If the federal government partially shuts down at midnight Tuesday, Tom Scott will be forced to stay home on furlough or come into work unsure when his next paycheck will arrive.
“We’re not too happy about it,” said Scott, an engineer technician at Robins Air Force Base. “We are always being put in as a bargaining chip. You have people in D.C. who can’t get their act together. We’re just collateral damage.”
Scott is one of more than 77,000 executive branch civilian workers in Georgia who are bracing for severe disruptions in a shutdown, which will have ripple effects for many Georgians.
National parks would close. Lower-income and first-time home buyers would not be able to get a federally backed loan.
The government does not halt altogether.
Key services such as Social Security checks, Medicare reimbursements and food stamps would continue to flow. The U.S. Postal Service, which is mostly self-funded, would keep chugging.
Veterans Administration hospitals would remain open. Active-duty military members would remain on post.
But some of those agencies would shed staff in a shutdown, leading to possible delays in services.
If Congress and President Barack Obama cannot agree on a bill to keep government funding flowing, a shutdown would go into effect for the first time since January 1996.
via What a federal shutdown will — and won’t — mean for Georgia | www.myajc.com.
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