at midnight.
Veterans pensions: The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will run out of funding for regular payment checks after a few weeks.
US Geological Survey researchers: The agency would stop most new scientific research and water analysis.
Disability payments: Although the VA will continue to provide medical care, disability payments may also be disrupted after a few weeks.
Winery permits: Couldn’t they take the wine coolers instead?
Ponies: The Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse and burro adoption programs would cease.
Infectious disease surveillance: The CDC will be unable to track outbreaks and monitor infectious diseases at a local level.
People on food assistance: The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will stop making payments on October 1.
Food inspections: The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration warned of “inability to investigate alleged violations” due to a lack of funding; food imports will also go unexpected.
Automobile recall inspectors: “Routine defects and recall information from manufacturers and consumers would not be reviewed,” according to the Department of Transportation.
Food and drug safety research: The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, will furlough 52 percent of its staff.
ARPA-E: The Department of Energy’s cutting-edge research arm—and one of the crowning legacies of the stimulus—will shut down, putting projects such as “squirtable batteries” on hold.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: The agency could furlough more than 92 percent of its employees next week, with much of the remaining staff handling inspections.
People without heat: If the shutdown persists, it could affect the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funds heating assistance programs.
Consumers: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will furlough 652 of its 680 employees and maintain only a “bare minimum level of oversight and surveillance” to stop fraudulent practices.
People trying to pay taxes: The Internal Revenue Service will shutter its tax hotline, and stop processing tax payments.
College students: Cutbacks at the Department of Education could slow Pell grant and student-loan payments.
Economists: The Bureau of Economic Analysis will cut back on its data collection.
Welfare recipients: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—welfare—runs out of funding on October 1, although individual states may pick up the tab.
Head Start: The child development program, already hammered by the effects of sequestration, will stop doling out new grants on October 1.
Air monitoring: A 94 percent reduction in staff won’t leave the EPA much room to enforce its new carbon regulations.
Golf: Courses at National Park Service sites will close for the shutdown. So at least we have that going for us.
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