With Congress unable to bridge differences between the two parties on how to fund federal operations for FY2014, nonessential federal operations shut down at 12:01 a.m. eastern time this morning. In some cases those operations may be closed over a period of several days, depending on the availability of unspent funds from FY2013.
AWWA’s Government Affairs staff reports that while it is unclear how U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water programs will be affected, about 95 percent of the EPA?s employees in Washington and the regional offices will be furloughed and a few employees in the Office of Water are on the Agency?s list of essential employees (those whose job involves protecting life or property).
The EPA is reporting that it is also unclear exactly how the SRF programs might be affected, though it can be expected that impacts will become more significant if the shutdown lasts more than a few days. The EPA is also?reporting that the shutdown could keep 94 percent of the Agency?s staff out of work.
Stay tuned for updates or visit awwa.org or epa.gov for more information.??
Click here for more information on the EPA?s contingency plan for a government shutdown:
http://www.epa.gov/lapse/resources/epa-contingency-plan-2013.pdf
