Photo by pablo.raw

Well, damn it. Twenty-four hours later and still looking grim.

Despite Martin Austermuhle’s protestations yesterday, the federal government still looks like it’s creeping toward running out of cash and going into shutdown mode. Hooray.

Though National Journal is reporting that Congressional leaders are inching toward an omnibus budget resolution—Maybe this weekend!—to solve this impasse for the third damn time in 2011, just in case, many government agencies are making doomsday preparations, the Post’s Federal Eye blog says.

As we know all too well, no money for the federal government means our District government will get the padlock slapped on it as well.

The Post has a lengthy list of which federal agencies are prepping to halt operations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and parts of just about every Cabinet-level agency.

And of course, as a serf of Congressional oversight, the D.C. government has been warned to do the same. In a letter yesterday to Mayor Vince Gray, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton warned the city to get ready—again—for the effects of a federal budget shortfall.

Not only that, but the House’s version of a continuing resolution contains language that would make permanent a ban on the use of District funds to pay for abortions that was implemented in the resolution of the first of this year’s budget showdowns in April.

In April, we ran a list of what would and would not be open for District residents if the federal government goes belly-up tomorrow night. (Obviously, the part about the Cherry Blossom Festival doesn’t apply right now, but a shutdown now would be a killswitch on the National Christmas Tree.)
Cops and firefighters would remain on the job. Courts would remain open, perhaps to the consternation of those stuck on jury duty. But the city’s Department of [Insert Favorite Government Function]? Probably going to close if Congress can’t get its act together in the next 30 or so hours. Expect extra-crowded bars and lights off at the libraries.

As Martin wrote yesterday, seriously? Though House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says he supports giving D.C. greater autonomy over its own budget, including the ability to—oh, I don’t know—avoid being swept away when the 535 voting members of Congress refuse to get their shit in order, unpalatable amendments like that anti-abortion rider keep District budget independence in pipe-dream territory.

I just got a call from the folks at DC Vote, who say they are planning a rally tomorrow morning outside the Longworth House Office Building in protest of all this nonsense. When they did this in April, 41 people—including Gray and several members of the D.C. Council—were arrested.

And hey, if the government shuts down tomorrow night, the entire District will be under arrest—budgetary arrest.