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. 
 
 ----- 
 
 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. ||||| Searchers at Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho; search for hiker Jo Elliott-Blakeslee, 63, was temporarily stalled as partial federal government shutdown began Oct. 1, 2013, a monument official says / KBOI-TV 
 
 BOISE, Idaho The partial government shutdown has made the search for a Boise, Idaho woman more difficult. 
 
 Jo Elliott-Blakeslee, 63, was missing at Craters of the Moon National Monument. But with 16 staff employees having been placed on furlough as the shutdown began, no one was looking for her Tuesday morning, according to Ted Stout, chief of interpretation and education at the monument. 
 
 He told CBS Boise affiliate KBOI-TV a handful of staff members would resume the search in the challenging terrain Tuesday afternoon. 
 
 And the Butte County Sheriff's Department tells CBS News some monument staffers and personnel from the department did start looking for her again. They were to continue the search Wednesday. 
 
 "It's pretty much just park staff that are continuing the search," Stout said. "But we're also faced with the government shutdown -- we've been busy with that." 
 
 KBOI points out that federal workers aren't allowed to volunteer to do their jobs during a shutdown because U.S. law says they can't do any work for which funding hasn't been allocated. 
 
 The search was already being scaled back due to poor weather earlier in the week. Only three staff members were at the park, monitoring infrastructure resources, on Tuesday, the station said. 
 
 Elliott-Blakeslee has been missing since she left for a short day hike in central Idaho last week, 
 
 Her family is asking for hikers with backcountry experience to help in the search. 
 
 Elliott-Blakeslee and 69-year-old Amy Linkert were last seen on Sept. 19. Officials believe the two went for a short hike at Craters, where their pickup was found parked with their phones, purses and dogs inside. 
 
 They were reported missing Sept. 23 when Elliott-Blakeslee, a physician, didn't show up for work at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Ore. Searchers found Linkert's body Wednesday; she appeared to have died from exposure. 
 
 Searchers scaled back efforts on Sunday as a storm with heavy winds moved into the area. 
 
 On Monday, Elliott-Blakeslee's family released a statement thanking all those who had helped in the search and saying that, while they realize the chances of finding Elliot-Blakeslee alive were growing slim, they remained hopeful. They also noted that the search area is in rugged and often dangerous territory and prone to unpredictable weather. 
 
 "Either way, we are committed to bringing her home and are actively recruiting volunteers with backcountry experience to keep the search going. But we will not chance injury or loss of searchers," the family's prepared statement said. "In that vein, at a minimum, those interested in participating should be able to hike 10 to 12 miles and climb 1,000 feet at a time in treacherous terrain." 
 
 The family said that it's critical for command center officials to be able to map every step the trained volunteers take with the help of radios and GPS technology, and they're accepting donations for equipment and other resources needed by the volunteers. ||||| America 
 
 The Shutdown's Squeeze On Science And Health 
 
 itoggle caption NASA/Getty Images 
 
 In addition to shutdowns of national parks (including Alcatraz Island and Yosemite) and the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, the mandatory furloughs are affecting a wide range of government science and health agencies. Here's a snapshot: 
 
 The "most painful consequence [of the shutdown for National Institutes of Health] is for the clinical center, the largest research hospital in the world" says NIH Director Francis Collins. Many of the hospital's patients have cancer, a rare genetic disease or a serious infection that hasn't been relieved elsewhere, Collins says. But Tuesday NIH had to close its doors to new patients. "How would you feel as a parent of a child with cancer," Collins asks, "hoping that somehow NIH and its clinical center might provide some rescue from a very difficult situation, to hear that, frankly, you can't come, because the government won't be able to stay open." 
 
 More specifically at the NIH clinical center: 
 
 No new studies will be started. Four had been slated to begin this week, but won't if the shutdown continues. 
 
 No new patients will be enrolled in any of the 1,437 studies now underway. Roughly 500of those are studying new drugs and devices, and of those 255 are looking at cancer treatments for adults and children. 
 
 The hospital's reduced staff will continue to care for existing patients, but new patients will not be admitted unless the NIH Clinical Center's director deems it medically necessary. 
 
 Meanwhile, workers will show up to feed and care for animals in NIH labs, but basic research conducted by NIH scientists there will stop. 
 
 "The vast majority of CDC's activities will be shut down completely," according to email from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson. "Only about 4,000 of the CDC's 13,000 staff members will continue to work," during the federal shutdown. 
 
 CDC "will not be conducting multi-state outbreak investigations," but will keep the emergency operation center working "at a reduced capacity," that can be geared up quickly if a serious outbreak of illness is discovered. 
 
 PulseNet, the CDC's foodborne disease tracking program is still up and running, NPR's Allison Aubrey reports. 
 
 However, there will be no monitoring of seasonal flu activity across the U.S. 
 
 Ongoing investigations, such as the one looking into several outbreaks of the brain-eating amoeba Naelgeria will continue, but surveillance of H7N9 (bird flu) and the coronavirus that causes MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) will be "much less robust," according to the CDC. 
 
 Roughly 45 percent of the workers at the Food and Drug Administration have been furloughed, leaving the agency "unable to support the majority of its food safety, nutrition and cosmetics activities," according to Steven Immergut, an agency spokesperson. Some work, such as that related to some activities funded by user-fees in the Center for Tobacco Products, and "high-risk recalls, civil and criminal investigations, import entry reviews, and other critical public health issues," will continue, Immergut says. 
 
 Mission Control at NASA's Johnson's Space Center in Houston remains open for business, providing its usual support for the International Space Station, NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports, though the rest of the center in Houston is closed. Also, NASA's Web site is down, and most employees have been put on furlough. A NASA memo obtained by SpaceRef, an online publication for the space industry, suggests most NASA employees weren't even allowed to turn on their computers. The Mars rover Curiosity is still making its rounds on the red planet (staffed by non-civil servants), according to John Grotzinger, project scientist on the Curiosity team, but managers in charge of MAVEN, NASA's next mission to Mars, worry that even a brief shutdown could delay their project's Nov. 18 launch. If the orbiter misses its launch period, another window won't open again for 26 months, the mission managers say. 
 
 At the U.S. Geological Survey, only 43 of its 8,600 employees are deemed essential and working during the shutdown. Just before she was furloughed Tuesday, a USGS spokesperson NPR's Richard Harris that there will be skeleton crews working at headquarters, at the earthquake center in Boulder, Colo., and at the volcano observatories, plus a couple of people are continuing to keep an eye on the data coming in from the two Landsat satellites. These spacecraft collect critical information about the earth's surface that's used by scientists and businesses. For now, the satellite data will only be archived, and analyzed and distributed as images later. 
 
 Although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is affected by the shutdown, officials there told NPR's Jon Hamilton, the weather forecasting portions of the agency are deemed "necessary to protect lives and property," and will continue their work unabated. The National Weather Service also stayed open during the federal shutdown in the winter of 1996 — and successfully forecast a blizzard. 
 
 Nearly 95 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency's 16,000-member staff has been furloughed. NPR's Elizabeth Shogren says that means there will be lots of delays in the programs that safeguard the nation's air water land and food. 
 
 Some cleanup activities are being postponed at more than 500 hazardous waste sites in nearly every state of the country. Some reviews of chemicals and pesticides are being stalled. But efforts to clean up leaking underground storage tanks will continue. EPA officials would also still respond to any environmental emergencies that arise, such as big chemical spills. 
 
 In a contingency plan released late last week, the U.S. Forest Service called for keeping 41 percent of its workforce on hand in case of a government shutdown. The agency said it needed about 13,000 workers to carry out essential activities such as fire suppression, law enforcement, protection of federal lands, and protection of research studies where a halt in activity could destroy or endanger study findings. 
 
 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the nation's nuclear reactors, has saved up enough money to continue full operations for another week. After that, it will focus on its core role policing safety at the nation's nuclear plants. NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner says "the NRC will continue to have on site, at all 100 nuclear reactors in this country, its resident inspectors." But most of the agency's nearly 4,000 employees will be sent home. In the unlikely event an accident occurs, Brenner says they could be recalled quickly. 
 
 You'll have to get your fuzzy animal fix elsewhere during the shutdown; the panda cam at The Smithsonian's National Zoo has been turned off. ||||| ARCO, Idaho (KBOI) -- Officials at Craters of the Moon National Monument are about to get more boots on the ground to search for a missing Boise woman. 
 
 The monument has 19 employees and all but three were about to be placed on furlough due to the government shutdown. On Wednesday, however, officials there say the park has received permission to keep 10 workers under the "excepted" status during the search. 
 
 Officials have been looking for 63-year-old Jo Elliott-Blakeslee for about a week. Her hiking partner, 69-year-old Amy Linkert, was found dead last Wednesday. 
 
 "The probability of finding her (Elliott-Blakeslee) alive has diminished, but we are committed to continuing the search until we find Dr. Jo and bring closure to her family, friends and all those who have been involved in this search," said Dan Buckley, park superintendent. 
 
 With 16 staff employees being placed on furlough, Ted Stout, chief of interpretation and education at Craters, told KBOI 2News that no one was looking for 63-year-old Jo Elliott-Blakeslee Tuesday morning. 
 
 
 
 "It's pretty much just park staff that are continuing the search," Stout said. "But we're also faced with the government shutdown -- we've been busy with that." 
 
 Federal workers are not allowed to volunteer to do their jobs during a shutdown because U.S. law says they can't do any work that has not been allocated funding. 
 
 
 
 The search effort had already begun being scaled back due to rescue agencies being called back to their respective headquarters and poor weather earlier in the week. Only three staff members are at the park monitoring infrastructure resources. 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, family members have called for experienced hikers to help join the search. 
 
 
 
 On Monday, Elliott-Blakeslee's family released a statement thanking all those who have helped in the search, and saying that while they realize the chances of finding Elliott-Blakeslee alive are growing slim, they remain hopeful. They also noted that the search area is in rugged and often dangerous territory and prone to unpredictable weather. 
 
 
 
 "Either way, we are committed to bringing her home and are actively recruiting volunteers with backcountry experience to keep the search going. But we will not chance injury or loss of searchers," the family's prepared statement said. "In that vein, at a minimum, those interested in participating should be able to hike 10 to 12 miles and climb 1,000 feet at a time in treacherous terrain." ||||| 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.
– One potentially tragic consequence of the government shutdown: With 16 employees of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho now on furlough, the search for a missing woman last seen there has slowed dramatically. Jo Elliott-Blakeslee, 63, went hiking with Amy Linkert, 69, on Sept. 19; they were reported missing last Monday when Elliott-Blakeslee didn't arrive at work. The body of Linkert, who is believed to have died from exposure, was found last week, CBS News reports. Now Elliott-Blakeslee's family is asking experienced hikers to help search for her, KBOI reports—the station notes that federal workers can't even volunteer to do their jobs during a shutdown. More unfortunate consequences: Children with cancer are being blocked from starting clinical trials, officials say, since federal health employees are also on furlough. Each week of the shutdown, 200 patients won't be able to start their clinical trials; 15% of these patients are expected to be children, and 33% of those children (or 10 per week for as long as the shutdown lasts) have cancer. Ongoing clinical trials will continue, however, ABC News reports. The CDC has also furloughed employees, so it can't track multi-state disease outbreaks. And its seasonal flu program will be halted, which might hinder its ability to create next year's flu shot, a spokesperson says. The Washington Post has a list of the nine most painful consequences. Among them: Of the more than 2 million federal workers whose paychecks might be delayed, 800,000 might never actually get paid. If the shutdown lasts more than a couple of weeks, veterans may not receive pension payments or see their disability claims paid. Disability benefits for non-veterans could also be interrupted. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutritional program could keep running through October in many states, but could shut down after just one week in some. And Head Start programs, which provide health, nutrition, and other services to low-income kids, will gradually start closing. NPR runs down the shutdown's many impacts on science and health. Workers are furloughed and programs are being shut down at the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, the FDA, NASA, the US Geological Survey, NOAA, the EPA, the Forest Service, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (And as you probably have heard, the National Zoo turned off its "panda cam.") One other impact? A planned Ku Klux Klan rally at Gettysburg won't be happening.