List of Government Services That Will Continue Amidst Shutdown

Here is a a list of government services that will continue amidst the current government shutdown:

– Any employee or office that “provides for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property.” That means the U.S. military will keep operating, for one. So will embassies abroad.

– Any employee who conducts “essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property.” So, for example: Air traffic control stays open. So does all emergency medical care, border patrol, federal prisons, most law enforcement, emergency and disaster assistance, overseeing the banking system, operating the power grid, and guarding federal property.

– Agencies have to keep sending out benefits and operating programs that are written into permanent law or get multi-year funding. That means sending out Social Security checks and providing certain types of veterans’ benefits. Unemployment benefits and food stamps will also continue for the time being, since their funding has been approved in earlier bills.

– All agencies with independent sources of funding remain open, including the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve.

– Members of Congress can stick around, since their pay is written into permanent law. Congressional staffers however, will also get divided into essential and non-essential, with the latter getting furloughed. Many White House employees could also get sent home.

Here is another list from dpm10:

– While roughly half of the Defense Department’s civilian employees will be furloughed, the 1.4 million active-duty military personnel stay on duty. And under a last-minute bill, they should keep getting paychecks on time. Most Homeland Security agents and border officers, as well as other law enforcement agents and officers, keep working.

– Social Security checks will continue to go out. Medicare benefits will keep coming.

– The Postal Services will keep delivering mail.

– Though the Board of Veterans Appeals will stop issuing rulings, in turn delaying some decisions about disability claims, most Department of Veterans Affairs services will continue. The department’s health programs get their money a year in advance, so veterans can still see their doctor, get prescriptions filled and visit fully operational VA hospitals and outpatient clinics.

– Meat inspections by the Agriculture Department will continue.

– Air traffic controllers will remain on the job. Railroad and pipeline safety inspectors will also remain at work.

– As previously reported, the National Security Agency — as part of the nation’s national security infrastructure — will continue to operate.

– Except for some potential glitches, passport and visas will be handled as usual, both at home and abroad.