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Vox
The
hidden costs of the government shutdown
35 ways the shutdown is affecting America, from small-business loans to
alcohol labels.
By Nicole Fallert
Jan 24, 2019
Airport lines are long, national parks are being vandalized: These are
ubiquitous signs of the 34-day partial government shutdown. Nine
federal departments are closed, and hundreds of other government
operations have been scaled back or stopped altogether. They might be
less visible, but they’re no less crucial.
The longest shutdown in American history started because of an impasse
between President Trump and Congress. He demanded $5 billion to fund
the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border, but Democrats
refused. Now 800,000 federal workers are about to miss a second
paycheck, and some workers are refusing to keep working without pay.
As the shutdown enters its second month, its consequences are becoming
more visible in American business and life. Startups in Silicon Valley
are unable to issue IPOs. Indian reservations are not receiving federal
benefits to support daily costs. And thousands of immigration hearings
have been delayed due to closed courts.
The effects are a reminder of how many facets of life the federal
government touches — and how large a hole it can create when it stops
working.
The economy
At the Securities and Exchange Commission, more than 4,000 staff
members are furloughed, delaying initial public offerings for
companies, according to the Associated Press. Highly valued companies
such as Uber and Lyft are waiting for lawyers to review paperwork that
would qualify them to have public stock.
Private firms on Wall Street that help process IPOs are also losing
thousands of dollars due to the stalled offerings of smaller,
cash-strapped companies, according to a report by Ciara Linnane for
MarketWatch.
The Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for helping victims
of identity theft, is shuttered — leaving victims to deal with the
consequences on their own, NBC News reports.
The Small Business Administration has stopped approving routine
small-business loans, forcing some entrepreneurs to resort to
“desperate measures,” the Wall Street Journal’s Ruth Simon found. Some
company owners have stopped their expansion plans; others are
considering more expensive streams of cash.
If you’ve got faulty brakes, don’t call the Consumer Product Safety
Commission. The agency isn’t open to issue recalls or provide reliable
information about unsafe consumer products, according to the Wall
Street Journal’s Heidi Vogt.
A CNN report found that company merger plans are also stalled without
SEC personnel to process asset combinations. Businesses are also
struggling to issue W-2s without the help of the IRS, and to get
answers about new tax law.
Some economic reports concerning housing and retail prices aren’t
coming out, according to Brad McMillan for Forbes. For example, the
monthly Housing Starts report won’t be published until the shutdown
ends. This report by the US Census Bureau gives housing market
forecasts.
Tax season is around the corner, but the IRS is not able to issue W-2
forms or answer employer questions about the new tax law, HR 1.
According to a report by Brian Faler for Politico, refund delays will
be likely this year and could strain middle-class voters who once
supported Trump’s policies. The new tax code is reportedly the most
significant tax change in a generation.
Read Emily Stewart’s report for Vox to learn more about the economic
consequences of the shutdown.
Environment and science
Regular Environmental Protection Agency inspections for pollutants have
stalled, according to the New York Times’s Coral Davenport. So if, for
example, hazardous wastewater were flowing from a water treatment
plant, no one would be there to detect the issue. According to the
Times, the EPA conducts more than 10,000 inspections per year and was
already behind before the shutdown started.
Trash and human waste is building up in national parks like Joshua
Tree, Vox’s Aditi Shrikant reported. While the parks have been kept
open during the shutdown, volunteers can’t keep up with cleaning
demands and no rangers are on duty if visitors were to encounter danger.
If the shutdown continues into wildfire season, firefighter pay could
be at risk, according to a report by the Associated Press in the
Charlotte Observer. The US Forest Service funds local firefighting
squads, and without government funding, prevention and response units
could join the tens of thousands of “essential” federal employees who
have been working without pay. And wildfire season could come sooner
than you think: In states like Oklahoma, January is the driest month of
the year, with most fires occurring in March or April, the AP reports.
Meanwhile, wildfire recovery efforts in California could soon stall.
NPR reports that local organizations are waiting to apply for grants —
while hoping the delay doesn’t endanger their long-term efforts to
rebuild their communities.
Superfund sites (a.k.a. nuclear waste dumps) are also monitored by the
EPA. According to the Washington Post, residents who live near the
sites have no way of contacting response units if a nuclear accident
were to occur. The agency also had to cancel a pending public hearing
on a $2.5 million plan to clean up contaminated soil.
Researchers monitoring hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean are also
furloughed. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is only
keeping up with regular forecasts, but preemptive storm research has
been paused, according to the Miami Herald’s Jenny Staletovich.
Disrupted scientific research by NOAA on climate change will likely
impact long-term results, says a report by Kendra Pierre-Louis for the
New York Times. Projects tracking global temperatures or natural
disaster costs have been ignored due to closed research labs and
dwindling grant funds.
Other planned or ongoing studies will fail to be conclusive because
laboratories are closed. For example, a three-month US Department of
Agriculture investigation of fungi has been nulled because inconsistent
data can’t be published. The National Science Foundation has no
shutdown contingency plan for allocating grants to scientists. Even
with some private funding, researchers cannot afford to maintain their
work and get reliable results, according to David Malakoff for Science.
Global ice sheets are melting faster than ever, Umair Irfan wrote for
Vox, but Science reports that NASA’s research into the phenomenon is
frozen. The agency’s ice-monitoring satellite was designed to track
world ice loss without interruption, and the shutdown could threaten
the only ongoing record of the change.
Civil penalties for polluters by the EPA were at an 85 percent low this
year, according to a report by Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis for the
Washington Post. The penalties monitor waste and use a financial
incentive to encourage compliance with environmentally friendly
practices.
Immigration
More than 40,000 immigration hearings (and counting) have been canceled
due to the shutdown, according to a report by the Transactional Records
Access Clearing House at Syracuse University. For these people who
legally applied for asylum, there was already a backlog, according to a
CNN report. More than 300 judges have been furloughed as well as
workers hiring new judges. Rescheduling each canceled hearing could
take years, and the true number of people from around the world who are
impacted won’t be known until the shutdown is over.
E-Verify allows companies to check if potential employees are in the US
legally — and it isn’t working without federal funding. A CNN report
said employees can still work even if their verification is delayed,
but it may slow down hiring processes for furloughed workers looking
for new jobs during the shutdown.
The government isn’t even paying Border Patrol, according to a CNN
report. More than 170,000 Department of Homeland Security employees are
working without paychecks, although they claim to support the
president’s mission.
Native American tribes
The Bureau of Indian Affairs didn’t meet this month to settle check
amounts that Native American tribes receive for basic food, health
care, and maintenance services, according to NPR. The per capita checks
from the US government were initially designed as reparations for land
treaties that took property from tribes and now help sustain these
critical services for nearly 2 million Native Americans.
A New York Times report by Mitch Smith and Julie Turkewitz found that
because the Interior Department is shut down, law enforcement officers
on reservations have been working without pay, food distribution is
delayed, wintry roads are not cleared, and courts are not open.
Tribes have lost up to $250,000 per day since the shutdown began,
according to a report by Jenni Monet for CityLab. Families are unable
to afford groceries, gas, and medical payments without this federal
support.
Food and agriculture
While Food and Drug Administration inspections of high-risk food
manufacturing facilities have continued, routine checks on low-risk
facilities have stopped, as Julia Belluz detailed for Vox. The agency
oversees about 80 percent of the country’s food supply. USDA
inspections have continued without interruption.
Right when you’re ready to celebrate the end of dry January, don’t look
for new beer and wine labels. Alcohol producers can’t introduce new
products because the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is
closed, Salvador Hernandez reported for BuzzFeed News. Local makers
will likely lose business because they can’t get the necessary approval
in time to sell their spring batches.
If not wine, it’s water that’s causing local businesses to suffer
losses. According to Liz Weber for The Journal, the US Drought Monitor
is no longer providing open data for farmers so they can plan what and
when to grow in the upcoming season. A report by Jack Healy and Tyler
Pager for The New York Times found that farmers are losing money
waiting for loans to pay off operational debts — all after they’ve
already lost billions of dollars via Trump’s trade wars.
Furloughed workers are struggling to even access food. The Department
of Agriculture regularly funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (food stamps). SNAP is only guaranteed funds through February,
as Tara Golshan wrote for Vox. The New York Times’s Glenn Thrush found
that some workers have turned to a local shelter or pantry, but these
organizations are also struggling to meet a higher demand for services.
Housing
Thrush also found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development
is struggling to regularly subsidize payments for home renters. Renters
are being asked to pay money they don’t have to make up the difference
because the government isn’t.
The Rural Housing Service, which issues home loans in rural America, is
shut down and can’t process assistance to homeowners, according to Lisa
Rein, Juliet Eilperin, and Jeff Stein at the Washington Post. Closing
the RHS’s $30 billion operation threatens thousands of families across
the nation and further drives inequality in housing accessibility.
The same Washington Post report found that housing for domestic
violence victims is also subsidized by the Department of Housing and
Urban Development, and furloughed HUD staffers can’t access money for
the nonprofits and shelters that support these victims because computer
systems are down.
Crime and security
A report by Tucker Higgins for CNBC found the FBI has stalled
interviews of child victims and indictments for homicides and child
sexual assault prosecutions. Agents are working without pay, although
much of the FBI’s work has been delayed.
Government websites are less protected from hackers during the
shutdown, according to Laura Sydell at NPR. The likelihood of
cybersecurity risks is higher — and already happening. Security
certificates have expired, fake copy sites have appeared, and webpages
are missing.
Prison officials have also been working without pay, and it seems like
things are getting bad. Ellie Kaufman and Gregory Wallace reported for
CNN that worker security and basic resources for prisoners have been
threatened by the shutdown. Regular programming, including visitation
and education in the prisons, has also been cut back due to staff and
supply shortages, and some inmates have gone on a hunger strike in
protest, per CNN.
Unions representing aviation workers issued a joint statement warning
of “unprecedented” risks to airplane security and safety operations.
Air traffic controllers and TSA agents are federal employees who are
working without pay — and more and more of these workers have been
absent from the workplace as the shutdown drags on. Some air traffic
controllers may even be taking the opportunity to retire despite major
staffing shortages. Vox’s Shrikant reported that TSA agents haven’t
even received bonuses they were promised for missing wages. Some major
airports have closed security checkpoints, forcing passengers to wait
in long lines.
Read this and other articles at Vox
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