Shutdown Watch: Agencies consider furloughs; Obama to meet with lawmakers
Some agencies could furlough employees without a shutdown; Obama to try to broker budget deal; and other shutdown news.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with congressional leadership and the leaders of the House and Senate spending committees April 5 to work out a budget compromise before the government is forced to shut down on April 8, according to a report in The Hill.
“Time is of the essence, and that’s why we called this meeting for tomorrow,” Press Secretary Jay Carney said, according to The Hill's article.
Agencies, such as the Justice Department and the Social Security Administration, are considering furloughing employees because Congress has yet to approve a fiscal 2011 budget for agencies, Federal Times reports.
Although there has been a lot of talk about a government shutdown, federal employees have not been told what a shutdown would entail at their agencies, The Washington Post reports.
The Hill’s Bob Cusack notes in his list of 10 things to watch during the shutdown battle is that agencies will soon need help deciding which employees are essential, “especially because this would be the first government shutdown after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.”