The government partially shut down Saturday at midnight after the House and Senate failed to pass a spending bill. President Trump had insisted he would not sign any spending bill that did not include $5 billion for the border wall.
The partial shutdown won’t have much effect on your holiday plans. The post office will stay open, so gift and holiday card stragglers can still put them in the mail. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents would still work, and air travel would continue virtually unaffected.
Government employees who are considered “essential,” such as Secret Service agents and Customs and Border Patrol agents and U.S. troops deployed at the border, would still be working. They will eventually get paid for the days they worked during the shutdown, but they won’t be paid until after it ends.
Funding that expired at midnight Saturday covers the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Interior Department, the Departure of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, among some other federal entities.
The Office of Management and Budget — the office still run by incoming acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — has issued guidance to each agency and each agency would develop its own shutdown plan. Federal agencies must halt all “non-essential” discretionary work and so-called non-essential employees must stay home until new funding legislation is signed into law.
Trump says shutdown will last a “very long time”
Mr. Trump tweeted a shutdown could last a “long time” if it happens.
But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders offered no details Friday morning as to how long a “very long time” could be.”
