As the U.S. government once again faces a partial shutdown, President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to approve $1.6 trillion in funding for federal agencies by Friday.
Leaders in both the House and Senate are being asked to finalize the details of 12 funding bills to fund the operations of agencies that have been on emergency extensions since late September.
More funds are also being negotiated for international commitments such as helping Ukraine in its defense against Russia.
If lawmakers cannot agree on the spending package or a further extension of existing temporary funding arrangements, government departments could close as early as this weekend.
Thousands of federal employees could be ordered not to come to work, impacting critical government services, as well as public and private businesses and millions of American citizens.
Also Read: Government Shutdown Narrowly Averted When House Greenlighted Funding Through March, But Did President Mike Johnson Put His Job in Jeopardy?
March 1: The Departments of Transportation, Housing and Food Safety would see funds expire.
According According to USA Facts, about 44% of the 2023 federal transportation and infrastructure spending budget went toward road transportation, including road repairs and civil engineering structures such as bridges.
Meanwhile, 23% went to air travel, particularly infrastructure and jobs such as air traffic control and security checks. While qualified controllers and full-time security staff would be required to work, training would cease, leaving both understaffed.
This could have a major impact on air travel, with cancellations inevitable if required maintenance and air traffic control staff are unable to work.
Cancellations would hurt stocks like Southwestern Airline LUVwhich has so far enjoyed a 20% gain in 2024, while American Airlines Group AAL has gained 12% and United Airlines Holdings UAL has risen 11%.
Much of the rest is spent on rail infrastructure and subsidies, which come from the Federal Transit Administration, which could be affected.
Railway freight operators such as Union Pacific Corporation ONE P could be disrupted, which could also mean trouble for companies in the supply chain.
He iShares Transportation Average ETF IYTa publicly traded transportation that tracks the transportation subindex of the S&P 500, fell 0.3% on Monday to $280.29.
Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus is a group of nearly 40 Republicans pushing for highly conservative policies, such as ending funding to boost growth in electric vehicle use. would do Tesla Inc. TSLAalready suffering from a decline in sales, do you see further loss of growth for your products?
Some citizens could suffer the consequences of the threat of public housing assistance, but the majority of homeowners who pay mortgages and rents would not be affected.
But payments to companies and workers hired to build new public housing could be affected.
March 8: The departments of Defense, Legal, National Parks and Science would see their funds expire.
Military personnel would be required to continue working. Federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA would also remain in service, as would the Border Patrol and immigration services.
But federal courts would be affected, meaning a backlog of hearings would build up.
However, many federal scientific research institutes would be affected, as would government research grants.
Many regulatory bodies, other than those dealing with human safety issues, would be suspended. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, would see most of its activities suspended.
Now read: Is a government shutdown on the horizon? The White House prepares for the congressional budget impasse
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