[link removed] [[link removed]] John,
Congress has until midnight on November 17th to pass a bill to fund the government.
After weeks without a speaker of the House, and less than 10 days to go until the deadline, it is looking more and more likely that government funding might lapse for the first time since 2019.
If it does, Americans across the country would be immediately impacted: Over two million civilian federal workers will face delayed paychecks, roughly four million federal contract workers will likely receive no paycheck at all and countless others will face travel delays, slow customer service response for government programs like Social Security and postponed immigration court cases. Less immediately obvious, however, is the way a shutdown will interfere with government ethics.
The truth is, a government shutdown would be a disaster for government ethics.
Here’s why: during a government shutdown, key agencies are closed or have their workforce decimated, which makes it even harder for us to hold our leaders accountable. Here are a couple of examples:
*
FOIA:
Among
other
issues,
CREW
has
relied
on
Freedom
of
Information
Act
requests
to
uncover
the
Secret
Service’s
contact
with
the
Oathkeepers
and
to
investigate
federal
officials’
responses
to
the
insurrection
on
January
6th.
But
processing
FOIA
requests
requires
thousands
of
federal
employees.
Even
when
the
government
is
fully
funded,
FOIA
requests
often
take
far
longer
than
they
should,
leading
to
a
backlog
of
requests.
During
shutdowns,
agencies
are
delayed
even
further
and
sometimes
refuse
to
accept
requests
entirely.
*
*
Inspectors
general:
Our
government
has
systems
in
place
to
investigate
allegations
of
misconduct
by
government
officials.
But
if
the
staff
is
furloughed
in
inspector
general
offices
across
the
government,
that
gets
in
the
way
of
investigations
and
accountability.
*
*
Congressional
ethics:
During
a
shutdown,
the
Office
of
Congressional
Ethics
may
also
furlough
staff,
which
could
interfere
with
investigations
into
complaints,
like
the
one
CREW
recently
filed
against
Representative
Andrew
Clyde.
*
*
FEC:
If
the
government
shuts
down,
the
Federal
Election
Commission
will
also
be
severely
limited
in
its
capacity
to
enforce
campaign
ethics
laws.
That
means
the
FEC
will
cease
enforcement
of
the
Federal
Election
Campaign
Act,
and
investigations
into
dark
money
complaints
will
be
paused.
And
the
FEC
will
be
unable
to
provide
guidance
to
campaigns
about
campaign
finance
laws,
just
as
candidates
have
begun
ramping
up
their
campaigns
ahead
of
the
2024
election.
John, a government shutdown is bad news for Americans for many reasons. Government ethics may be an afterthought in a moment like this, but I’d argue that it shouldn’t be. In moments of crisis, we need a government that answers to the people more than ever. That’s what government ethics is all about.
We need Congress to fund the government and keep the ethics enforcement wheels in motion.
Despite a potential shutdown, CREW will always continue to do everything in our power to fight for a more ethical government. Help us continue our work by making a donation to CREW today → [[link removed]]If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
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Thanks,
Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW
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© Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington 2020–2023
CFC 42218
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
PO Box 14596
Washington, DC 20044
United States
