How shutdown could affect you
Benefits
• Recipients of Social Security, SSI, unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps and some other programs will continue to receive benefits. However, some processes related to applying for or appealing these benefits could be stopped.
• In the last shutdown, some physician payments from Medicare and Medicaid were slightly delayed, but the programs continued running.
• Congress has already explicitly funded veterans hospitals, so they won't be affected by the shutdown.
Government facilities
• Local parks, schools, libraries and city government buildings will be open because they are not controlled by the federal government.
• Congress has already explicitly funded federal prisons, so they aren't affected.
• Federal courts have at least three more weeks of funding after a government shutdown.
• Congress will continue to work, though some low-level staff may not get paid.
• Most federal office buildings will be shut down and the employees sent home.
Recreation
• The Office of Management and Budget said national parks and monuments will stay open.
• Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo have funding to stay open through Sunday but would close on Monday.
Travel and shipping
• The U.S. Postal Service is an independent agency, so it will not be affected.
• Some passport offices will likely remain open. Those located inside federal buildings will close.
• Air traffic controllers, TSA officers and customs agents will continue to work at airports.
Other
• Funding for special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe is approved by Congress outside of the normal government funding process, so it is not affected.
• Active-duty troops will continue to work, though some training exercises will cease.
• At the IRS, automated processes will continue, but all processes that require people, such as providing customer service, will close.
• Some long-term responses to hurricanes, wildfires and mudslides will pause.
• Though 90 percent of Education Department staff will be sent home, people assigned to federal financial aid will continue working.
• USDA inspection of meat, poultry and eggs will continue.
• Some government research projects, such as geological and weather research, will cease. Nongovernmental organizations already receiving grants, however, are not affected.
Washington Post
