Looking for news you can trust? 
 
 Subscribe to our free newsletters. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Update: The midnight deadline came and went without a deal from House Republicans and Senate Democrats (except for one small bill, on military pay). Welcome to the Shutdown. 
 
 The government will shut down at midnight unless President Obama and Congress can agree on a temporary resolution to continue funding federal agencies. (Spoiler: They probably won’t.) 
 
 Here’s a quick guide to who and what will be most affected: 
 
 Anyone who might get sick: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would lack funding to support its annual flu vaccination program. 
 
 Military personnel: Barring last-minute congressional action, members of the armed forces would have their paychecks put on hold while they continue to work. 
 
 People who use boats: The Coast Guard will cut back on routine patrols and navigation assistance. 
 
 Civilian defense employees: 400,000 Department of Defense employees will be given unpaid vacations. 
 
 Family members of fallen soldiers: Death benefits for military families will be delayed. 
 
 Gun owners: During the 1990s shutdown, applications for gun permits were delayed due to furloughs at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 
 
 Trees: Hundreds of US Forest Service workers face furloughs in California during peak forest fire season. 
 
 Visa applicants: Furloughs at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs mean tens of thousands of visa applications are put on hold. 
 
 People traveling abroad: A shutdown would cause delays in the processing of passport applications. 
 
 Sick people: The National Institutes of Health will not admit new patients unless ordered by the director. 
 
 Factory workers: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will halt regular inspections. 
 
 Hikers: All 401 National Park Service sites will be closed. 
 
 People who make money off tourists: Shuttered national parks are bad news for the hotels, restaurants, and other attractions that feed off them. 
 
 Small business loan applicants: The Small Business Administration will furlough 62 percent of its workforce. 
 
 Employers: The Department of Homeland Security’s e-Verify program will be offline for the duration of the shutdown. 
 
 Fountains: 45 of them will lose water. 
 
 People applying for mortgages: The Federal Housing Administration and the USDA won’t guarantee new loans. 
 
 Oil and gas exploration: The Bureau of Land Management will stop processing permits for oil and gas drilling on federal lands. 
 
 Chemical site facility security: Funding for Department of Homeland Security regulatory program ends October 4. 
 
 FOIA requests: The Social Security Administration says it won’t respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests during the shutdown. 
 
 Docents: All Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, DC, will be closed. 
 
 @CuriosityRover: 98 percent of NASA’s staff will be furloughed, and the agency’s website and live-streams will go dark. 
 
 Renewable energy permits: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will stop all new offshore renewable-energy projects. 
 
 Campers: People living (or vacationing) in national parks and forests will have 48 hours to relocate. 
 
 Animal voyeurs: Watch the National Zoo’s Panda-cam while you still can. 
 
 Native Americans: The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement will suspend oversight of active and abandoned coal mines “primarily in Tennessee and on Indian lands.” 
 
 Pesticide regulators: The Environmental Protection Agency will all but shut down at midnight. 
 
 Veterans pensions: The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will run out of funding for regular payment checks after a few weeks. 
 
 US Geological Survey researchers: The agency would stop most new scientific research and water analysis. 
 
 Disability payments: Although the VA will continue to provide medical care, disability payments may also be disrupted after a few weeks. 
 
 Winery permits: Couldn’t they take the wine coolers instead? 
 
 Ponies: The Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse and burro adoption programs would cease. 
 
 Infectious disease surveillance: The CDC will be unable to track outbreaks and monitor infectious diseases at a local level. 
 
 People on food assistance: The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will stop making payments on October 1. 
 
 Food inspections: The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration warned of “inability to investigate alleged violations” due to a lack of funding; food imports will also go uninspected. 
 
 Automobile recall inspectors: “Routine defects and recall information from manufacturers and consumers would not be reviewed,” according to the Department of Transportation. 
 
 Food and drug safety research: The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, will furlough 52 percent of its staff. 
 
 ARPA-E: The Department of Energy’s cutting-edge research arm—and one of the crowning legacies of the stimulus—will shut down, putting projects such as “squirtable batteries” on hold. 
 
 Nuclear Regulatory Commission: The agency could furlough more than 92 percent of its employees next week, with much of the remaining staff handling inspections. 
 
 People without heat: If the shutdown persists, it could affect the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funds heating assistance programs. 
 
 Consumers: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will furlough 652 of its 680 employees and maintain only a “bare minimum level of oversight and surveillance” to stop fraudulent practices. 
 
 People trying to pay taxes: The Internal Revenue Service will shutter its tax hotline, and stop processing tax payments. 
 
 College students: Cutbacks at the Department of Education could slow Pell grant and student-loan payments. 
 
 Economists: The Bureau of Economic Analysis will cut back on its data collection. 
 
 Welfare recipients: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—welfare—runs out of funding on October 1, although individual states may pick up the tab. 
 
 Head Start: The child development program, already hammered by the effects of sequestration, will stop doling out new grants on October 1. 
 
 Air monitoring: A 94 percent reduction in staff won’t leave the EPA much room to enforce its new carbon regulations. 
 
 Golf: Courses at National Park Service sites will close for the shutdown. So at least we have that going for us. ||||| From New York's Liberty Island to Alaska's Denali National Park, the U.S. government closed its doors as a bitter budget fight idled hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halted all but the most critical government services for the first time in nearly two decades. 
 
 National Park Service guide Terry Papavasilis talks with visitors about the Liberty Bell at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013 as the government teeters on the... (Associated Press) 
 
 With hours to go until a possible government shutdown, visitors tour the Rotunda of the. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Capitol officials said today that if a shutdown goes into effect,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A midnight deadline to avert a shutdown passed amid Congressional bickering over whether to scale back President Barack Obama's health care reform law, casting in doubt Americans' ability to get government services ranging from federally-backed home loans to supplemental food assistance for children and pregnant women. 
 
 For many employees of the federal government, the shutdown that began Tuesday meant no more paychecks as they were forced onto unpaid furloughs. For those still working, it meant delays in getting paid. 
 
 Park Ranger and father-to-be Darquez Smith said he already lives paycheck-to-paycheck while putting himself through college. 
 
 "I've got a lot on my plate right now _ tuition, my daughter, bills," said Smith, 23, a ranger at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Ohio. "I'm just confused and waiting just like everyone else." 
 
 The impact of the shutdown was mixed _ immediate and far-reaching for some, annoying but minimal for others. 
 
 In Colorado, where flooding killed eight people earlier this month, emergency funds to help rebuild homes and businesses continued to flow _ but federal worker furloughs were expected to slow it down. 
 
 National Guard soldiers rebuilding washed-out roads would apparently be paid on time _ along with the rest of the country's active-duty military personnel _ under a bill passed hours before the shutdown. Existing Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans' services and mail delivery were also unaffected. 
 
 Other agencies were harder hit _ nearly 3,000 Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors were furloughed along with most of the National Transportation Safety Board's employees, including accident investigators who respond to air crashes, train collisions, pipeline explosions and other accidents. 
 
 Almost all of NASA shut down, except for Mission Control in Houston, and national parks closed along with the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington. Even the zoo's popular panda cam went dark, shut off for the first time since a cub was born there Aug. 23. 
 
 As the shutdown loomed Monday, visitors to popular parks made their frustration with elected officials clear. 
 
 "There is no good thing going to come out of it," said Chris Fahl, a tourist from Roanoke, Indiana, visiting the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky. "Taxpayers are just going to be more overburdened." 
 
 Emily Enfinger, visiting the Statue of Liberty, said politicians need to find a way to work together. 
 
 "They should be willing to compromise, both sides, and it discourages me that they don't seem to be able to do that," she said. "They're not doing their job as far as I'm concerned." 
 
 The shutdown was strangely captivating to Marlena Knight, an Australian visiting Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. She was confounded that the impasse focused on the nation's health care system _ an indispensable service in her home country. 
 
 "We can't imagine not having a national health system," she said. "I just can't believe that this country can shut down over something like a national health system. Totally bizarre, as an Australian, but fascinating." 
 
 It turns out an institution as massive as the federal government takes some time to grind to a total halt: Many federal workers were being permitted to come in Tuesday to change voicemail messages or fill out time cards. But after that, they were under strict orders to do no work, even check their emails. 
 
 With no telling how long the budget standoff will last, even programs not immediately affected could run out of cash. 
 
 Barbara Haxton, executive director of the Ohio Head Start Association, said its preschool learning programs would be in jeopardy if a shutdown lasted more than two weeks. March's automatic budget cuts meant nearly 3,000 children lost access to services and there could be dire consequences if the budget standoff drags on. 
 
 "It's not as though this is a throwaway service. These are the poorest of the poor children," Haxton said. "And our Congressman still gets his paycheck. His pay doesn't stop and his health insurance doesn't stop." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press reporters Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia, Joan Lowy in Washington, D.C., Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky., Terence Chea in San Francisco and Amanda Lee Myers in Cincinnati contributed to this report. ||||| Among the affects of a federal shutdown: delays in processing passport and visa applications, issuing gun permits, continuing U.S. bankruptcy court cases and approving mortgage applications. 
 
 In this Nov. 15, 1995, file photo, a U.S. Park Service police officer stands in front of closed signs at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, during a partial shutdown of the federal government. (Photo: AP file photo) Story Highlights If budget deal is not worked out, federal government will shut down after midnight Monday 
 
 Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments would continue during a shutdown 
 
 About 41 percent of nondefense federal employees would be furloughed 
 
 WASHINGTON – If Democrats and Republicans don't reach a spending deal by midnight Monday, a partial government shutdown will take effect. 
 
 The 2013 fiscal year ends at midnight Monday. Many federal programs and activities will stop beginning Tuesday and won't restart until a new deal is in place. 
 
 Here's a guide to understanding how Congress got to this stage and how a shutdown would affect you. 
 
 Question: Will the entire government come to a standstill if a deal isn't reached? 
 
 Answer: No. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other "entitlement" programs that are funded automatically will escape the worst effects. But government agencies that rely on yearly congressional appropriations will be hit a lot harder. That includes giant agencies such as the Pentagon and smaller ones such as the National Park Service. 
 
 WHERE DO YOU FIT?: Breaking down the Affordable Care Act 
 
 Federal agencies have prepared plans to continue programs they deem critical to maintaining public safety and protecting property despite the shutdown. Employees who perform those critical functions will continue to work and get paid. 
 
 For instance, air traffic controllers and firefighters contracted by the National Forest Service would continue to work, but park rangers and researchers who conduct clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health would be furloughed. 
 
 USA TODAY estimates that about 41 percent of nondefense federal employees will be furloughed, but the remaining 59 percent will continue working. 
 
 Q: Will I still get my mail? 
 
 A: Yes. The U.S. Postal Service isn't funded by taxpayers. Independently financed agencies like the Postal Service won't be affected. 
 
 Q: How did Congress get in this situation? 
 
 A: In a word, partisanship. Differences between Democrats and Republicans are deepening over virtually every issue, and federal spending is the biggest one of all. 
 
 A temporary spending measure -- a continuing resolution, or CR -- approved by the GOP-controlled House on Sept. 20 would have kept the government running until mid-December but would have cut funding to implement the Affordable Care Act. 
 
 The Democratic-majority Senate rejected that plan, designed to gut President Barack Obama's signature health care law. On Friday the Senate approved its own CR that included money for the law known as "Obamacare." 
 
 House leaders are meeting over the weekend to consider their next move. If the House modifies the Senate CR as Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has promised, then the Senate has to approve the amended version before it reaches the White House. 
 
 It's unclear if and when those legislative steps will be fulfilled. Short answer: Things remain in limbo. 
 
 Q: What will be the impact of a shutdown? 
 
 A: All national parks and federal wildlife refuges would be closed for the duration of the shutdown, the Interior Department said Friday. About 9 million visitors were turned away from parks, museums and monuments run by the National Park Service in the mid-1990s, the last time the government shut down temporarily. 
 
 About 40 percent of the nation's 2 million federal workers would be furloughed. Though Congress has approved restoring lost pay retroactively in the past, there's no guarantee lawmakers will do that this time. 
 
 About 1.4 million active-duty military personnel must remain on the job but won't get paid until a new deal is signed into law. Active National Guard units also must continue to work. Most civilian employees of the Defense Department face furloughs. 
 
 Some other possibilities: Delays in processing tens of thousands of passport and visa applications, issuing gun permits, continuing U.S. bankruptcy court cases and approving mortgage applications. 
 
 Many congressional and White House staffers also may have to stay home. But members of Congress and the president are exempt from furloughs 
 
 Q: Has the government been shut down in the past? 
 
 A: Yes. The last one lasted 21 days from Dec. 15, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. It came soon after a five-day shutdown that lasted from Nov. 13-19, 1995. A disagreement over tax cuts between then-President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., precipitated those shutdowns. 
 
 Since 1976, there have been 17 shutdowns, though before the 1980s the government continued operating at reduced levels without furloughing workers. 
 
 Q: Isn't there going to be another showdown over raising the debt limit? 
 
 A: That's highly likely. Republicans, particularly ultraconservative tea party members, argue the debt ceiling shouldn't be raised unless Congress makes sizable spending cuts. 
 
 Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said the government will run out of money around Oct. 17. In addition to using tax revenues, the Obama administration has to borrow more money to pay bills the nation has already racked up. But Congress has to raise the debt limit to allow increased borrowing -- and that permission won't come without another fight. 
 
 If the debt ceiling isn't raised, the U.S. economy will suffer even more that under a shutdown, Obama said Friday. For instance, interest rates on credit cards, student loans and mortgages loans could rise. And the nation's creditworthiness -- and global influence -- would take a beating, experts say, though critics dismiss such talk as hyperbole. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/19IaFCl ||||| The Washington region, home to the largest concentration of federal workers and contractors in the nation, could lose an estimated $200 million a day and could see more than 700,000 jobs take a financial hit if the federal government shuts down Monday night, according to a local economist’s projections. 
 
 And that’s not counting the blow to tourism, one of the region’s economic mainstays, if the Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo, Civil War battlefields and other federally funded attractions are shuttered, said Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis. 
 
 “This is serious,” Fuller said. “The national economy may not notice a shutdown much unless it lasts three or four weeks. But for the Washington area, this is a tsunami.” 
 
 In addition to the economic impact, area residents could also see cuts in federal services: no new applications for benefits such as Medicare, Social Security and child-care subsidies, no new housing or small-business loans, no new clinical trials for research funded by the National Institutes of Health and a murky prognosis for the safety net for those most in need. 
 
 Child-care centers in federal agencies would close, parents said, and child-care workers, who are not employed by the federal government, likewise would be sent home. 
 
 1 of 50 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Behind the scenes of the shutdown debate View Photos Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are scrambling before the Oct. 1 deadline. If a spending plan isn’t passed, many federal agencies will close their doors. Caption Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are scrambling before the Oct. 1 deadline. If a spending plan isn’t passed, many federal agencies will close their doors. Sept. 29, 2013 Cathryn Carroll of the District yells at Republican House members outside the Capitol as they called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to summon the Senate back to vote on their budget bill. The United States is bracing for a partial government shutdown after the White House and congressional Democrats declared that they would reject a bill approved by the Republican-led House to delay implementing President Obama's signature health-care law. Cliff Owen/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Mail will continue to be delivered, as the U.S. Postal Service is an independent agency. Amtrak officials have said trains will continue to run. 
 
 And while the District is the only jurisdiction that could have basic services — such as trash pickup and libraries — halted, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) is attempting to avoid that by declaring every city employee essential, a distinction that could keep them working through a federal shutdown. 
 
 Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) has been pushing a bill in Congress to exempt the city from a potential shutdown, as it did in 1995, when a federal shutdown had what Norton called a “disastrous” impact on the District. 
 
 “It was horrific,” Norton said. “In a shutdown, the garbage does not get picked up, no matter what, for a week. Then you can declare a health emergency.” 
 
 ‘We’re really bleeding’ 
 
 The possible shutdown comes at a time when the region’s economy is weak, said Fuller, the economist. The across-the-board sequestration cuts earlier this year cost the region 26,500 net jobs in August, Fuller said. With furloughs and agencies not filling positions, the $42 billion annual federal payroll is down $2 billion from last year, and federal contracting is down $5 billion. 
 
 “We’re really bleeding,” Fuller said. “A shutdown will have real costs.” 
 
 Fuller, who made his calculations over the weekend thinking that a shutdown would be inevitable, projected that 60 percent of the area’s 377,000 federal workers would be deemed “nonessential” and would stay home. 
 
 View Graphic Countdown to the (possible) shutdown 
 
 Likewise, he projected that the shutdown would affect about 20 percent of the government’s contractors, who receive about $75 billion a year from the federal government. And each person furloughed means less money spent at local businesses or vendors, he said. 
 
 Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said a shutdown would have a disproportionate effect on the Washington region, where the federal government’s presence accounts for one-third of the economy. 
 
 In 1995 and 1996 — when a political impasse between President Bill Clinton and a Republican-controlled House led by Speaker Newt Gingrich resulted in the shutdown of the federal government for three weeks — several appropriations bills had already passed. This time, not a single appropriations bill has made it through Congress, so a shutdown could affect every federal agency in some way. 
 
 Air traffic controllers are considered essential, so planes will fly. But without “nonessential” support staff, those planes could be delayed. Federal benefits may continue to be processed, but with fewer workers to process them, no new applications would be accepted and “serious backlogs” would be expected. 
 
 Lawmakers passed legislation to continue paying active military members, but veterans’ benefits could run out if a shutdown lasts more than a few weeks, administration officials have said. 
 
 Widespread ripple effects 
 
 “The ripple effects of a shutdown can be devastating,” Connolly said. “A federal pullback may mean the difference for state and local governments on whether they can continue Meals on Wheels or hire an additional police officer or do more emergency preparedness training. All of this stuff is under the radar, but it’s very critical to the health of our communities.” 
 
 Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) is concerned about how a shutdown could affect the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the CIA, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies, many of whose employees live in the area. “Congressman Wolf has been saying for weeks that shutting down the government is not a good idea,” said Daniel Scandling, a spokesman for Wolf. 
 
 The Congressional Research Service, in a recent report, said the 1996 federal government shutdowns shuttered national parks and monuments, stopped the processing of passport applications and the visa applications of foreigners, halted new patient enrollments in clinical trials at the NIH, and delayed work on bankruptcy and delinquent child-support cases. 
 
 In 2011, the federal judiciary estimated that it could operate courts for two weeks after a shutdown but that “serious disruptions” would follow. 
 
 The D.C. region could be hit hard by lost income tax revenue from tens of thousands of idled federal workers: Maryland officials estimate the state would lose $5 million a day. Prince George’s County officials say they could lose $270,000 in income tax revenue daily during a shutdown. 
 
 To stave off such effects, local governments have been setting aside pots of money in anticipation of a shutdown. Montgomery County accounted for a possible $60 million loss in revenue in its current budget. Arlington County set aside $3 million, and Fairfax County has $8 million. Maryland and Virginia officials say they are looking at the possibility of tapping reserve funds. ||||| Ominous clouds fill the sky in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Democrats and Republicans are still at a stalemate on funding for the federal government as the shutdown goes into a seventh day. 
 
 Oct. 7, 2013 Ominous clouds fill the sky in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Democrats and Republicans are still at a stalemate on funding for the federal government as the shutdown goes into a seventh day. Mark Wilson/Getty Images 
 
 From federal office buildings to the national parks and memorials, sights around Washington and across the country are closed after Congress failed to pass a funding bill. 
 
 From federal office buildings to the national parks and memorials, sights all around Washington and across the country are closed after Congress fails to pass a funding bill. 
 
 From federal office buildings to the national parks and memorials, sights all around Washington and across the country are closed after Congress fails to pass a funding bill. 
 
 House and Senate lawmakers this week proposed legislation to retroactively pay the roughly 800,000 federal workers who are furloughed because of the partial government shutdown that started Tuesday. 
 
 The House back-pay measure could be up for a floor vote as early as Saturday, according to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who introduced the bill on Tuesday along with sponsor Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.). As of Thursday, 120 lawmakers, including 18 Republicans, had added their names to the measure. 
 
 “Everyone I’ve talked to about this bill seems to be for it,” Wolf said Thursday of his colleagues in the House. 
 
 All of the Republicans who co-sponsored the House measure are from Virginia, a state with a high concentration of federal workers. They include Wolf and Reps. Rob Wittman, Scott Rigell and Randy Forbes. 
 
 On the Senate side, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has proposed nearly identical back-pay legislation, with 15 Democrats, including Sens. Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Mark Warner (Va.) and Tim Kaine (Va.), co-sponsoring the bill. 
 
 If you're not familiar with Congress-ese, take 90 seconds to understand what everyone is talking about. (The Washington Post) 
 
 “Hardworking federal employees did not cause our fiscal crises, nor did they contribute to the legislative gridlock,” Cardin said in a statement. “It is our responsibility to assure these public servants, mostly middle class and struggling to get by like so many other Americans, will be made whole again when it finally ends.” 
 
 No Republicans had co-sponsored the Senate measure as of Thursday. 
 
 Labor groups have commended the two back-pay measures. National Treasury Employees Union president Colleen M. Kelley said in a letter to the sponsors that federal workers are “unsure when they might be able to return to their federal offices, unsure whether or not they will be able to make their next rent or mortgage payment and frustrated and scared about their future.” 
 
 Several other GOP lawmakers this week expressed reservations about the back pay because of the national debt. 
 
 “I think it’s way too early to even consider that, but again, we’re $7 trillion more in the hole now than we were [during the shutdowns in fiscal 1996],” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told the Huffington Post on Wednesday. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) voiced similar concerns, according to the report. 
 
 Neither of the lawmakers’ offices responded to requests for comment on Thursday. 
 
 Congress has granted back-pay to furloughed federal workers after each of the past 16 shutdowns that have taken place since 1976. 
 
 Congress found itself at an impasse this week as the government’s previous temporary budget was about to expire. 
 
 Democrats refused to consider the last spending bills that House Republicans put forward because the legislation would have delayed the start of certain key provisions in the new health-care law, commonly known as Obamacare. 
 
 Wolf supported the GOP measures but said Thursday that he is pressing for a short-term budget without health-care amendments now that the shutdown has taken effect. He said he has no regrets about backing the proposed Obamacare delays. 
 
 Wolf furloughed all but three members of his staff this week, even though members of Congress can exempt their employees from time off by designating them as “essential” workers who must remain on the job during shutdowns. 
 
 “Everybody in my office is essential, but I felt that if that was what was being done by other agencies, we should follow it too,” he said. “It’s a very difficult thing.” 
 
 On Monday, President Obama signed a bill guaranteeing that members of the military and some of the civilian workers who support them would be paid during the shutdown. ||||| America 
 
 Federal Workers Head Back To Jobs As Government Reopens 
 
 i itoggle caption Win McNamee/Getty Images Win McNamee/Getty Images 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of federal workers on furlough for two weeks are going back to work after Congress approved a late-night deal Wednesday to fund the government and stave off default. 
 
 "Now that the bill has passed the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, the president plans to sign it tonight and employees should expect to return to work in the morning," Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement late Wednesday. She told employees to check the Office of Personnel Management's website for updates. 
 
 A government notice issued Oct. 1 at the beginning of the shutdown advised furloughed employees that once funding was restored, "You will be expected to return to work on your next regular duty day." 
 
 But the House didn't pass the continuing resolution until after 10 p.m. ET Wednesday. The short notice means that getting back to work might not be a seamless process for many federal employees. 
 
 Colleen Kelley, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, the largest federal employee union, tells The Wall Street Journal that many workers who took their children out of day care in the past few weeks will need to arrange care again before they can return to work. She said agencies vary in their methods for recalling workers. 
 
 "Some set up a 1-800 hotline for workers to call during the shutdown to check on the status of their employment. Others use the phone tree method of calling individual workers. Tens of thousands of federal workers do not have personal computers and would not be able to check OPM's website, Ms. Kelley said." 
 
 And as NPR's Brian Naylor reports on Morning Edition, you shouldn't expect the Internal Revenue Service, the Environmental Protection Agency or most other federal offices to be taking calls just yet — it could be some time, he says, before most agencies get up to speed again. 
 
 Even government-funded research projects are going to need time to ramp up. 
 
 University of Alabama geologist Samantha Hansen has been conducting a research project in Antarctica that in one way is like almost everything else funded by the federal government: After 16 days down, it's going to take some time to restart. 
 
 "It's not just like flipping a switch. [In] getting the system running, there's a lot of cogs in the machine," she says. 
 
 Naylor says that while Hansen's work is a bit more exotic than most of what the government does on a daily basis, her story isn't that much different from what a typical government staffer now faces: how to get the wheels turning again. 
 
 "Everyone works on their phone all the time," Jessica Klement, with the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, tells NPR. "Your iPhone is constantly connected, [but] if you're a furloughed employee, you have to leave those at the door." 
 
 So workers might not get the word immediately, Clement said. 
 
 Lee Stone, a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, says "this is almost amusingly silly — NASA is shut down and so its website is shut down and email shut down." 
 
 As CNN notes in the past couple of weeks, there have been "hiccups" when federal workers were recalled. 
 
 But the good news for workers is that Congress made sure the employees will get paid for the 16 days they were out. ||||| Federal workers protesting the government shutdown. 
 
 WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) 
 
 With the 2013 government shutdown ended, President Obama has ordered all federal workers to get back to work Thursday. 
 
 But it's especially tricky getting the word out to all 450,000 employees, who have been home on furlough during the shutdown. Federal law prohibits workers on furlough from accessing their work email through phones or laptops. Besides, some workers may have left town, or be completely unplugged. 
 
 "How will we know? That's a good question," said Becky Moore, a program analyst for the Transportation Security Administration, on the eve of the deal to fund the government and avert a U.S. default. Her supervisors told her to monitor the news and the Office of Personnel Management website. "Hopefully, it'll come through the grapevine." 
 
 Agencies had been ordered to come up with other ways to alert employees to go back to work when a shutdown ends. 
 
 Employees like Moore were terrified of having to stay up late Wednesday night to watch the House vote and then be up again at 5 a.m. to commute to work. Moore lives in Fredericksburg, Va., so it takes her more than two hours to get to her office in Arlington. 
 
 Related: Unpaid U.S. Workers reach out to creditors 
 
 There have already been hiccups when agencies have ordered employees to return to work, just in the past couple of weeks. 
 
 Last Monday, 340,000 civilian Department of Defense employees were supposed to report back to work. Government lawyers had concluded they could end furloughs for civilian workers whose jobs support the military. 
 
 But not everyone reported for duty on the first day back, Oct. 7. 
 
 "I saw it on the news, that our boss (Defense Secretary) Chuck Hagel had called us back, so I assumed he was talking about me," said Mike Ferrigno, a facilities management specialist working in public works for the Navy in Ashaway, Rhode Island. "I was one of the only ones in the office that first day." 
 
 Ferrigno said supervisors spent much of the first day calling employees to tell them to return to the job. 
 
 A Pentagon official said most workers who were recalled, showed up by the end of Monday. Officials had expected that recall to take a few days. 
 
 "This time will be much easier," the official said, since only 7,000 more of defense employees remain on furlough. 
 
 "We will use a variety of options to recall workers including press statements, website posts, supervisor phone calls and the media," the official said. 
 
 The White House Office of Management and Budget left it up to individual agencies to decide how to alert employees that the shutdown was over. 
 
 For agencies like the Department of Labor and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, supervisors told employees to monitor the news and update their personal contact information, according to workers not authorized to speak on the record. 
 
 Federal shutdown: Who gets paid and when 
 
 At the Department of Justice, attorneys have been told they can check their office email for up to 15 minutes every day, in case legal developments occur that need to be dealt with. So those workers could get official word on email. 
 
 The National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley said union workers have been told to watch the news. 
 
 "Some agencies will have to use the old fashioned telephone trees," Kelley said. "I don't expect they'll start making calls until it's official." 
 
 The reason the government isn't supposed to email employees is due a law known as as the Antideficiency Act. 
 
 Passed during the Chester Arthur's administration, it prevents non-working federal employees from doing any job-related functions during a shutdown, if the government cannot pay for it. 
 
 White House budget officials made it clear that during the shutdown furloughed employees couldn't touch their government-issued mobile devices, or use computers to access work email. 
 
 -- CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report. ||||| Shutting down the government is nothing like the slow-motion calamity that is sequestration. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of federal employees will face indefinite furloughs. National parks from Yosemite to Acadia will be closed. And if the spending standoff lasts into late October, veterans’ benefit payments would trickle to a stop. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset Shutdown news roundup VandeHei: It's going to get worse 
 
 Unlike this year’s across-the-board spending cuts that rarely lived up to the hype, Americans will notice soon enough that their government services have been disrupted — if not canceled. So, Monday will have been the day to get a last look at the National Zoo’s panda cam. 
 
 “It’s a different kettle of fish when you say people aren’t going to show up at all,” said a former Clinton administration official central to planning for the last government shutdown in 1995 and 1996. 
 
 (POLITICO's full government shutdown coverage) 
 
 Appearing in the White House briefing room Monday just hours before the deadline, President Barack Obama assured Americans that air traffic controllers and federal prison guards would remain on the job. They will also still get their Social Security checks and Medicare help. But it won’t be pretty either, he warned, especially for the federal workers who will be sent home without pay until there’s an agreement on Capitol Hill. 
 
 “A shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people right away,” Obama said. 
 
 So how exactly does the U.S. government close its doors? 
 
 The official word won’t come from the CNN countdown clock. It came via a guidance memo from White House Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell — shortly before midnight Monday — instructing department heads to begin implementing their specific shutdown contingency plans. 
 
 (WATCH: Shutdown: Democrats vs. Republicans) 
 
 All federal employees should still show up for work Tuesday, where their managers will distribute the official notices on who is and isn’t essential to daily operations. That’s a tricky enough question — one loaded with both legal ramifications and a good bit of psychological baggage — but essentially boils down to the Cabinet secretaries and a skeleton operations crew who have jobs that involve protection of public safety or government property: think military troops, meat inspectors and border patrol. 
 
 The furloughed workers will have until about lunchtime Tuesday to wrap up any last-minute business at their desks: securing files, cancelling meetings, conferences and trips, setting up their ‘out-of-office’ email replies and updating voice mail recordings to say they won’t be back on the job until there’s a budget agreement. 
 
 Federal employees are also being told to track news sites for updates on when they can come back to work. And as for any other questions about the strict rules surrounding furloughs? Those can be answered by a handy Office of Personnel Management guidance document that describes frequently asked questions like prohibitions on voluntary government work and moonlighting. 
 
 (WATCH: Boehner 'confident' House will pass CR) 
 
 Some of the largest furloughs will hit the Pentagon and 400,000 of its civilian workers. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel fretted Monday about how these workers have been among those hit hard by sequestration — with a summer full of unpaid furlough days. Still, he said decisions to send them home without pay “are dictated solely by the law” for protecting people and property. 
 
 “The furloughs are in no way a reflection of the importance of your work, the hard effort you put forth every day, or your dedicated service to our department and our nation,” Hagel said in a memo to Defense Department employees while traveling in South Korea. 
 
 As for the uniformed troops, they too must report to work, though they’ll have the benefit of receiving their pay thanks to a rare legislative agreement between the House and Senate. 
 
 (PHOTOS: 17 times the government has shut down) 
 
 The news isn’t so good for veterans. Benefit checks from the Department of Veterans Affairs, including disability claim checks and pension payments, are expected to last only two or three weeks beyond the start of the shutdown. Assistance for veteran-run businesses also will cease, while rehabilitation and education counseling are likely to be limited. 
 
 Some programs and government offices will remain open during the shutdown because they rely on mandatory spending or funding streams outside the annual congressional appropriations process. That’s why it’s full steam ahead for the Obamacare insurance exchanges — which coincidentally go live Tuesday — that are central to the Capitol Hill budget impasse. 
 
 It’s also why the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak will continue operating, along with the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and some parts of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — all of which get funding from the federal fuel tax. 
 
 Many others aren’t so lucky.
– The House and Senate's failure to reach a deal to resolve the budget brouhaha has left the US without a functioning federal government for the first time in 17 years—and the two sides seem so averse to compromise that it's anyone's guess when the shutdown will end. Federal agencies have been ordered to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown," meaning around 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed immediately and another million or so, including Border Patrol agents and air traffic controllers, will be asked to work without pay, the New York Times reports. In the past, federal workers—though not contractors—have been reimbursed for time missed, but it's unclear whether Congress will approve a similar measure this time around, the Washington Post finds in its guide to the shutdown's impact on federal workers. Politico explains the process for furloughing workers: Federal employees do have to go to work today; once there, they'll be handed an official notice outlining who is essential. Those who aren't will have until mid-day to wrap things up and set up those out-of-office auto-replies. Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans' services, and the US Postal Service will not be affected, but national parks, monuments, and other government offices are closed, and transportation safety inspectors nationwide have been furloughed, the AP finds. The Post reports that all but 549 of NASA's 18,250 employees will be furloughed ... in a slightly cruel twist, on the agency's 55th birthday. Last-minute legislation ensures that members of the military will keep receiving their paychecks. Members of Congress will also keep getting paid, but their employees will have to either work without pay or be furloughed, the Federal Times reports. Mother Jones looks at some of the more quirky casualties: the National Zoo's Panda-cam, winery permits, National Park Service golf courses, Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro adoption programs, and 45 fountains. John Boehner has called for a special House-Senate committee to resolve the two parties' differences, but some senior Republicans believe the shutdown could last at least a week, the Washington Post reports. Democrats, meanwhile, believe that the funding battle could overlap with debt-limit talks that need to be resolved before October 17.