Federal funding is due to expire on Thursday, and Congress still hasn’t reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown. A few hard-line Republicans have talked about using the power of the purse as leverage to thwart President Obama’s recent immigration actions, but a similar budget confrontation last year led to a 16-day shutdown and a big drop in Congress’s approval ratings. If past is precedent, the public will not appreciate a repeat. Nonetheless, Congress will be heading in that direction if lawmakers do not reach an agreement on spending legislation this week. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what would happen next, based on a report this year from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. One of the first things federal agencies have to do when a shutdown occurs is identify which of their employees are vital to national security or necessary to perform activities expressly authorized by law. Those employees would be exempt from forced time off, known as furloughs, and they would have to continue working. Read more http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...own-heres-whats-at-stake/?tid=pm_politics_pop
