It’s Oct. 1, meaning the start of the federal fiscal year.
Trouble is, there is no budget approval and, thus, no federal operations until further notice — and Republicans in Congress wasted no time decrying the government shutdown late Tuesday.
A continuing resolution passed the House several weeks ago but got stuck in the Senate. The CR, as it’s abbreviated, would have kept federal government operations running until Nov. 21. Fifty-five Senators voted in favor of the package, but it needed 60 yes votes to take effect.
Senator Jerry Moran says this shutdown “makes no sense to me,” especially since several bills of note have successfully gone through the committee process and some have passed the Senate.
Moran says a shutdown means “uncertainty” and “dysfunction.” He didn’t name Democrats in his speech on the Senate floor, but he says some in Congress want to address other matters with the continuing resolution.
Fellow Senator Roger Marshall says Democrats are to blame, and he says it did not surprise him that “partisan games” were involved. He says Republicans “voted to fund the government and restore fiscal responsibility, while Democrats chose not to govern. They own this shutdown.”
Second District Congressman Derek Schmidt agrees with Marshall, saying Democrats wanted to add a $1.5 trillion wish list of additional reckless spending instead of passing the House’s continuing resolution.” He had addressed the possibility during his monthly visit on KVOE’s Morning Show late last week.
Schmidt had said the House took a different approach with this CR, shortening the language considerably before passing it in mid-September.
This is the first federal government shutdown since 2018, which was the longest in US history at 35 days. It’s also the 21st shutdown since the 1977 federal fiscal year, according to ABC News.
Locally, this could halt operations of the Social Security office in west Emporia, although Social Security payments have been approved without an expiration date so those will not be affected, according to CBS News. This could also affect the USDA office in west Emporia, although Reuters says USDA operations like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP benefits will continue. It calls into question operations at the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge near Hartford and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City. Being self-funded, the US Postal Service should continue operating through the shutdown.
Get more on the federal government shutdown through ABC News.
