Many current Ohio University students were toddlers the last time the federal government shut down, 17 years ago.
The shutdown furloughs more than 800,000 government employees, according to several news reports, leaving them on unpaid suspension until the federal government decides how to appropriate its budgeting priorities.
“None of this is fair to you,” President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to Americans released by the White House on Tuesday.
The Republican-controlled House passed a version of the budget that would delay some provisions of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” but the Democratic-controlled Senate shot the bill down.
And Obama has repeatedly said he would veto a budget bill that derailed the health care law in any way.
In a speech Monday evening, as the clock ticked closer to midnight and a shutdown, Obama said: “One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election.”
Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, disagreed, saying the Affordable Care Act is responsible for some of the country’s slow economic growth.
“The fact that nobody knows what the rules are, employers are scared to death to hire new employees…” Boehner said. “This law is not ready for primetime.”
Government funding expired Oct. 1 at midnight, and when members of Congress failed to pass even a temporary budget, the government shut down.
“Congress generally has to stop governing by crisis,” Obama said in a speech at the Rose Garden on Tuesday.
The most affected entities include the EPA, the USDA, national forests, as well as presidential libraries and the vast majority of NASA — which will halt the Curiosity rover mission on Mars.
“Essential Services,” such as air-traffic controllers, overseas military personnel, emergency service employees, secret service agents and National Weather Service Meteorologists will be working throughout the shutdown.
The President and Congress will continue to receive paychecks, but “non-essential” White House Staff and Congressional aides might be furloughed as well.
Government employees are also prohibited for doing business outside the office and could face termination if they choose not to obey.
Officials from Wayne National Forest were unavailable for comment, but left a message on their website confirming their temporary closure results from the government shutdown.
A link in Wayne National Forest’s website directs users to the USDA’s website for more information; however, the USDA’s website is inaccessible because of the shutdown.
Post Office employees will be returning to work because despite federal oversight, the post office funds itself, said Tony Arocho, an employee at the Post Office on the fourth floor of Baker University Center.
“We’re wholly subsidized by what we sell in stamps or postage,” Arocho. “We don’t actually get any of our budget from the federal government.”
ld311710@ohiou.edu
@LucasDaprile
