Introduction
Shutdowns emanate from the lack of Congress to pass the annual federal budget within the legal timeframe. The constitution state that federal funds for every expenditure to have the authorization of Congress, having been approved by the U.S. president. The federal budget process and the United States federal government have their operations within a fiscal year (F.Y.), which starts from October first to September thirtieth midnight.
In cases where the federal government does not enact every spending bill, which composes the annual federal budget that extends expenditures over the required fiscal year, a shutdown occurs. This may also result when the president vetoes a certain spending bill, which may cause particular ‘non-essential’ governmental roles to stop when Congress does not authorize their funding. When such cases occur, there occurs a government shutdown result.
Federal Government Shutdown in 2011
F.Y. 2011 spending authority terminated on the fourth march. Following this, on nineteenth February, the House passed a spending bill for the other part of FY2011 to decrease federal discretionary expenditure by sixty-one million dollars. On February twenty-second, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader who is also a Nevada Democrat, said that he would extend the current spending on the return of the senate from Presidents’ Day recess to allow the Congress to evaluate F.Y. 2011 spending bill. On the other hand, John Boehner, the House Majority Leader, an Ohio Republican, had initially declared he would not allow the House extension, which ensued the current funding and indicated a possibility of a shutdown. The two leaders continued their negotiations as Obama maintained that the occurrence of a shutdown could impede economic recovery.
When Congress fails to enact a bill to fund the federal government, the House of Representatives, which comprises mostly of the republicans, force a shutdown. The legislative bodies disagreed on the funding of a budget for federal programs in the pending fiscal period as Barack Obama failed to negotiate a compromise during the White House meeting. ‘Essential employees proceed with working even during the shutdown.
Its effects are especially felt by civilian federal workers who go on leave, except the military, but whose pay is not always paid. The national parks, as well as passport officials, are closed, but the so called ‘emergency personnel’ proceeds with their work. They include the healthcare workers, traffic officials, the military, and border personnel. Congress proceeds to have their pay since it is only modified through direct law.
The Federal Government Shutdown in April 2011 will have varying effects in different sectors of the economy, especially in the Washington area, which houses over three hundred and fifty thousand federal workers, who will cause a loss of an income of six dollars within a week. The shutdown has previously existed within the nation, which has been barely noticeable by everyone other than the federal employees. However, the one that was being anticipated this year caused a lot of pain to the citizens who had been inconvenienced. The over eight hundred thousand ‘non-essential’ workers end up being furloughed and are not be paid.
In programs such as Medicare and Social Security, Citizens faced delays in application, processing. Various sectors, such as healthcare and environmental agencies, e.g., superfund, among others, were affected. The effects of the shutdown could have a personal impact on Social Security, where processing and applying afresh would be impeded. Besides, income tax would delay processing paper tax returns as well as refund.
Citizen’s pay for higher government officials would be affected as they involuntarily take unpaid leave whose end is indefinite. Transportation projects, which fall under the federal funding, fails to be approved while the ones who have gone through becomes idle as the shutdown period is on and are continued on the elapse of the period, often causing more costs. However, the federal agencies have drafted means of dealing with federal government shutdowns as a direction from the office of Management and Budget (OMB) in order to evaluate the processes. The OMB decides the government processes to stop.
The previous shutdowns have upset Washington D.C. Municipal Government since its provision of garbage collection is impeded. The longer it is, the more destruction it results in, especially felt by the economy. The housing market, which overlies on the federal housing authority for funding also, becomes more devastated with lasting shutdowns, especially during mortgage processing. This uncertainty in April affected its sales growth. Moreover, the Small Business Administration would halt loan approvals while tax refunds face a delay. Most importantly, the federal government shutdown causes a bad reputation to the nation as the world watches and sees the weaknesses of the political system within the U.S.
Therefore, they impede the nation as an ally since it depicts its incompetence and unreliability, which reduce business confidence.
Conclusion
No significant destruction is caused to the state if the shutdown could occur for just a few days. Since the state depends on the federal government for funding, avoiding inconveniences has led to scheduling transfers, which are considered before the shutdown. These programs, which depend on this, are Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also are referred to as food stamps.
More application of electronic transfers from the 1995 shutdown makes the evaluation of the effect of shutdown of the programs unclear. In case there is a shutdown, it is hard to fund the programs, which rely on federal funding but which are managed by the state and for state workers whose payment is partly reliant on federal funds. Federal shutdown causes devastation to the already strained state fiscal condition. Length is an important factor to assess any effect of the federal shutdown. A brief one often inconveniences citizens, while an extended one adversely affects the economy as a whole.