With Shutdown Near, Federal Workers Face Layoffs, Jobless Benefits

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If the federal government shuts down Friday night, more than 2 million federal workers across the country are facing temporary layoffs or no paychecks. Yet for the 800,000 workers who would be laid off -- deemed non-essential -- they can file for unemployment benefits.

By midday, most federal employees had been told whether they have been deemed essential or would be temporarily laid off. But exactly when they can file for benefits and the amount they receive depends on the state where they work.

Contrary to popular belief, about 85 percent of federal workers work outside of Washington. Many of them are concentrated in Maryland, Virginia, California, Texas, Florida and New York.

In Maryland, where there are 262,000 federal workers, they qualify for unemployment benefits from the first day of a shutdown, and could get a maximum of $430 a week.

Mike Raia, spokesman for the state Department of Labor, said the division has plans in place to handle additional claims.

"If the shutdown happens on Friday, there will be an application up on that site early next week, either Monday or Tuesday, that will allow federal employees to file their claim online," he said.

It takes a week for federal employees in Virginia and D.C. to qualify. The top benefit in Washington is $359, and $378 in Virginia.

There's a one-week waiting period in California, where there are 254,100 federal government workers, 62,000 of them in the Department of Defense. The top benefit is $450.

Kevin Callori, spokesman for the state Employment Development Department, told FoxNews.com that the department is not doing anything "out of the ordinary" in the event of a flood of claims due to a prolonged shutdown.

"We've gotten used to that with the current recession," he said. "We have staff available. We should be able to handle that."

New York, which has 130,000 federal workers, also said it was ready for a shutdown.

"A federal government shutdown will not impact New York's ability to disburse regular, extended and emergency unemployment benefits to claimants," Leo Rosales, spokesman for the state Department of Labor, told FoxNews.com.

In Texas, there are about 200,000 federal employees who can apply for benefits as soon as shutdown occurs. The maximum benefit is $415.

In Florida, the federal government's 175,000 workers can apply for benefits immediately. The top benefit is $275.

It's not yet clear which workers get to stay on the job during a shutdown. Under long-standing federal rules, agencies would not be affected that provide for U.S. national security, dispense most types of federal benefit payments, offer inpatient medical care or outpatient emergency care, ensure the safe use of food and drugs, manage air traffic, protect and monitor borders and coastlines, guard prisoners, conduct criminal investigations and law enforcement, oversee power distribution and oversee banks.

Mail deliveries would continue in the event of a shutdown. U.S. postal operations are not subsidized by tax dollars.

In Washington, 21,000 employees have been deemed essential and are expected to work. That includes police officers, firefighters and emergency officials as well as officials who work in public health and with school-age children. Notifications were going out Friday afternoon to employees.

Non-essential employees won't be able to come to work, volunteer or use their government-issued Blackberries.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the nation's largest federal union, filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over the looming shutdown, arguing that ordering federal employees to work without pay during a shutdown violates the U.S. Constitution.

"Hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be required to work during a shutdown, and there's no guarantee that Congress will keep the administration's promise to pay those employees once the shutdown is over," AFGE National President John Gage said in a statement.

Capital News Service's Laura E. Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Workers watch clock as shutdown nears

A government shutdown would mean delays in getting a passport. STORY HIGHLIGHTSGovernment employees nervously watch the clock as shutdown nearsCongressional leaders differ on what's behind the stalemateWhile parks and other services will close, essential services will remain openSocial Security and Medicare payments will continue Washington (CNN) -- Federal workers nervously eyed the clock and an American public sharply divided along partisan lines watched from the sidelines Friday as Democrats and Republicans sniped at one another in a budget battle that could shut down the government and idle more than 800,000 people.

Negotiators have until midnight Friday to reach an agreement, or the government's massive gears will begin grinding to a halt.

What would be shut down?

Should the government shut down, operations from national parks to the White House visitor center would close. Even some government websites would blink out, replaced by virtual closed signs.

CNNMoney: I'm a 'nonessential' worker

But not everything would close.

10 things that could ruin your day

Essential services such as defense, air traffic control and law enforcement would continue largely unabated, as would Social Security enrollments and payments. The Social Security Administration said a backlog of applications would be crippling. Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics, already funded through the end of the year, would also remain open.

The upside of a shutdown

Medicare payments would also continue, as would health benefits for government employees. Electronically filed tax returns would be processed. And although paper returns wouldn't be reviewed, a shutdown wouldn't equal a tax holiday -- returns would still be due April 18.

The government estimates that 800,000 federal government employees would be sent home to anxiously await an agreement in what could become a lengthy, and unpaid, vacation. Even those who are asked to work wouldn't get paid until after the shutdown ends, and that could include U.S. troops fighting overseas.

Shutdown would mean no income for military

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From military to parks, U.S. workers brace for shutdown

By Sue Ogrocki, AP

Justin Castro, a National Park Service employee at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, faces an uncertain future if the government shuts down.

EnlargeCloseBy Sue Ogrocki, AP

Justin Castro, a National Park Service employee at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, faces an uncertain future if the government shuts down.

About 800,000 federal government workers would be affected by a shutdown. From the Statue of Liberty and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to military families that depend on paychecks, government furloughs as a result of a shutdown would have a major effect on everyday life.

The threat to U.S. troops' paychecks has rattled military families and others sympathetic to young soldiers, sailors, air crews and Marines fighting distant wars. The military issue has escalated the political feud in Washington.

On Friday, Republicans and Democrats clashed over the budget as President Obama canceled a trip to Indianapolis and spoke in separate phone calls with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker John Boehner.

Boehner said spending cuts — not social issues — were blocking a deal to prevent a shutdown at midnight. Reid said the only hang-up was Republican demand to cut a federal program that provides women's health and family planning services.

The House approved a resolution by Republicans to fund the military through the end of the fiscal year. But the White House threatened to block it, calling the measure a "distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise."

In Iraq on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told troops that if the government closes their next paycheck would be for half the normal amount and they wouldn't receive a check at all the following pay period, if the shutdown continued. Gates told them they could expect to get paid eventually for all of their work.

Krystel Spell, 29, of Spring Lake, N.C., is a military spouse who runs the website Armywife101.com. She has been flooded with questions from visitors to her website.

"We hear so much, 'We support our troops, we support our troops' … but the very backbone, the people that are protecting us, aren't going to get paid," she said. "Everybody said this isn't a political thing. This is people's livelihoods."

Marine Maj. Andrew Hesterman, 42, of Scotts Valley, Calif., who returned from Afghanistan a week ago, said he has heard troops voicing concern about a shutdown for about two months.

"You've left your wife and kid at home to fend for themselves, sort of," Hesterman said. "It makes you think that this employer can't take care of me while I'm away, so why do I want to work for them? It's tough on all servicemembers, especially the younger, less financially stable guys."

"We rely on the government for our paycheck," said Megan Bilotta, 32, a military spouse with 7-week-old twins who has been cutting back on expenses like eating out in preparation for a possible government shutdown. "We're a one-income family now that we have children, and if we don't get paid, I don't know what we're going to do."

More than 100 federal employees facing no paychecks protested outside a federal building in Chicago this week with signs that said, "Don't Punish the Public" and "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."

"I've sent an e-mail to my mortgage company asking if I can delay payment for the next month, and gotten no response," said Julie Sidlo, one of the protesters and an Environmental Protection Agency accountant who endured the last government shutdown in the 1990s. "I don't know if I can file for unemployment," adding that she has set money aside for several weeks.

The shutdown would mean the IRS would not process paper tax returns, U.S. citizens in foreign countries could get passports only from their embassies in emergencies, and dozens of schools that the Bureau of Indian Affairs oversees could be closed, said former BIA assistant secretary Carl Artman.

"There would be a significant financial impact on our daily operations and the (tribal) council would have to make some tough decisions," said Robert McDonald, a spokesman for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes in Montana. "Our director of social services is very concerned about the services he could provide."

Officials on the Navajo Nation, the country's largest Indian reservation, said the tribe receives two-thirds of its money from the federal government to support jails, police force, social services and other programs.

The tribe said it would have enough money to run those programs for about a month, but anything longer would be more difficult.

Justin Castro, a park service worker at the Oklahoma City Bombing National Memorial, said "not having a check means not paying rent and not paying bills that need to be paid."

All National Park sites, including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York Harbor, which draw 5 million visitors a year, would close. Ferries that run to the islands from Lower Manhattan and from New Jersey would be suspended, and most of the 140 park service employees on the island would not report to work — except for one.

"I can assure the American people, Lady Liberty is never alone," said Darren Boch, park department spokesman. "But it will be lonely without 10,000 people walking around at her feet."

As many as 15,000 people a day visit the Statue of Liberty, said Elizabeth Carmody, marketing director for Statue Cruises, which operates the ferries to the islands. Tickets to go inside the statue and up to the crown — which are limited — are already sold-out for Saturday and Sunday, Carmody said. Shut-out customers can get a refund of the $13 ticket price or take a sightseeing cruise of the harbor instead.

But the cruise line is scrambling because its ticket offices are located inside Castle Clinton, the historic fort owned by the park service that is located in Manhattan's Battery Park. If the government shuts down Saturday, so does Castle Clinton, and the company won't have access to its offices.

Carmody said the company plans to move the ferries so passengers can board without walking through the fort, and sell tickets on the dock.

"(Friday) we're packing the boats up with tables and cash registers and cash," Carmody says. "We've been trying to figure out Plan B."

About half of all employees of the Department of Health and Human Services would be furloughed if the government shuts down. The department includes the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and they must have staff on hand to deal with imminent threats to human safety or property.

The CDC will continue to monitor diseases on a limited basis, but much of that work is done by local jurisdictions and hospitals, which will continue to collect information and report it to the federal agency. If necessary, the CDC could call furloughed employees back to work to deal with pressing public health problems, such as an illness outbreak. But such CDC activities as disease prevention and health promotion would be put on hold during the furlough.

During a shutdown, the FDA would still deal with public health emergencies related to pharmaceuticals or medical devices. And although random food inspections would be curtailed significantly, the agency would continue food safety activities such as monitoring foods imported from Japan and other countries.

At the NIH as well as the CDC and FDA, workers will continue to care for lab animals. However, research will be put on hold, including seven studies scheduled to begin next week at the NIH's main campus in Bethesda, Md.

In addition, ongoing studies will not admit new patients. As of late Thursday afternoon, it wasn't clear how a government shutdown would affect NIH websites, hotlines and clearinghouses.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, is also part of the Health and Human Services Department. CMS can dip into the Medicare trust fund in case of a shortfall in discretionary dollars, although an unexpectedly long shutdown would drain it. States have already received their federal Medicaid funding for the third quarter of the fiscal year, which runs through June, so there shouldn't be any immediate issues with that program.

Around the country:

•Located on the threshold of Zion National Park, the town of Springdale, Utah, would essentially go dark if the government shuts down. About 80% of Springdale's annual budget comes from sales tax — most of which is generated by national park visitors, said town Manager Rick Wixom. "I'm the last in and the first out," said Steve Johnson, night host at Springdale's Bit and Spur restaurant "I probably wouldn't be working for a while."

•Fifty eighth-graders from the Albert D. Lawton School in Essex Junction, Vt., are hoping a shutdown can be avoided, or at least that it ends quickly. The group is planning to head by bus to Washington during their spring break, April 16-21.

"The students have been fundraising all year," said history teacher Peter Gustafson about the $800-per-person trip, which includes visits to the White House, Mount Vernon, the Smithsonian, Pentagon and other key spots.¶

Contributing: Martha Moore in New York City; Rita Rubin in McLean, Va.; Ed Kociela, The (St. George, Utah) Spectrum; Terri Hallenbeck and Mike Donoghue, The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press; the Associated Press

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Wisconsin News Have Given Hopes To State Union Workers

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Costly battle of politics over Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is heating up; it was listened that the battle was going to be over by Wednesday because Tuesday was the day of elections. Voters had come to polls in large numbers. But the battle was very close till the end of vote counting; results have not come according to their prediction. Elections were given big coverage by media because the battle of budget had divided Wisconsin. Earlier, Wisconsin had avoided voting due to advice of Senate Democrats; their criticism had politicised the issue and the issue could only be settled after consensus with state union workers. Fulfilment of quorum was essential for legitimization of vote; therefore senators of Republican frozen all fiscal parts of bills. It was the repair bill of budget which directly linked with state union workers. Democrats had to sue Republicans for the reason that their action was in violation of state’s law.

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Federal Workers Union Sues White House Over Possible Government Shutdown

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With time running out for congressional leaders to reach a budget deal, the country's biggest federal workers union is taking the Obama administration to court for what it called a failure to explain how federal programs and services would be affected if there's a government shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employees announced Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit in federal court last week seeking details on the shutdown plans of federal agencies.

The union's national president, John Gage, said he filed the lawsuit after the White House Office of Management and Budget failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request sent early last month.

Gage said public unions have been given very little information on how agencies would determine which employees are essential in the event of a government shutdown.

"It's not something that should be cavalierly handled," Gage said in a written statement. "If a shutdown goes on, there will be federal employees who are going to be hurt financially. They should know before the eve of a shutdown what is happening and it should be done orderly and not in a last-minute rush."

The Office of Management and Budget declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it doesn't talk about pending litigation. But the office said the administration "has taken unprecedented steps to improve government transparency and accountability, and shutdown planning is no exception. We still believe that there is an opportunity to avoid a costly government shutdown, which would cause undue harm to the lives of federal employees, the services millions of Americans rely on, and the economic recovery under way."

The agency called plans for a shutdown "pre-decisional at this time," adding that more information will be released as it is finalized.

With Republicans and Democrats unable to reach a budget agreement, a government shutdown could occur as early as this weekend. A top White House budget official has written a memo to agency heads directing them to review and share their contingency plans for a shutdown.

Gage said he sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder last week, stating the union's position that requiring federal employees to work without getting paid violates the 13th Amendment, which prohibits involuntary servitude. He said he also sent a letter last week to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry asking how long "essential employees" can be required to work during shutdown without being paid.

Gage said if there is a shutdown, the union will be calling on employees to report to their job sites early next week to demonstrate that they are ready to go back to work.

"The American public can see at least that federal employees know the importance of their jobs and that political games should not be played with their services or with their jobs," he said.

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Obama Offers Condolences to U.N. Workers Killed in Afghan Koran-Burning Protest

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President Obama on Friday condemned the attack on a United Nations office in northern Afghanistan and offered condolences to those injured and families of those killed. 

Demonstrators reportedly were incensed at the burning of a Koran by a Florida pastor last month. They opened fire on a U.N. office in Mazar-i-Sharif, killing 12 people, including three foreign UN workers and five Nepalese UN guards, officials said.

Two of the foreign dead reportedly were beheaded.

"The brave men and women of the United Nations, including the Afghan staff, undertake their work in support of the Afghan people. Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence and resolve differences through dialogue," Obama said in a statement that was read by Press Secretary Jay Carney.

But asked by reporters whether Pastor Terry Jones' Koran burning was the trigger for the protest, Carney said the cause is still being assessed.

"I'm going to refrain for now from commenting on what may or may not have been the cause of the demonstrations that led to these horrific acts ... I'm not going to say anything about it now. I just don't have enough information, we don't have enough information," Carney said. 

The State Department also said it was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the reports. 

"We condemn this attack on U.N. staff, both international and Afghan, in the strongest possible terms, and convey our deep condolences to the families of the victims and to the leadership of the United Nations. There is no justification for the murder of innocent people," spokesman Mark Toner said.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has frequently called for a smaller U.S. presence in Afghanistan, said he was "saddened and angered" by the deaths. 

"We and the Afghan people owe a debt of gratitude to the people who risk their lives to make Afghanistan a better place. Instead, an angry mob took out its rage on selfless public servants and innocent bystanders who had no connection to the desecration of a Koran by a radical figure in Florida. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and with all aid workers who put their lives on the line every day," he said in a statement.

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