WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a third of federal workers would be told to stay home if the government shuts down, forcing the closure of national parks from California to Maine and all the Smithsonian museums in the nation’s capital. Workers at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs wouldn’t be around to process visa and passport applications, complicating the travel plans of hundreds of thousands.These would be just some of the effects of a government shutdown that furloughs 800,000 of the nation’s 2.1 million federal workers. It could hit as early as Tuesday if a bitterly divided Congress fails to approve a temporary spending bill to keep the government running.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=204200