Factions in Congress are preparing for a potential government shutdown on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
The fight stems from a battle over federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that provides reproductive health, maternal services and prenatal health services. Of all its services, about 5 percent of its activities include abortions – which coincidently cannot receive federal funds – that is setting up the looming government shutdown battle in Congress.
On Friday, Sept. 25, current Speaker of the House John Boehner [R-Ohio] surprised the nation and even members of his own caucus with his announcement that he would be resigning from the speakership and Congress at the end of October, due in part to a revolt by social conservatives who criticized his compromises with opposition Democrats. He vowed that the government would not shut down under his watch. With his announcement, he has nothing to lose, but also has little clout now that he’ll be gone by the end of the month.
Congress shut down the government for 16 days in October 2013 in a fight over the debt limit and funding for Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. Federal government offices were shut down with 800,000 federal employees indefinitely furloughed. More than 1.3 million other employees were obligated to go to work but had no idea when their paychecks would be deposited.
While all the day-to-day wrangling and posturing in Washington, D.C., generally has little effect on most Americans, especially those of us in the West, a government shutdown directly affects the Verde Valley. Both Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle national monuments closed to the public during the last go-around, meaning visitors were deprived of access to these sites and their employees, our neighbors, were furloughed. Tourists who planned to visit these sites went elsewhere, affecting local businesses who rely on those dollars.
Grand Canyon National Park was also shuttered. In the midst of the 2013 shutdown, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer negotiated a deal to temporarily reopen Grand Canyon National Park using state money. Under the deal, the Arizona paid the National Park Service $93,000 per day in state funds to keep the park open.
The Verde Valley indirectly benefited from the closed Grand Canyon as we noticed many of the hotels, motels and resorts in Sedona and the Verde Valley were booked up and our restaurants were filled with visitors who had already planned to come to Arizona looking for something else to do. After about two weeks, tourists were planning other states to visit and local numbers began to fall before the federal government kicked back into gear.
If the Sedona area becomes a national monument, more than 160,000 acres in the Verde Valley could also be closed to access, which is something no local business nor resident wants to see.
When the Founding Fathers drew up the Constitution, they gave the purse strings for federal services to Congress. They expected healthy debate over what federal programs and services to fund. Little did they expect debate would cause the government to cease functioning.
Even if this debate gets solved before a government shutdown, another one is possible over the exact same issue in December and we could find ourselves here again, just in time for Christmas.
