WASHINGTON - Eighteen years after a political impasse shut down the federal government, another partisan standoff is threatening to shutter the government again.
Last time it was President Bill Clinton versus a Republican Congress.
This time it’s President Barack Obama versus the Republican-controlled House.
If no agreement is reached, in fewer than four days the nation’s money runs out and much of Washington grinds to a halt.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to send a resolution temporarily funding the government to the House today. Wrangling over the funding bill is expected to continue throughout the weekend as Congress attempts to reach a compromise before the federal fiscal year ends at midnight Monday.
Some Republicans in the House and Senate have pushed to block some funding for the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act through the continuing resolution. Obama and Democrats have said they will not approve a bill that does not fund the health-care act. The sign-up period begins Tuesday for Americans who want insurance coverage under the health-care act.
The Senate is expected to strip out language defunding the law before sending the bill to the House.
The last time government shut down was in 1995 whenthe White House and Republicans could not reach an agreement on spending and how to balance the federal budget. The federal government shut down twice: for five days in November and for 21 days in late 1995 and early 1996.
Stan Collender, national director of financial communications for Washington public relations firm Qorvis, told reporters Thursday that the Clinton-era fight was over something that had a middle ground: how much spending should be cut to slow the growth of the national debt.
Collender has worked for the House and Senate Budget Committees. He is the author of The Guide to the Federal Budget, which is updated yearly to explain federal fiscal and monetary policies.
This time there isn’t any obvious middle ground, he said.
“They are using the budget process, but it’s not really about the budget,” he said. “When one side says ‘I want 200’ and the other side says ‘I want to get rid of Obamacare’” there is no middle ground.
Collender said he expects that a shutdown would last at least seven days.
“The politics of the shutdown won’t change until government actually shuts down, and people notice they are missing something,” he said.
Collender said people will see the effects of a shutdown fairly quickly because the fiscal year ends on a Monday, the start of a week, rather than near a weekend as previous shutdowns did.
If there’s a shutdown, officials say it’s likely that:
Up to half of the nation’s 4.1 million federal employees would be furloughed, with a chance that they will never be paid for the time off if Congress won’t approve it. Employees who are necessary to protect life or property would stay on the job if the president instructs them to, but they would not receive paychecks until the shutdown ends.
A 1981 law requires that Congress be paid whether there is a federal budget or not. So they can collect their paychecks as usual; their office staff members cannot.
Social Security checks, food stamps, welfare checks, and student and small-business loan payments would still go out, but there would be no one to process new applications, fix problems or answer questions.
Mail would be delivered because the U.S. Postal Service is an independent federal agency. “So your bills will get there,” Collender said.
National parks would close, and visa and passport applications would be put on hold.
Pulitzer-prize winning White House correspondent George Condon, also speaking with reporters Thursday, pointed to one unintended consequence of the 1995 shutdown that probably won’t appear this time around.
The White House used interns to fill in for staff members furloughed during the 1995 shutdown, which is how Bill Clinton became involved with Monica Lewinsky, he said.
Polls in 1996 showed that the public largely blamed Republicans for the nearly month-long shutdown that caused inconvenience and led thousands of federal workers to apply for unemployment benefits before the party relented and approved a budget.
Collender said responsibility was placed on Republicans because House Speaker Newt Gingrich claimed the stoppage.
Gingrich kept saying “we’re going to shut the government down,” Collender said. “John Boehner is not Newt Gingrich, not even close.”
Condon said Clinton had a bigger soapbox, a better message and didn’t have to compete with social media and the Internet the way Obama will.
“President Obama’s message is not as clear-cut as President Clinton’s was,” he said.
On Election Day, none of the four Democrats or two Republicans in Arkansas’ delegation was defeated in 1996.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Hutchinson secured a U.S. Senate seat with 52.7 percent. Rep. Jay Dickey handily won re-election with 63.5 percent, and Asa Hutchinson, a Republican from Fort Smith, secured his brother’s House seat with 55.7 percent.
None of Arkansas’ current congressional leaders was in office in 1995. Sen. John Boozman said colleagues were still reeling from the shutdown when he entered the U.S. House in 2001.
“That was a very difficult time for the Congress, a very difficult time for the nation,” said Boozman, a Republican.
In 1995, Congress had approved seven of the 13 appropriation bills needed to fund the government.
None has passed this year, a key difference that will cause a more complete shutdown than in 1996, Boozman said.
Boozman said there will be plenty of blame to go around if Congress and the White House hold American workers and military members hostage for political gain.
“It’s simply not the right way to run government. It’s why the American people hold Washington in low regard,” Boozman said.
Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement that he doesn’t expect the House or Republicans to be punished by voters.
“The only people talking about a shutdown are President Obama and Senate [Democrats],” he said. “The House passed a bill that keeps the government funded.”
Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., said he expects a compromise and wouldn’t speculate about who would be blamed if none is reached.
“I’m not going to give oxygen to the idea that the president is going to stand firm and shut the government down,” he said.
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., agreed.
“I’m not focused on the blame game, I’m focused on getting things done,” he said in a statement.
A spokesman for Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said the congressman expects that Congress as a whole might be blamed.
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., echoed that position in a statement.
“A government shutdown is the result of the failure of both chambers, and both the administration and Congress to govern,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/27/2013