WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- The White House Office of Management and Budget late Monday night ordered the federal agencies to begin their plans for a government shutdown, due to a lack of bipartisan funding bill.
"We do not have a clear indication that Congress will act in time for the President to sign a continuing resolution before the end of the day tomorrow, October 1, 2013. Therefore, agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations," said Sylvia Burwell, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, in a statement.
"We urge Congress to act quickly to pass a continuing resolution to provide a short-term bridge that ensures sufficient time to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, and to restore the operation of critical public services and programs that will be impacted by a lapse in appropriations," she added.
This is the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years. The last time the government shut down was in 1996 during budget standoff between the Clinton administration and a Republican-controlled Congress.
After weeks of Congressional back-and-force, the lawmakers missed the Monday midnight deadline to avert a shutdown of the federal government.
Last-minute efforts to resolve the stalemate failed as the Senate rejected the latest House bill which intended to use delaying part of Obamacare as a condition of funding the government.
U.S. federal agencies have to identify the essential personnel and determine which operations to continue. Essential public services ranging from postal services to national security will be kept in place. But up to 1 million government employees would be affected and some of them will stay home on unpaid furlough.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua)-- U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that a government shutdown would have very real economic impact on the Americans,.
"It does not have to happen," Obama said in a late afternoon statement in the White House. "All of this is entirely preventable if the House chooses to do what the Senate has already done, and that's the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process." Full story
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate on late Monday night rejected the latest House bill to delay part of the healthcare law and fund the government through mid-December, as the federal government teeters toward a shutdown.
By a vote of 54-46, the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected the changes to Obamacare and again sent back to the House a "clean" funding bill to keep the U.S. government operating beyond Sept. 30, when the current fiscal year expires. Full story
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