Fiscal hawks say the silver lining to
the partial government shutdown, which is entering its second week of
scaled-back services, could be the picture of government waste it paints
for taxpayers.
A look through the shutdown contingency plans
of the federal government shows some little-known commissions and
agencies -- like the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the U.S.
Interagency Council on Homelessness -- don't have anybody reporting for
work during the partial shutdown.
The ability of the government to run without any of the people from
any of these agencies on the clock is prompting some watchdog groups to
question why, then, do the agencies need to exist in the first place?
“Think of all the money we could save as a nation,” Judicial Watch said in an Oct. 7 post.
“Besides bringing attention to these largely unheard of agencies, the
shutdown – caused by Congress’s inability to agree on a funding bill –
is also shedding light on just how bloated the federal government is,
with an astounding workforce that’s seen nearly 800,000 furloughed this
week.”
Government bodies that have exactly zero people on the job this week
include the USDA Risk Management Agency, where all 430 employees are
furloughed, and the Federal Maritime Commission, where all 120 workers
are furloughed.
The federal government is the country’s largest employer, and the
fallout from the partial shutdown has been felt at almost every federal
agency; some, though, more than others.
Department heads were told ahead of time to prep for a scale-back in
services and were told to divide workers into essential and
non-essential categories. The essential workers were told to report to
work.
Over at the Department of Commerce, 15,641 employees at the Census
Bureau were told to stay home. It was the same story for all 169 people
at the U.S. Economic Development Administration, as well as for the 49
workers at the Minority Business Development Agency.
Monday marks the seventh day of the government slimdown with hundreds
of thousands of federal employees furloughed, national parks closed and
an array of government services on hold. The Obama administration did
call back to work hundreds of thousands of civilian military workers.
But he didn’t call back anyone at the U.S. Access Board. According to
the description on its website, the Access Board is a federal agency
that “promotes equality for people with disabilities through leadership
in accessible design and the development of accessibility guidelines and
standards for the built environment, transportation, communication,
medical diagnostic equipment and information technology.”
Agency workers did not make it on the list of federal employees needed to keep the government going.
At the United States Department of Agriculture, all jobs in the
Office of Ethics, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights and
the Office of the Chief Economist were stripped of their employees.
But others argue that while shuttering operations in places like the
Federal Maritime Commission for a couple weeks is sustainable,
eventually workers will need to come back to work because inspections
will need to get done. The commission is in place, partly, “to foster a
fair international ocean transportation system and to protect the public
from unfair and deceptive practices.”
Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, told
FoxNews.com that using the partial shutdown to highlight areas that need
to be cut “is not a good argument.”
Alexander says the conversation in Congress over the cutback in
federal services is overly broad and fails to shed light on the waste.
“Congress has the ability to have hearings on C-SPAN and
investigations about where they think waste is, but using a shutdown to
do it isn’t the right way to go,” she said.
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