Fiddling while Rome burns

[resqgeek]

Our elected "leaders" are suffering from an acute lack of any ability to actually demonstrate any leadership.  We are now in the second week of the third quarter of the Federal fiscal year, and we still do not have a Federal budget.  The government has been operating on temporary spending authorizations thus far, but the current one expires at midnight Friday night, and Congressional leaders have indicated that no further extensions are forthcoming.  We will have a budget, or the government will close.  With just over 48 hours left to the deadline, the budget negotiations appear to be stalled, and a Federal shutdown seems likely.

The last time our politicians played this game was 1995.  Clinton was President and Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, and the resulting closure was 21 days long.  My office remained open through the closure, in part because we generate our own revenue through user fees, rather than rely upon tax revenue allocated from Congress.  To my recollection, as the deadline loomed that time, we were informed early and often that we would remain open, so that I don't remember being concerned on a personal level.

This time, there has been exactly NO information coming from our agency leaders, which I find deeply disturbing.  The contrast to what I remember from last time worries me.  It makes me think that I may well find myself on an unpaid vacation next week.  Even my supervisors are in the dark.  I spoke with one of them yesterday, and he was as frustrated by the lack of information as I was.  He said that it feels like the administration doesn't want to discuss details about a possible shutdown because they don't want to sound like they're admitting it could happen!  I've seen reports in the news media that suggest elements of my agency may remain open, but that just feels like a rumor in the absence of any official information.

If we have a complete failure of leadership and the government does shut down, it is going to create widespread hardship among Federal employees.  The current political climate on Capitol Hill is significantly less friendly to Federal employees that it was in 1995, when furloughed employees were given back pay for the closure period when the budget was finally approved.  That is less likely to happen this time.

Meanwhile, the politicians continue to spew rhetoric and show little, if any, concern for the impact a shutdown will have, both on employees and on the public, who would feel the impact in the reduction in services provided by the Federal Government.  These are real people, with real lives, and our elected representatives are playing politics with them.

Comments

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Hope all works out. We're a little concerned about the impact on our trip, with National Parks closing and who knows what else shutting down.

[resqgeek]

Finally got an e-mail yesterday afternoon...My agency has sufficient revenue that is not linked to this year's budget to remain open for 6 business days in the event of a shutdown. That's good news for my colleagues and me, but it still leaves an awfully large number of people potentially without paychecks next week. Not to mention the difficulties it creates for those that use the services provided by the government.

The Convention planning committee is scrambling to pull together a contingency plan, just in case the government is closed during the convention and we can get into the Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, etc.

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Crikey! Yes, that would put a dent in the plans!