A Homeland Security shutdown by the numbers
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If Republicans can’t decide how to fund the agency, 200,000 DHS employees would be required to work without pay, and thousands more would stay home entirely
With time running out, congressional Republicans continue to squabble among themselves over how to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before the sprawling, multimission agency runs out of money Friday.
The Republican leadership — still feeling burned from a 2013 shutdown of the entire federal government — is spinning its wheels to come up with a solution that satisfies conservatives seeking to halt President Obama’s executive orders on immigration. The GOP leadership is caught between their traditional “strong on national security” reputation and their base’s desire to block the president on immigration reform at any cost.
As Congress inches closer to its deadline, the Obama administration has outlined the numerous effects of a potential DHS shutdown, trying to reassure Americans that their safety will not be compromised while still highlighting the damage that would be done in the event of a stoppage of payment, especially to the nearly 200,000 DHS workers who would be required to work without pay until Congress decided on how to restore funding.
Yahoo News takes a by-the-numbers look at how a shutdown could affect those workers, as well as the day-to-day operations of some of the country’s most visible agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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200,000 — The projected overall number of DHS workers who would continue to do their jobs without pay in the event of a shutdown. A full quarter of that number — more than 50,000 workers — would be TSA security agents tasked with screening air travelers across the country. About40,000 active duty Coast Guard members would continue to work without pay, and 4,000 Secret Service employees would also work without compensation. The protective agency, which has come under fire in recent months for high-profile security lapses at the White House, is also responsible for tracking financial crimes around the world and in cyberspace. ...
40,000 — Customs and Border Protection employees would work without pay, as would 13,000Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The effects on these two DHS agencies would present an especially difficult political road for Republicans to navigate: They are trying to stake out a much more muscular position on immigration law, but they may potentially harm the very people tasked with doing that enforcement.
22 percent — The number of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees who would be furloughed, or kept away from work. According to FEMA, work on current disaster relief would continue, but work on preparations for future disaster response would halt. According to the Congressional Research Service, FEMA also would stop its work training local law enforcement officials in how to respond to events involving weapons of mass destruction. ...
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