BUDGET/POLITICS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Federal agencies are bracing for a shutdown amid growing uncertainty about whether the Senate will vote to keep the government open past midnight.
Unlike the last federal shutdown in 2013, which President Barack Obama had signaled for weeks, this threat arrived abruptly.
On Thursday [1-18-18] morning, President Donald Trump fired off a hot-tempered tweet to Congress condemning a short-term deal to fund children’s health insurance. By afternoon, federal agencies were issuing legal guidance, briefing staff on the definition of ‘essential’ personnel, and dusting off their contingency plans. On Thursday night, the Office of Management and Budget began releasing legal guidance to agencies.
On Friday morning, OMB Chief Mick Mulvaney said preparations were moving ahead as though a shutdown might happen…
The city has been brought to the brink before, but rarely — and maybe never — with so little warning.
The 16-day closure of 2013, one of the government’s longest, arrived after a slow windup from the Obama administration. Obama spent weeks using the threat of a shutdown to score political points with the public, squarely blaming Republicans and warning federal employees what was coming. When the shutdown did come, Obama’s political calculus paid off; Republicans took most of the heat.”
-Lorraine Woellert, “Shutdown threatens a ‘gut punch’ as agencies brace for closure,” Politico, Jan. 19, 2018 10:30am