WASHINGTON — As the federal government enters its third shutdown day, the effects are acutely felt in Huntsville, where roughly 45,000 people work at Redstone Arsenal.
Agencywide, NASA furloughed more than 15,000 of its 18,000 employees as part of its shutdown plan, including some at Marshall Space Flight Center. The specific number of furloughed there is unclear because NASA spokespeople in Huntsville and Washington have been furloughed, with automatic emailed responses reading “NASA is currently closed due to a lapse in government funding.”
Operations pertaining to the International Space Station, the Artemis program, which is set to send astronauts back to the moon, and satellite operations will continue during the shutdown. Marshall is home to more than 6,000 NASA employees and the center manages parts of the programs that are continuing to operate. Tours of MSFC have been halted.
The roughly 2,000 FBI employees in Huntsville will remain on the job while the government remains unfunded.
“All FBI employees are considered excepted due to the critical support that FBI personnel (HQ, field, and legal attaché) provide to address imminent threats to human life and property through our national security and law enforcement mission,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement to Alabama Daily News.
Federal employees will receive back pay once the government reopens, but government contractors aren’t required by law to receive retroactive pay. About 17,000 of Redstone’s workers are contractors.
“There’s quite a bit of civilian contractors that are employed up there and the nation as a whole,” John Dove, economics professor at Troy University, told ADN. “So when that happens, that can have potentially some sizable negative macroeconomic consequences, especially as a shutdown were to persist in the future.”
At the top of Redstone’s website, a banner reads, “Military personnel will continue in a normal duty status without pay until such time as a continuing resolution or appropriations are passed by Congress and signed into law. Civilian personnel not engaged in excepted activities will be placed in a non-work, non-pay status.”
Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, in a statement, blamed Democrats for blocking the GOP-led stopgap funding bill in the Senate.
“This shutdown could end today if Democrats would support the clean continuing resolution to fund the government,” Strong said. “On behalf of the hardworking North Alabamians I represent, I urge them to put aside politics and put the American people first.”
House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers said the shutdown “disproportionally harms” servicemembers who are required to continue working.
“We have a duty to support the men and women who defend our country,” Rogers, R-Saks, said in a statement. “House Republicans have passed a clean extension of government funding with no gimmicks or partisan priorities. By refusing to vote for this continuing resolution, Democrats are refusing to support our troops.”
But the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, painted the opposite picture Thursday, saying “families are left wondering how they’ll make rent, pay their bills, and put food on the table as Republicans refuse to address spiking health care costs.”
Impact on farmers
Alabama Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate said he doesn’t expect significant disruptions for farmers in the short term from the shutdown. Though some payments to farmers, such as farm loans and disaster aid payments, will be disrupted.
“Now all of that will stop, so there won’t be anybody in those farm service offices or rural development offices to process it,” Pate told ADN. “But as soon as they come back, they’ll pick back up.”
About half of the U.S. Department of Agriculture employees have been furloughed, according to an agency memo on the shutdown. Pate said most of the state’s communication with the federal agency has been paused because of the federal furloughs.
The Emergency Commodity Assistance Program’s last round of payments, which provides some emergency relief, has also been halted, Pate said.
In Alabama, meat inspections will continue. If an animal disease outbreak occurs, those employees would return to work and address those issues as they arise.
State of Play
On Thursday, Capitol Hill was relatively quiet as the Senate paused votes for Yom Kippur. Republicans and Democrats have yet to make any sort of compromise to end the shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johsnon, R-La., appeared to double down on his position that the House-passed seven-week continuing resolution should remain the same.
“I quite literally have nothing to negotiate,” Johnson told reporters. “There’s nothing I can pull out of the bill that was a Republican priority to say, ‘Oh, we don’t do that. Why don’t you guys vote for it now?’ I don’t have anything.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday that “public sentiment” over health care costs would encourage President Donald Trump and Republicans to consider extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, which sit at the center of the Democrats’ demands.
“House Democrats are simply making the case that we need to cancel the cuts, lower the costs and save health care,” Jeffries said.
The Senate will vote again on the Republican stopgap funding bill on Friday afternoon. If it doesn’t receive enough Democratic support to reach 60 votes, the Senate isn’t likely to vote again until next week, bringing the shutdown to at least six days.
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