WASHINGTON, Sept 23 Reuters - The White House is expected to ask federal agencies to prepare for a possible shutdown as health authorities struggle with the COVID pandemic and Democrats and Republicans fight over a funding deal, state officials said on Thursday.
The federal agencies are days from voting on a measure that would temporarily suspend the $28.4 trillion debt ceiling and keep federal agencies operating after Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, when the U.S. Senate is voting on a measure to provide security to banks in the next few days. The White House Office of Management and Budget expects Congress to act in a bipartisan fashion to extend government financing as we continue to face the pandemic and power an economic recovery, OMB spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in response to questions.
As noted by the OMB director for continuous practice, he said, the OMB was fully prepared for any eventuality and determinations about specific programs are actively reviewed by agencies. A week before the expiration of federal funding bills, the OMB is supposed to ask agencies to review and update their shutdown plans, regardless of the prospects for new funding being approved in time, according to an August OMB budget circular.
The top infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the Pandemic made this the worst time for a government shutdown, the Washington Post reported.
The worst time in the world in which we want to shut down the government is in the middle of a pandemic where we have 140,000 people dying a day getting infected and 2,000 people dying every day, the Post quoted Fauci as saying in an interview.