The National Zoo and some of your favorite Smithsonian museums will close Oct. 1 if there is a government shutdown.
D.C. courts and services such as the public defender’s office would also close, since those offices are funded by the federal government.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton told WTOP this is the 10th year she’s tried to get a bill to keep D.C’s courts and similar services open during federal government shutdowns.
“This is a city. We don’t have anything to do with these congressional matters. And we should be treated as a city that is not involved in congressional issues that are causing the shutdown,” she said.
Norton has been able to negotiate exemptions each year since 2015 that kept the D.C. government and services from completely shutting down during past federal shutdowns, but this bill would cement that exemption instead of renegotiating and including provisions in bills each year.
The IRS is reversing its plan to stay open, saying it will partially close.
The Department of Defense is also set to close this time. There was a deal reached during the last government shutdown that kept the agency open.
With 12 spending bills that haven’t passed yet, the impending government shutdown may affect more government institutions and services than the last government shutdown in 2019.
