Tester says government shutdown is a possibility

Though he is cautiously optimistic Congress will pass a stopgap measure to keep the government funded, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said there are some lawmakers willing to risk a government shutdown.

“They think that playing Russian roulette with our economy is something that gets them press, and so consequently we see some people, and not just one or two, who actually advocate for this kind of stuff,” Tester said Wednesday during a telephone press conference.

Congress has until Oct. 1 to pass a continuing resolution. Failure to do so will lead to a government shutdown.

Tester said Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he supports legislation that would fund the government through mid-December. Tester said he backs such a move, though his spokeswoman Marnée Banks later said no specific legislation to do so has yet been introduced.

A government shutdown would have far-reaching consequences for the national as well as the local economy.

Tester said the Farm Service Agency, for example, would be temporarily closed, preventing area agriculture producers from receiving loan deficiency payments or other farm income support services.

Elsewhere, national parks would be closed, Tester said.

“It would have an impact on a lot of different stuff,” he said.  “It depends on if they exempted some things from the shutdown or not.”

Tester said that if there is any difficulty in getting a continuing resolution passed, it will likely be in the U.S.House of Representatives.

He said some members will try and condition passage of a funding resolution on defunding agencies such as the IRS and Environmental Protection Agency, or enacting across-the-board spending reductions.

“Trust me, some of these guys are pretty creative, and they just look for an excuse,” Tester said.

Such a shutdown occurred in 2013, when some congressional Republicans tried to tack on measures that would cut funding for implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, to a continuing resolution.

That 16-day budget standoff ended up costing the federal government $24 billion, according to Moody Analytics.

Agencies like the Natural Resources Conservation Service were furloughed for three weeks until the budget standoff could be resolved.

The Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy’s Indian reservations, and other reservations across the nation, which depend on federal appropriations and the operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to operate, were heavily affected.  

A study from the National Park Service conducted after the shutdown said gateway communities to Glacier National Park lost $2.6 million in revenue.

Some services  such as the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. which has a large presence in Havre and at ports of entry across  the Northern border continued to operate. The Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement agencies deemed essential services are generally exempt from the shutdown.