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- Currently — October 4, 2023: A House Republican Civil War increases the odds of a government shutdown
Currently — October 4, 2023: A House Republican Civil War increases the odds of a government shutdown
A government shutdown means weather and climate scientists can't work
Eric Holthaus
October 03, 2023
The weather, currently.
A US government shutdown just become more likely — again.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted out their leader for the first time in national history. What comes next isn’t readily apparent.
What are the odds we get 12 fully funded appropriation bills in the next six weeks? Zero or less than that? 🙃
— em dash aficionado (@imjacobnotjames)
Oct 3, 2023
While the House is in a chaos of their own making, no business will get done. And the deal to stop a shutdown last weekend gave only a 45-day window — until November 17th — to formulate and pass funding bills for the entirety of the federal government.
The Washington Post has a good overview (gift link) of all the effects on the environment, climate, and weather operations of the federal government if the government shuts down. Some highlights:
Less enforcement of clean air and water protections. Closure of national parks and other public lands. Interruption of some environmental cleanups. Delays in new federal rules aimed at boosting clean energy.
Those are some of the potential effects of a federal shutdown — consequences that could compound the longer Congress is unable to agree on a way to keep the government operating.
While we are in the middle of an escalating climate emergency, having a functioning federal government is in everyone’s best interest — it helps direct disaster aid, it helps coordinate greenhouse gas regulations, it can stimulate investment in renewable energy.
There’s also a scenario in all this mess that Republicans effectively lose control of the House — and form a coalition government with Democrats — something that has hardly ever been tested in national American politics but is common in other parts of the world. Here’s hoping.
If there are 8 Republicans, perhaps moderate ones, interested in a Coalition government, even temporarily, Hakeem Jefferies would make a great Speaker of the House.
— MidwestCharm (@voter_indie)
Oct 4, 2023
What you can do, currently.
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