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Funding expires for a number of key government agencies on December 21st at midnight. And while there is still time to avoid a closure, both parties have not yet managed to reach an agreement to keep the government open.
The main stumbling block is the amount that Congress should allocate to the wall long promised by the president. at the US-Mexico border. Trump wants $ 5 billion, but Democrats are unwilling to accept this and any spending bill requires bipartisan support to be passed by Congress, not least because Senate rules require a threshold of 60 voice (Republicans control room 51-49).
If a judgment were taken, its scope would be limited. Indeed, Congress had already funded about 75% of the federal government until September 2019, including the Pentagon, the Departments of Health and Human Services and Labor.
But that does not mean that a partial stop, just a few days before Christmas, would disturb.
Seven spending bills are yet to be passed and funding will expire on December 21 for the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior, the Department of State , the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and other parts of the government.
In the event of a closure, certain federal employees would be considered essential and continue to work, but their wages would be withheld until the end of the closure.
Other federal employees would be laid off, which means that they would actually be put on leave without pay. Congress may request that employees on leave be paid retroactively after closing, but this is not guaranteed.
It is difficult to predict how a stop could occur and what the impact would be.
But according to a fact sheet published by Democratic staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee, more than 420,000 public servants are expected to work without pay in the event of a partial closure, including more than 41,000 federal officials. law enforcement and correction.
The fact sheet, which describes the projected effects of a closure, estimates that the vast majority of Department of Homeland Security employees would be among those forced to work without pay during a closure, including dozens of thousands of people. Protection officers and customs agents.
More than 380,000 federal public servants would be laid off, according to the fact sheet, including the majority of staff at NASA, the National Parks Service and the Housing and Urban Development Department. [19659002] An administration official told CNN that "if there was to be a disruption of funds, the majority of DHS activities would continue, for example, those that protect our borders with customs and border patrol will continue to do so ".
"In addition, activities supported by multi-year funding, such as the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund, will continue to operate," said a senior administration official.
National Parks Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum told CNN, "We are not speculating on a possible change in government activities, national parks are open and continue to welcome visitors."
[19659016] Phil Mattingly and Laura Jarrett of CNN contributed to this report.
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