Trump administration advises federal agencies to prepare for 'limited' government shu

Trump administration advises federal agencies to prepare for 'limited' government shutdown

Michael Collins and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY Published 7:15 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2018

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is advising federal agencies to start preparing for a government shutdown as a midnight deadline nears and plans for a two-year spending bill hit a snag.

The Office of Management and Budget sent guidance to agencies Thursday evening to prepare for a “limited shutdown” of perhaps a few hours while Congress gives final approval to the spending bill.

That shutdown would be “a pain but hopefully not consequential,” said OMB communications director John Czwartacki.

The advisory to federal agencies came after Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative Kentucky Republican and one-time presidential contender, temporarily blocked a Senate vote on a sweeping bipartisan budget deal on Thursday — a move that could force Congress to miss a midnight funding deadline and trigger a partial government shutdown.

The government will run out of money at midnight unless Congress passes the budget deal.

If the government shuts down, it would mark the second time in less than a month that federal agencies have been shuttered because Congress could not reach an agreement to keep them open.

The last shutdown was triggered early Jan. 20, when Congress failed to pass a short-term spending bill. The shutdown ended three days later, when lawmakers passed a bill to keep the government open through Thursday.

The impact of another shutdown would be minimal, unless it drags on for several days, said Stan Collender, a federal budget expert.

“There technically would be a government shutdown at midnight but no one would notice until about 9 o’clock the next morning,” Collender said. “...They’ve got until the next morning before it would have an effect.”

As long as lawmakers and the Trump administration knew the impasse would be resolved by noon Friday or sooner, they would probably not close federal agencies or furlough workers, Collender said.

“They would probably tell everyone, ‘It’s going to get resolved, so plan on coming into the office anyway,’” he said.

What impact would the public see?

“The answer is maybe nothing,” Collender said. “The Trump administration hinted with the last shutdown that they’d keep the national parks open… That’s really the most immediate impact. If the parks are open, then no one would notice” unless it dragged on passed Sunday.

Contributing: Gregory Korte

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...own/321883002/

This craziness by the DemoQuacks that raises domestic spending when you raise military spending is insanity. The need for military spending to keep our military forces and equipment ready and in good operating condition to protect our military personnel so they can defend our nation has absolutely nothing to do with other domestic spending. I'm not surprised that we need another $80 billion for military, I think that's the number I read. There are many articles and reports out that much of our equipment is old, without parts to repair and keep in safe operating condition, and other problems exist, obviously in Navy Training with all the accidents that have shut down carriers, unheard of things happening, not once but often. There are definitely big issues in our military and defense departments.

So what the DemoQuacks are demanding is in return for approval of the $80 billion I'm sure we need to jump start fixes in our military, is we must also spend $63 billion more on domestic spending??!!! For what???