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Casualties of the Last Government Shutdown: Health, Public Safety, Tourism, Lightbulbs

According to the U.S. Antideficiency Act, federal agencies and programs must stop operating if and when their funding is not further appropriated by Congress. That's exactly "what could happen":http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/reid-says-impasse...
Yosemite National Park could be shutdown again.

According to the U.S. Antideficiency Act, federal agencies and programs must stop operating if and when their funding is not further appropriated by Congress. That’s exactly what could happen starting this weekend. An untold number of operations, from the Office of Management and Budget to an arctic ice study would be closed or delayed, while “essential” life-or-death services, like the mail, air traffic control, and food inspections would continue. For the nearly 1 million employees expected to be furloughed, it will take an act of Congress to pay them later.

But this won’t be painless. The last two major U.S. government shutdowns happened in 1995: on Nov. 13-19 and again on Dec. 16, 1995. The second one lasted for 21 days, until Jan. 6, 1996. Several hundred thousand workers were furloughed, the U.S. economy took a severe hit, and certain groups that rely on government support, like veterans and American Indians, were disproportionately effected.

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In a 2004 Congressional report on the second shutdown, “Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Effects, and Process,” (pdf) Kevin Kosar documents the particular impacts on the public.

Health

New patients were not accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ceased disease surveillance (information about the spread of diseases, such as AIDS and flu, were unavailable); hotline calls to NIH concerning diseases were not answered; and toxic waste clean-up work at 609 sites stopped, resulting in 2,400 "Superfund" workers being sent home.

Law Enforcement/Public Safety

Delays occurred in the processing of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives applications by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; work on more than 3,500 bankruptcy cases was suspended; cancellation of the recruitment and testing of federal law-enforcement officials occurred, including the hiring of 400
border patrol agents; and delinquent child-support cases were suspended.

Parks/Museums/Monuments

Closure of 368 National Park Service sites (loss of 7 million visitors) occurred, with local communities near national parks losing an estimated $14.2 million per day in tourism revenues; and closure of national museums and monuments (estimated loss of 2 million visitors) occurred.

Visas/Passports

20,000-30,000 applications by foreigners for visas went unprocessed each day; 200,000 U.S. applications for passports went unprocessed; and U.S. tourist industries and airlines sustained millions of dollars in losses.

American Indian/Other Native Americans

All 13,500 Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees were furloughed; general assistance payments for basic needs to 53,000 BIA benefit
recipients were delayed; and estimated 25,000 American Indians did not receive timely payment of oil and gas royalties.

American Veterans

Major curtailment in services, ranging from health and welfare to finance and travel was experienced.

Federal Contractors

Of $18 billion in Washington area contracts, $3.7 billion (over 20%) were managed by agencies affected by the funding lapse;10 the National Institute of Standards, was unable to issue a new standard for lights and lamps, scheduled to be effective January 1, 1996; and employees of federal contractors were furloughed without pay.

Read some predictions of the effects of our own looming shutdown at the Times, or see the Times’ infographic.