Just when I think I'm getting used to the weird way in which this country works... Dom and I both got emails on Thursday telling us that, because a budget agreement had not been reached between the Republicans and Democrats, the federal goverment would run out of money today, which is Saturday. Both the senate and congress had to agree a bill, and have the president sign it, by midnight yesterday. Apparently, this happened.
If a deal hadn't been reached, the craziest thing would have happened. All federal government operations, except of a few essential things, get shut down. So, the NIH would have been shut down: not only is it an offence to try to go to work when the government is shut down, but if they find out you've been doing federal work in your own time, you get something like a $10,000 fine.
I don't understand. I accept that politics here are pretty stupid and that the whole American system of governance seems designed to prevent any sort of progress or agreements being made unless all 3 legislative bodies are run by the same party. I find it amusing, but that's how this place is. But to actively prevent people from working, even for free, because a budget hasn't been passed is absolutely mental! As is having the capacity to fine employees for trying to do their job!
What happened is that the legislature passed a continuing resolution, a stop-gap measure which keeps the federal government running on current or reduced levels, for another 2 months. The budget they are fighting over is for the fiscal year which started in October 2011, so it looks like at least one third of the year will pass before there is a budget in place.
For my work-place this means that there will be enough money to pay our salaries, consumables and to feed my mice, but there will be little way to buy any big-ticket items or sign things like service contracts. This massively increases the costs to the tax-payers, which seems rather vulgar in these straightened economic times. Even if a budget does get agreed in February, it will only run until the end of September when this silly process will start again. Apparently this is pretty normal.
In any of the UK parliaments, or most of the ones in Europe that I know of, if a government can't get its budget approved by it's parliament / legislature, then it's taken as a vote of no confidence, the government collapses and there's a fresh election. It's a good motivation to put aside partisan differences and actually work in the service of the citizens (or subjects if you come from a silly country where they monarchy rules supreme and people have no written bill of rights).
How the US can get by with this permanent deadlock confuses me. It doesn't seem very efficient...
