Gov shuts down tomorrow

[dryheat]

Lots of departments could shut down including the border patrol. Who'll hand out the water?

[dogtag]

80% of Government Agencies need to be shut down - permanently

[Allen]

80% of Government Agencies need to be shut down - permanently

That's why they try to avoid shutdowns.

They don't like it exposed that so many gov't departments aren't needed or missed. That's why they attack things that affect the taxpayers the most like shutting down parks and delaying SS payments.

If you'll notice there's no mention of delaying welfare payments or their own paychecks.

[dryheat]

If maintaining an ant farm is more important than the usual housekeeping. Even kids know when it's time to let it go. They are young and can make abrupt decisions. Which leaves us in the dust.
If my ant farm analogy is anywhere close to what is going on today there will be more ants than there were.

[Mark in Ottawa]

At one point in my career I did the Business Continuity Plan for a portion of a Department of the Canadian Government. The process for developing such a plan is pretty standard and is almost certainly the same as the process used by the US Government. Each Department or agency identifies every branch or function or unit for which it is responsible and then determines if that function is critical over a fixed time period (normally 30 days) or if that function can be closed down. In the event of a catastrophe (say an earthquake or flood), the non-critical functions are closed down and priority is given to maintaining the critical functions. For example, in the event of an earthquake, if the buildings that house a non critical function are intact and the buildings housing a critical function is destroyed, the critical function will take over the facilities of the non critical function

To provide some examples, in virtually all cases, a department's audit and evaluation function will be deemed non-critical but its procurement functions will, in part, be deemed critical. Its operational functions may also be deemed non-critical. Again for example, a Department or Agency whose function involves some sort of licensing or approval would be totally non-critical whereas a department involved in law enforcement or security would see its operational units deemed critical but many of its administrative functions deemed non-critical. When it comes to functions such as processing salaries, that is very much a political decision. A technocrat would say non-critical while an employee would say critical.

When it comes to approval for funding of the government as a whole, I actually do have some experience. The first month that I started to work after graduating from university the Parliamentary opposition refused to vote money and the entire Public Service was ordered not to issue pay checks to staff. I had colleagues who lived paycheck to paycheck and the distress level was serious. I worked as a field construction engineer at Toronto International Airport and my survey staff were seriously talking about pawning their survey instruments in order to fund their mortgages. Fortunately in Canada there is a backstop in that the Governor General can issue what is known as a Governor General's Warrant that will authorize temporary funding. As far as I know, the US does not have this sort of safety valve