The Yankees offense wasn't the only thing that got shut down last night. We're now hours into the first federal government shutdown in nearly seven years, after Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate failed to reach a funding deal. Let's start with a look at the local effects: Mass disruption: About 25,000 federal employees across Massachusetts could be affected in some way by the shutdown. WBUR's Anthony Brooks reports that many will be furloughed, expected to work without pay — or even fired, as the White House has threatened. "As a federal employee, it's about time we stopped being used as pawns," Beth Willwerth, a worker at the IRS office in Andover, told Anthony. - Zoom in: Willwerth, who is also a local union chapter leader, says IRS employees will keep working and get paid from a contingency fund for five days. But after that, they could be required to work without pay, which is what happened during the 2018 shutdown that lasted 35 days. "There were individuals who were going to food pantries, who missed car payments," Willwerth said. (Only members of Congress and the president are guaranteed paychecks during a shutdown, while hundreds of thousands of federal workers and military members will miss paychecks if it continues through mid-October; most will get back pay after it ends.)
- Zoom out: Across the federal government, many services like the post office, air traffic control, Social Security and Medicare benefits are expected to continue. But certain safety net programs and other federal functions could see delays due to furloughs. For example, Viviana Abreu-Hernández, the president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, worried that new applications for Social Security, Medicaid, and food and housing assistance could be delayed or stopped. NPR has an overview of what is expected to be affected (or not) here.
- What's this fight about? Democrats primarily want Republicans — who control both chambers of Congress but need 60 Senate votes to pass a funding bill — to extend enhanced tax credits that help people buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act as part of any deal. The pandemic-era expansion of the credits is set to expire at the end of the year, leading to 75% premium hikes for the average enrollee. Republican leaders say the issue shouldn't be part of the funding debate, but have left the door open to address the credits later this fall.
- Blame game: In internal emails to federal workers and at least one public government website, the Trump administration is blaming Democrats for the shutdown (a potential violation of ethics laws against using taxpayer money for political activity). Meanwhile, Sen. Elisabeth Warren told NPR's Morning Edition yesterday that Democrats' position is a "righteous" stand. "Democrats are not going to stand by while millions of people lose their health insurance," she said. (An NPR poll released this week found a plurality of Americans blame Republicans.)
- What's next: Senate Republicans plan to continue holding votes on their stopgap funding bill, since a few Democrats have already defected to support it.
Meanwhile at the Moakley Courthouse: Academic groups are celebrating after a federal judge in Boston ruled the Trump administration violated the free speech rights of foreign scholars who took part in in pro-Palestinian protests. Judge William Young ruled noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights to free speech as citizens — a win for the American Association of University Professors, which originally brought the suit. "The court affirmed what we knew from the start," Todd Wolfson, the president of the AAUP, told WBUR's Todd Wallack. "The Trump administration's policy of targeting faculty and students for deportation because of their political views is unconstitutional, unlawful and profoundly dangerous." - What's next: According to the Associated Press, Young will hold a separate hearing on the relief requested by the plaintiffs, which is likely to be a request that the government stop engaging in ideological deportations. In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused Young of “smearing and demonizing federal law enforcement," but did not address the ruling.
- In related news: A federal court in New York held back-to-back hearings yesterday on the Trump administration's appeals of lower court decisions to release Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk after the two graduate students were detained by ICE over pro-Palestinian activism. Vermont Public has more here on where the three Republican-appointed judges appear to be leaning in the case.
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