I'm listing how it's affecting us- (I'm not the only one who is doing this-NPR is too)
Joshua Tree park was closed due to damage but now is open again.
California's Joshua Tree National Park will avoid a temporary closure after officials said they have found other funds to cover the costs of cleaning clogged restrooms and other facilities during the partial government shutdown.
Officials had planned to close the park completely Thursday, citing the inability to manage the waste left behind by visitors and habitat destruction by offroaders. Some of the park's namesake trees were also damaged.
People have diedin the National Parks during this shutdown.
On Christmas Eve, a 14-year-old girl fell to her death at the iconic Horseshoe Bend overlook in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. Then on Christmas Day a man died at Yosemite National Park after sustaining head injuries while on a water-slick granite slope known as the Silver Apron.
Two days later, a woman died after being hit by a falling tree in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On that same day, a woman's body was found after she'd gone missing from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area in Pennsylvania on Dec. 23, the day after the shutdown began.
So why is this?
Unlike previous government shutdowns, when officials in the Interior Department elected to close the parks to protect natural resources and public safety, the Trump administration has decided to keep the facilities open. While the parks continue to see thousands of visitors each day, they are running with reduced staff as operations like trash removal and restroom facilities remaining closed
Government employees are either furloughed or being forced to work without pay.
Approximately 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are being required to work without pay.
Congress had already passed appropriations bills funding about three-quarters of the federal government, including Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, so those departments and agencies remain operational.
Lots of important things are not affected by this shutdown: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Health Insurance Marketplace (aka Obamacare). Social Security, disability checks and veterans' benefits. Getting a passport. And the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency whose operations are funded by sales of postage and services, not taxes, keeps delivering mail.
TSA workers are calling off sick as they aren't presently getting paid. Honestly, I do not blame them. Bill collectors don't care if you're getting paid "eventually." They want their money now.
Small business owners are unable to get loans.
The Small Business Administration stopped processing new loans on Dec. 22. Troxler and thousands of others can’t get their SBA loans approved, meaning they can’t get money they need to start or expand their companies.
Oh, and by the way, planes aren't being inspected. So, don't fly.
Many planes are not being inspected and pilot training is not being certified, says Capt. Dennis Tajer, a pilot for American Airlines and a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.
That's because many of the FAA safety inspectors aren't working.
The USDA has furloughed employees so who cares about salmonella, amirite?
Meanwhile, the president is heading to the border talking about possibly issuing a state of emergency to get border wall funding and end the shut down. I am leery of what issuing a state of emergency under these circumstances would entail in the future, personally.
People who ACTUALLY work on securing borders and preventing drugs from getting in may not be getting paid as they are the Coast Guard.
While the other branches of the military are part of the Defense Department, the Coast Guard falls under Homeland Security. After some maneuvering, the government found a way to pay its military members on Dec. 31. The nearly 42,000 active duty members of the Coast Guard are still working, as they are considered essential personnel, but it's not clear whether they will get a paycheck on Jan. 15.
The BIA, which tbh is borderline useless most days, is completely unanswering their phones. IHS clinics can only take emergencies and its staff are essential so they do have to show up, but again, they aren't being paid. The Yomba Shoshone Tribe's entire revenue stream is thru the Feds. So this is particularly devastating to them.
But to many people in Indian Country, a government shutdown can be a matter of life or death.
That point was driven hard in one small tribal community in rural Nevada, where the entire staff was temporarily laid off, leaving many elders stranded without access to health care, groceries or medicine.
Our already backlogged immigration courts now are getting backlogged even more as the courts are presently closed. Many are having to reschedule their cases, going to the back of the line, which is another 2-3 year wait.
The Smithsonian museums are closed.
Oil and gas drilling are often done on federal lands. Of course, this is now on hold.
The feds aren't paying their water bills during the shutdown, either.
The federal government is also the largest customer of DC Water — and it told the utility company it wouldn't be paying $5 million of its quarterly bill during the shutdown, WAMU's Jacob Fenston reports. The DC Water board members joked about how to handle this big unpaid bill, perhaps by turning off the water at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.