What’s affected by the US Government shutdown

The US Capitol Visitors Centre is closed to visitors during the federal government shutdown in Washington, DC. Photo / Getty Images

The US Government closed down at 12.01am on Wednesday (local time) amid a bitter partisan fight over funding, shuttering many federal offices and services – and leaving three-quarters of a million employees on furlough and others working without pay indefinitely.

Here is a breakdown of what is closed, including what is happening across federal agencies and to some workers. The Trump administration has also told officials to prepare for mass layoffs while the shutdown lasts.

Nearly 750,000 total federal workers are being placed on furlough, deferring an estimated US$400 million ($687.8m) a day in compensation, according to an estimate Tuesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Some fundamental government services should continue unchanged – mail will be delivered, Social Security cheques sent out – because they’re not funded through annual laws passed by Congress (the US Postal Service is generally funded through the sale of postage products). Many employees at the agencies handling those tasks will be working without pay. That includes 88% of the staff at the Social Security Administration, for example, as well as 96% of the workforce at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Tax processing should also be unaffected, because the IRS has an alternate source of funding: the Inflation Reduction Act, enacted under President Joe Biden in 2022, which gives the IRS money to keep operating through 2031.

National parks with accessible areas – including roads, trails and open-air memorials – will generally remain open to the public, while anything with a door or a gate that can be secured will close, including buildings and car parks, according to an internal National Park Service message to staff reviewed by the Washington Post.

That means places like the interior of the Washington Monument or museums at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park are likely to close, while major parks like Yellowstone in Wyoming or Zion in Utah will still largely be accessible. Parks can use income from fees collected from visitors to maintain minimum services such as rubbish collection, campground operations and restroom cleanup that will be offered at sites that remain open, according to the message sent by the National Park Service acting director Jessica Bowron to staff. (Interior Department and National Park Service officials did not immediately return a request for comment.)

Some agencies where employees do not directly work on public safety or the protection of government property are almost entirely closed, as in previous shutdowns.

Almost 90% of the Education Department has been placed on furlough, as has roughly 80% of the Commerce Department, three-quarters of the Labour Department and two-thirds of the State Department, according to agency plans posted online. Among the casualties of these large-scale furloughs: the highly anticipated jobs numbers for September, which were supposed to publish on Friday.

Instead, the Bureau of Labour Statistics moved to “suspend all operations”, the Labour Department’s guidance notes, and “economic data that are scheduled to be released during the lapse will not be released”.

By contrast, just 5% of the Department of Homeland Security has been furloughed. But within DHS, a division devoted to cyber defence is confronting serious handicaps: 65% of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been placed on furlough.

“It is going to make it very difficult for CISA to respond to any incidents, and it will bring most other work to a halt,” said former White House cybersecurity adviser Michael Daniel – just when hacking attacks from China and elsewhere are rising.

This shutdown is the first since one that began in December 2018, when a partial closure lasted for 34 days – the longest closure in American history.

Joseph Menn and Lydia Sidhom contributed to this report.

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