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 ||||| 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. 
 
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 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. ||||| Looking for news you can trust? 
 
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 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. ||||| A list of key questions and answers from Washington Post coverage of the likely effects on federal government employees. Live updates: The shutdown showdown 
 
 When will I know if I'll be furloughed due to the shutdown? 
 
 Federal workers will get an e-mail or phone call from their supervisors by Monday telling them to report for work or remain at home. 
 
 Those who would not be working would get a few hours Tuesday morning to come into the office to secure their files, send e-mails and put things in order before signing off. It would be illegal for them to conduct any work until they were called back to their jobs. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein 
 
 Who is "exempt" and who's not? 
 
 That's up to individual agencies. A recent OMB memo told them to review plans they made in 2011. The federal government is required by law to maintain functions that: 
 
 - provide for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations; 
 
 - provide for benefit payments and the performance of contract obligations under no-year or multi-year contracts; and 
 
 - protect life and property. 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 Who decides? 
 
 Federal managers must review which of their employees would be excepted or exempted and required to come to work, and which would be non-excepted or non-exempted and sent home during a shutdown. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein and Eric Yoder 
 
 How many workers will be affected? 
 
 A government shutdown this week would jeopardize the paychecks of more than 800,000 federal workers who could be told to stay home. The federal government has more than 2 million employees. Those workers who remain on the job as well as active military would be entitled to their salaries, but might not be paid on time. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein 
 
 Will I be paid? 
 
 A recent Office of Management and Budget memo says much the same: "Without further specific direction or enactment by Congress, all excepted employees are entitled to receive payment for obligations incurred by their agencies for their performance of excepted work during the period of the appropriations lapse," the memo says. "After appropriations are enacted, payroll centers will pay all excepted employees for time worked." 
 
 The OMB memo did not directly address pay for "non-exempt" employees. The OPM guidance says that "Congress will determine whether furloughed employees receive pay for the furlough period." 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 If I am paid, will my paycheck be on time? 
 
 Gregory Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, said the administration officials indicated that employees who are required to work would be paid "eventually." 
 
 "They can't guarantee [the workers] will be paid on time," Junemann said. "They are pretty comfortable with the statement that everybody who works will be paid eventually." Those furloughed might be paid, but Republicans could move to block that. 
 
 - Read more from Joe Davidson 
 
 If I'm furloughed, why can't I take annual leave or other paid time off instead? 
 
 Because that would create a debt obligation to the government not payable under the Antideficiency Act if no appropriation has been made. This includes a requirement to cancel any paid leave that already had been scheduled. 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 The OPM publication states that employees cannot substitute paid leave for furlough time and that even previously scheduled paid time off must be canceled "because the requirement to furlough supersedes leave and other paid time off rights." 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 How would a new plan offered by House Republicans affect me? 
 
 The new plan, like those Republicans have pushed before, would increase employee contributions to their retirement benefits. 
 
 The plan now under discussion apparently is like a bill that Republicans used their House majority to approve in December. Had it passed the Senate, the measure would have required federal workers to pay an additional 5 percent of salary over five years toward their retirement contributions, saving the government about $80 billion. 
 
 - Read more from Joe Davidson 
 
 How is this possible shutdown different from previous ones? 
 
 Compared with the shutdowns of the 1990s, many more federal workers are in danger of being furloughed this year, because Congress has not passed a single funding bill. In the past, Congress had passed appropriations bills that funded various large agencies, including the Defense Department, meaning they could continue to operate even if other parts of the government could not. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein 
 
 What if I'm a government contractor? 
 
 Contractors said they assumed they would get little notice about whether their employees would go to work or not. And then, they would have to decide -- on a contract by contract basis -- what to do with those workers. 
 
 - Read more from Marjorie Censer 
 
 Will I be reimbursed for time missed? 
 
 In past shutdowns, federal employees have been reimbursed for time missed, said Alan Chvotkin, counsel at the Professional Services Council, an industry group. But contractors have not fared as well. 
 
 "Contractors have never been reimbursed," Chvotkin said. A shutdown has been "just lost revenue, lost salary to those affected." 
 
 - Read more from Marjorie Censer 
 
 While there is no law requiring that nonessential employees be compensated if they are ordered off the job, Congress has in the past voted to reimburse their losses once shutdowns ended. 
 
 But this go-round could be different. The bitterly divided Congress includes many lawmakers who are unsympathetic to the plight of federal workers and could be loath to help them recoup their money. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein 
 
 Will overseas military operations be affected? 
 
 Defense Department spokesman George Little said overseas operations, including those in Afghanistan, would not be directly affected. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein 
 
 What's the status of employee benefits? 
 
 Coverage under the federal employee health insurance program will continue, with the employees' share accumulating until they return to paid status. Coverage under the life insurance program also continues, without cost to the employee. For the long-term care and vision/dental insurance programs, enrollees must continue to pay the premiums; those paying through payroll deduction will be billed directly if the unpaid period lasts a number of weeks. 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 What if I'm deemed "essential," but get sick? 
 
 You might want to take steps to assure they are feeling well in addition to feeling good, because if you become too sick to work during a shutdown they would face the same uncertainty over their pay for the time off work as those who are furloughed. 
 
 ... 
 
 For example, the Navy has issued new guidance to its civilian employees warning that "Excepted employees who are not able to work due to sick leave, jury duty, etc., must be placed in a furlough status (i.e., non-duty, non-pay) until they are able to return to duty." 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 If I'm a retired federal worker, will I still get my check? 
 
 For millions of federal retirees who may be concerned about their annuity checks, which arrive on the first day of each month, the Office of Personnel Management said they would be paid on Oct. 1 as normal. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein 
 
 Federal retirement payments, like payments such as Social Security benefits, fall under the "mandatory" budget category not funded through annual appropriations and thus not affected by these kinds of funding deadlocks. According to the OPM document, federal retirees "will still receive their scheduled annuity payments on the first business day of the month." 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 What about other services to retirees, such as issues with missed payments or questions? 
 
 OPM's Retirement Services office employees are excluded from the shutdown because that office gets its operating money from the federal retirement trust fund. The Retirement Information Office at 1-888-767-6738 is open. 
 
 - Read more from Eric Yoder 
 
 How does a shutdown end? 
 
 It's up to Congress and the White House. No doubt there would be plenty of pressure from the public and workforce. There is no law setting a time limit. 
 
 - Read more from Lisa Rein and Eric Yoder 
 
 Published Oct. 1, 2013. ||||| The federal government shut down on Tuesday and will stay closed until Congress can reach an agreement on how to fund day-to-day operations. So who gets hurt most by the shutdown? 
 
 Everyone's heard that the panda cam at the National Zoo has powered down, but that's hardly the most serious consequence of a shutdown. The biggest disruptions are less visible — the workers going without pay, the patients turned away from research clinics, and so on. Here's a rough list: 
 
 1) More than 2 million federal workers will see their paychecks delayed — and 800,000 of them might never get repaid. 
 
 
 
 Federal employees protest the sequester outside the Department of Labor on March 20. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg). 
 
 This is, by a fair margin, the biggest immediate consequence of a shutdown. So long as Congress keeps the government closed, many federal workers simply won't get paid during the shutdown (save for those in agencies with independent funding, like Postal Service employees). 
 
 There are two classes of federal workers to consider. First, there are the 1.3 million "essential" civilian employees who keep working during the shutdown. These workers may see their paychecks delayed, but they'll eventually get paid once the government reopens. 
 
 It's a different story for the 800,000 or so workers deemed "non-essential." These employees have to come in for a few hours on Tuesday, get their files in order, and then go home without compensation, indefinitely. And it's unclear if they'll ever receive back pay. That's completely up to Congress. Non-essential workers did get paid retroactively after the 21-day 1995-'96 shutdown. But this time around, some conservative are reportedly skeptical at the idea of paying federal employees for "work they didn't do." 
 
 This could be a fair-sized financial hit for many workers, depending on how long the government stays shut down. Note that many of these federal employees have already gone through a three-year wage freeze and months of furloughs imposed by the sequestration budget cuts. 
 
 The economic impacts could also be sizable. Economist Mark Zandi argues that the furloughs could shave 0.3 percentage points of fourth-quarter GDP growth (although some of that activity would come back if the workers get back pay). Maryland, where many federal workers live, could lose up to $5 million per day in income and sales tax revenue. 
 
 Note that this doesn't include federal contractors, who will also start furloughing employees as contracts dry up. (During the 1995-'96 shutdown, one-fifth of contracts were put on hold.) It's still unclear how many companies will be affected, but the numbers are large. Fairfax County, Va., alone has 4,100 contractors that bring in about $26 billion per year. 
 
 2) Millions of veterans may not receive benefits if the shutdown lasts more than two weeks. 
 
 
 
 (The Washington Post) 
 
 Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs have quietly told Congress that they likely won't have enough money to pay disability claims or make pension payments for veterans if a government shutdown lasts for more than two or three weeks. That could affect some 3.6 million veterans who receive these benefits. 
 
 In a briefing with Congress, VA officials warned that many veterans depend almost entirely on these checks for their livelihood, and many have not been given enough time or information to prepare. 
 
 3) The CDC will halt its flu program just as flu season gets underway. 
 
 Every fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors the spread of flu and figures out how best to direct vaccine programs around the country. During the shutdown, however, the agency will be "unable to support the annual seasonal influenza program," according to a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services. 
 
 We're sorry, but we will not be tweeting or responding to @ replies during the government shutdown. We'll be back as soon as possible! — CDC Flu (@CDCFlu) October 1, 2013 
 
 And it's not just the flu. The CDC also has to stop providing "support to state and local partners for infectious disease surveillance." And the agency will have a "significantly reduced capacity to respond to outbreak investigations, processing of laboratory samples, and maintaining the agency’s 24/7 emergency operations center." 
 
 (The CDC will, however, continue its overseas malaria and AIDS programs, as those are funded independently.) 
 
 4) Some food-safety operations would cease. 
 
 
 
 Ken Trevarthan/AP - Water can cause harm by entering the egg through its porous shell, increasing the risk of contamination. 
 
 During the shutdown, the Food and Drug Administration will have to cease most of its food-safety operations. That includes "routine establishment inspections, some compliance and enforcement activities, monitoring of imports, notification programs (e.g., food contact substances, infant formula), and the majority of the laboratory research necessary to inform public health decision-making." 
 
 This past December, the FDA shut down a nut processor in New Mexico after records showed that the facility was shipping products infected with salmonella. That sort of monitoring and enforcement could become much harder. 
 
 Now, that doesn't mean all food-safety oversight stops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will still maintain thousands of inspectors to check out meat and poultry facilities, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service is still allowed to recall workers in the event of an emergency. So there's still a fair bit of oversight capacity in place. But many routine FDA activities on this front will come to a halt. 
 
 It's not just food safety either. A wide swath of regulatory agencies will close during the shutdown. The Environmental Protection Agency will stop monitoring air pollution and pesticide use. The Labor Department won't be around to enforce wage and hour laws or occupational safety. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees America's vast derivatives market, will close up. 
 
 It's very possible that nothing will go awry while these regulators are closed. But that's hard to say for sure. 
 
 5) Nutritional programs for women, infants and children could be disrupted after a week. 
 
 Some programs will continue to receive federal funds, but those for the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children would be cut off during a shutdown. (Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post. 
 
 During the shutdown, the Department of Agriculture will stop supporting the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which helps pregnant women and new moms buy healthy food and provides nutritional information and health care referrals to those who need it. The program aids some 9 million Americans. 
 
 That won't hit immediately. The USDA estimates that most states have funds and authority to continue their programs for "a week or so," but they'll "likely be unable to sustain operations for a longer period. "Contingency funds will be available to help States—but even this funding would not fully mitigate a shortfall for the entire month of October." 
 
 Update: On Tuesday the USDA released additional guidance allowing states to tap into additional funds that could allow many states to keep the WIC program running through October. But the memo warns that state agencies "may still face funding shortfalls associated with FY 2014 obligations during the shutdown." 
 
 The agency notes, meanwhile, that food stamp aid for 47 million low-income Americans would be unaffected through the month of October, since that program still gets stimulus funds that won't run out until next year. 
 
 6) Financing for small businesses could be hampered. 
 
 
 
 Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina. (Bill Russ / VisitNC.com) 
 
 The Small Business Administration has provided guarantees for some $106 billion in loans to more than 193,000 small businesses over the last four years. It also runs programs to help small firms win government contracts, help veteran-owned businesses, and boost international trade. 
 
 All that would cease in a shutdown. Although the SBA would continue to back existing loans in its portfolio, it wouldn't initiate any new loan guarantees. The one exception here is the Disaster Loan Program, which steps in during natural disasters and other emergencies — that would continue to operate. 
 
 For those reasons and others, a recent poll found that fully 41 percent of small-business employers with less than $5 million in annual revenue said that an extended shutdown (three months or more) would force them to pull back on their hiring plans. No one expects a shutdown that long, but even a shorter hiatus could disrupt some economic activity. 
 
 7) The tourist trade would take a hit. 
 
 
 
 Closed! Well, unless Arizona wants to pay to operate it. (Ron Watts / Corbios) 
 
 The National Park Service will close more than 400 national parks, museums and sites across the country, including Yosemite National Park in California, Grand Canyon park, Alcatraz in San Francisco, and the Statue of Liberty in New York. Day visitors will have to leave immediately. Campers will have two days to pack up and get out. 
 
 That sounds like a minor inconvenience, but it can have a major economic impact. During the last shutdown in 1995-1996, some 7 million visitors were turned away from national parks. Tourist industries and airlines lost millions of dollars per day, according to the Congressional Research Service. 
 
 This time around, the National Parks Conservation Association estimates that local communities could lose some $30 million in business for every day of the shutdown. 
 
 8) Head Start programs for hundreds of kids will slowly start closing. 
 
 
 
 (Carol Kaliff/AP )- Lead teacher Carmen Prybylski works with children Quinn Watson, left, 3, Sofia Coway, 2, and Kayla Lamour, 3, at Head Start's new building in Danbury, Conn. July 17, 2013. 
 
 There are some 1,600 Head Start programs around the country providing education, health, nutrition and other services to roughly 1 million low-income children and their families. Those will slowly begin closing during a shutdown. 
 
 Initially, only about 20 programs would be affected — the programs whose federal grants expire on Oct. 1 and don't get renewed. Over time, more programs would likely be affected. The effects really vary from community to community. In York County, S.C., for instance, pre-kindergarten classes for some 864 kids will be canceled this Friday. (These programs would likely be reinstated once the shutdown ended.) 
 
 Note that Head Start has already faced cutbacks due to sequestration budget cuts, having eliminated services for some 57,000 children this year. 
 
 9) Disability benefits could be interrupted. 
 
 
 
 (Source: Center for American Progress) 
 
 During the shutdown, the Social Security administration won't have enough staff to schedule new hearings for those applying for disability benefits. And the Veterans Appeal Board will be closed, which means veterans appealing a decision on disability benefits will have to wait until the shutdown ends. 
 
 Update: 10) Kids with cancer could get turned away from treatment. 
 
 Here's one last impact to add to the list. As long as the government is shut down, the National Institutes of Health says it will turn away roughly 200 patients each week from its clinical research center, including children with cancer. 
 
 “We’ve had to tell people, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t come here,’ ” NIH Director Francis Collins told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. See this post for more information and context. 
 
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 Note that these aren't the only consequences of the shutdown. There are plenty of others: Businesses won't be able to access E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential hires. The National Institutes of Health will stop accepting new patients for clinical trials. The Bureau of Land Management will stop issuing permits for oil and gas companies on public lands. 
 
 How painful the above impacts are depends on your perspective. Obviously the people affected will care a lot. But how big an outcry will there be from the broader public? Over at Business Insider, Joe Weisenthal suspects that "there's no obvious one thing [about a shutdown] that will be so annoying to the public that the two sides would quickly have to come to a deal." If that's true, a shutdown could last for quite some time. 
 
 It's also worth noting that we've already seen disruptive cuts this year after Congress allowed sequestration to hit — and lawmakers haven't exactly rushed to reverse those haphazard budget cuts. Indeed, much of Washington appears to have made peace with sequestration. That makes it hard to guess exactly how long a shutdown might last. 
 
 Related: Absolutely everything you need to know about how a government shutdown works. ||||| 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. ||||| Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Border Patrol officers, prison guards and air traffic controllers were told they may not be paid for their work during the shutdown. They will be paid, as will other workers who are deemed essential, but their pay may be delayed This version has been corrected. 
 
 House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) talks with reporters after meeting with the House Republican caucus on the eighth day of the government shutdown. House Republican leaders pressed demands for negotiations with Senate Democrats and President Obama over bills to fund the government and raise the federal debt limit, but they would not say what they are seeking in those negotiations. 
 
 Oct. 8, 2013 House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) talks with reporters after meeting with the House Republican caucus on the eighth day of the government shutdown. House Republican leaders pressed demands for negotiations with Senate Democrats and President Obama over bills to fund the government and raise the federal debt limit, but they would not say what they are seeking in those negotiations. Melina Mara/The Washington Post 
 
 With no agreement on a funding bill in sight, Republicans and Democrats continue to spar on Capitol Hill, while federal workers sit at home and the American public watches as an even more critical deadline on raising the federal debt limit nears. 
 
 The Senate rejected House amendments to a short-term spending bill Monday, pushing the government toward its first shutdown in nearly two decades. 
 
 The Senate rejected House amendments to a short-term spending bill Monday, pushing the government toward its first shutdown in nearly two decades. 
 
 by Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane 
 
 The U.S. government began to shut down for the first time in 17 years early Tuesday, after a Congress bitterly divided over President Obama’s signature health-care initiative failed to reach agreement to fund federal agencies. 
 
 Hours before a midnight deadline, the Republican House passed its third proposal in two weeks to fund the government for a matter of weeks. Like the previous plans, the new one sought to undermine the Affordable Care Act, this time by delaying enforcement of the “individual mandate,” a cornerstone of the law that requires all Americans to obtain health insurance. 
 
 The new measure also sought to strip lawmakers and their aides of long-standing government health benefits. 
 
 The Democratic-led Senate quickly rejected that plan on a party-line vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) urged House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to abandon the assault on the health-care law and pass a simple bill to keep the government open. Otherwise, Reid warned, “the responsibility for this Republican government shutdown will rest squarely on his shoulders.” 
 
 Boehner refused to yield. He instead won approval, in a 1 a.m. largely party-line roll call, requesting a special House-Senate committee to meet in the coming days to resolve differences between the two parties, leaving in limbo the fate of millions of federal workers and the services they provide. 
 
 Shortly before midnight, the White House budget office issued a memo instructing agencies to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations.” 
 
 The impasse means 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed Tuesday. National parks, monuments and museums, as well as most federal offices, will close. Tens of thousands of air-traffic controllers, prison guards and Border Patrol agents will be required to serve, but their pay may be delayed. And many congressional hearings — including one scheduled for Tuesday on last month’s Washington Navy Yard shootings — will be postponed. 
 
 In a last-minute ray of hope for active-duty troops, Congress on Monday approved and sent to the White House an agreement to keep issuing military paychecks. But Obama warned that the broader economy, which is finally starting to recover from the shocks of the past six years, would take a substantial hit if congressional gridlock shutters “America’s largest employer.” 
 
 “Keeping the people’s government open is not a concession to me. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you ‘give’ to the other side. It’s our basic responsibility,” Obama said in a statement Monday evening at the White House. 
 
 Privately, senior Republicans predicted that the closure would last at least a week. A fraction of today’s House Republicans were on Capitol Hill in 1995 and 1996 when a Republican-led Congress last shut down the government in a dispute over the budget with a Democratic president. Younger lawmakers don’t remember the pain the shutdown caused constituents, senior Republicans said. And many of them now question the conventional wisdom that the closures weakened the GOP presidential candidate in 1996 and nearly cost the party control of the House. 
 
 Democrats predicted that if the shutdown stretches into the weekend, the government-funding dispute could be rolled into an even more serious battle over the $16.7 trillion federal debt limit. The Treasury Department will begin running short of cash to pay the nation’s bills as soon as Oct. 17 unless Congress approves additional borrowing authority. With so little time remaining to avoid what would be the nation’s first default, Democratic aides predicted that negotiations to reopen the government may be merged into the debt-limit talks. 
 
 On Monday evening, Obama telephoned Boehner to urge him to reconsider his stance on the health-care law. In a call that lasted nearly 10 minutes, according to Boehner’s office, the president reiterated his insistence that there would be no negotiations over the debt limit, and that Congress must pay the bills it has incurred. 
 
 Boehner responded by mocking Obama in a speech on the House floor. 
 
 “ ‘I’m not going to negotiate,’ ” he said, quoting Obama. “I would say to the president: This is not about me. It’s not about Republicans here in Congress. It’s about fairness.” 
 
 The speech drew applause for the embattled speaker, who argued passionately that Republicans were merely seeking “fairness” for working people. Obama has delayed a mandate for employers to insure workers and delayed other requirements for big unions, Boehner said. “Yet they stick our constituents with a bill they don’t like and a bill they can’t afford,” he said. 
 
 Despite the show of unity, Republicans on both sides of the Capitol remain deeply divided about the attack on the health-care law. In the House, a group of more moderate Republicans was seething about the decision to bow to the forces that oppose the Affordable Care Act, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and his allies on the right, including such outside groups as Heritage Action for America. 
 
 On Monday, some publicly urged Boehner to drop the issue and seek the help of House Democrats to pass the simple government-funding bill that the Senate approved last week. 
 
 “I don’t want to shut down the government,” said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), who is trying to become her state’s first GOP senator since the 1950s, adding that she was inclined to support a “clean” funding bill. 
 
 Frustrations also were simmering among Senate Republicans, who complained that House leaders were pressing the attack in direct opposition to public opinion. Polls show that voters overwhelmingly disapprove of using the threat of a shutdown to defund the health-care law and that blame for a shutdown will fall squarely on Republicans. 
 
 “By wanting to repeal Obamacare using this method, it defies what the popular will is,” said Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, who campaigned last year on behalf of his party’s national ticket. 
 
 “I campaigned in 2012 all over this country for months: ‘Repeal and replace Obamacare.’ That was not the mandate of the voters,” McCain said. “If they wanted to repeal Obamacare, the 2012 election would have been probably significantly different.” 
 
 Adding to the tension Monday was Boehner’s decision to add the provision that would strip lawmakers, congressional staff members and White House aides of the employer subsidies for health insurance they have received for many years. 
 
 Now that lawmakers and their aides must join the new health-insurance exchanges, some conservative groups have criticized the subsidies, worth about $5,000 a year for individual coverage and $10,000 for families, as a “special exemption” from the new law. By including the provision, House leaders hoped to attract conservative support and put pressure on Senate Democrats, who faced the choice of shutting down the government to protect their own perks. 
 
 “On what flooding peninsula can you stand when it’s a question of delaying the individual mandate, ending member subsidies and funding the government?” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.). If Reid kills it, “the senators he’s going to protect become the subject of incredible scrutiny.” 
 
 Even some Republicans were uneasy about the prospect of dealing their aides — and some of their colleagues — the equivalent of a big pay cut. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) called it an “outrage,” adding that Boehner had worked directly with Reid and the Obama administration to make sure the subsidies would stay in place when congressional employees join the exchanges next year. 
 
 Boehner and his team presented the proposal to rank-and-file Republicans in a closed-door meeting Monday. For more than an hour and a half, lawmakers argued about the plan. They emerged with an unusual number of public dissenters, including Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.), one of a dozen Republicans who ultimately voted against the proposal. 
 
 “I don’t want to be the facilitator of a disastrous process and plan,” he said. 
 
 Still, most Republicans endorsed the deal, even if somewhat reluctantly. “I think this is a principled call by leadership and it has the support of the con­ference,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), one of Boehner’s closest friends. 
 
 Democrats, meanwhile, were united against any attempt by Republicans to extract concessions now, especially with the larger fight over the debt limit swiftly approaching. 
 
 “The bottom line is very simple,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “You negotiate on this, they will up the ante for the debt limit.” 
 
 Ed O’Keefe, Rosalind S. Helderman, Jackie Kucinich and Jeff Simon contributed to this report. ||||| 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.
– 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.