What happens if Homeland Security shuts down?

[Chef Ramsay]

WASHINGTON – Spending for the Department of Homeland Security hangs in the balance as Congress fights over immigration matters in the agency's annual funding bill. Without action by Feb. 27, the department's budget will shut off.

To hear Democrats and many Republicans tell it, the result would be unacceptable risks to U.S. security at a time of grave threats worldwide. In reality, though, most people will see little change if the department's money flow is halted, and some of the warnings of doom are as exaggerated as they are striking.

"There are ghoulish, grim predators out there who would love to kill us or do us harm," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. "We should not be dillydallying and playing parliamentary pingpong with national security."

In the view of some House conservatives, though, shutting off the agency's $40 billion budget for a time "is obviously not the end of the world," as Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., put it, because many agency employees would stay at work through a shutdown.

Who's right, and what would the impact be if Congress were to let money for the department lapse?

Salmon and a few other conservatives are the only ones saying it publicly so far, but the reality is that a department shutdown would have a very limited impact on national security.

That's because most department employees fall into exempted categories of workers who stay on the job in a shutdown because they perform work considered necessary to protect human life and property. Even in a shutdown, most workers across agencies, including the Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Customs and Border Protection, would continue to report to work.

Airport security checkpoints would remain staffed, the Secret Service would continue to protect the president and other dignitaries, the Coast Guard would stay on patrol, immigration agents would still be on the job.

Indeed, of the agency's approximately 230,000 employees, some 200,000 of them would keep working even if Congress fails to fund their agency. It's a reality that was on display during the 16-day government-wide shutdown in the fall of 2013, when national parks and monuments closed but essential government functions kept running, albeit sometimes on reduced staff.

So what of the sometimes overheated rhetoric, often from Democrats trying to prove a political point?

"If this goes to shutdown," Mikulski said, "this could close down ports up and down the East Coast, because if you don't have a Coast Guard, you don't have the ports. You don't have the ports, you don't have an economy."

But if the department loses its money, the Coast Guard will stay in operation and so will the ports.

There would be one big change, though. Most workers would not get paid until the shutdown ends, a circumstance guaranteed to put pressure on members of Congress hearing from constituents angry about going without their paychecks.

Making employees come to work without pay is "a real challenge" for them, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

Workers at agencies funded by fees, instead of by congressional appropriations, would continue their functions while still drawing a paycheck.

It so happens that applies to the very employees charged with putting in place the immigration programs at the heart of the political dispute.

Fees pay the salaries of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services workers who would process applications from immigrants eligible to work lawfully in the country under President Barack Obama's immigration policies. Even though Republicans are so determined to shut down Obama's program that some are willing to risk Homeland Security money to do it, it would stay up and running with little impact in the event of a shutdown.

So who would stop working in a shutdown? Mostly administrative staff, including support workers at headquarters and personnel who do training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, employees involved in research and development, and those responsible for operating and maintaining the E-Verify system that allows businesses to check the immigration status of new hires.

In addition, all personnel involved in administering grants would be furloughed, including Federal Emergency Management Agency workers who make grants to state and local governments, fire departments, and others to help them prepare for or respond to various threats and emergencies. That has led to pleas to Congress from the mayors, among others, to keep Homeland Security Department funding going.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/08/what-happens-if-homeland-security-shuts-down/?intcmp=latestnews

[Agestorzrxx]

Shut it down, and give everyone who is laid-off a copy of the Patriot Act to dry their tear on. We don’t need either one.

[noma]

Are there any plans to shut it down ? Not coming from the US, I think it would be bad in a way.

[patt0]

What happens is you can use the money for useful things, like improving education and lives of people lol.
In time I think that will do more good.

[Elwar]

We had no department of Homeland Security less than 20 years ago. It will not be missed.

[pattu1]

We had no department of Homeland Security less than 20 years ago. It will not be missed.

There were fewer radicals 20 years ago.

[Elwar]

We had no department of Homeland Security less than 20 years ago. It will not be missed.

There were fewer radicals 20 years ago.

Every decade has its radicals.

[patt0]

We had no department of Homeland Security less than 20 years ago. It will not be missed.

There were fewer radicals 20 years ago.

That is easy to solve. Stop funding radicals around the world and you don't have to spend more money fighting them later lol when you lose control of them.

[JohnnyBTCSeed]

Shut it down, and give everyone who is laid-off a copy of the Patriot Act to dry their tear on. We don’t need either one.

This..


Homeland security agents are american traitors and should be treated accordingly. Brainwashed frightened children with guns.

[BADecker]

The nation saves a bunch of money. The DHS people have to find new jobs. The people of the nation gain freedom.

[fritz]

This is a win win situation for the world!

[TheButterZone]

Homeland security theater actors will be out of work. Womp womp.

[TECSHARE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js

[ajareselde]

We had no department of Homeland Security less than 20 years ago. It will not be missed.

Its funny that you all take homeland security so easily, but try to ask American people what they think, will they feel more secure and safe without them.
It comes to me as a little bit of a shock that average american would endorse such a decision, them being over-paranoid and everything..
I have no doubt there will be two new agencies replacing them, with a new name and without negative popularity, far from the eyes of public.

[grendel25]

In the big picture, I don't think that Homeland Security or any other entity really matters when it comes to terrorism.  What does really matter is a global conscience and in the big picture, the global conscience has greatly improved from where we were 500 years ago.  There's just a few crazies out there but in my opinion we are witnessing the death spasms of a twisted ideology.  The are going out with a bang.

[TheButterZone]

We had no department of Homeland Security less than 20 years ago. It will not be missed.

Its funny that you all take homeland security so easily, but try to ask American people what they think, will they feel more secure and safe without them.
It comes to me as a little bit of a shock that average american would endorse such a decision, them being over-paranoid and everything..

If we could legally defend ourselves everywhere the government refuses to truly protect us, instead of being bent over and infringed bloody...

[username18333]

Sheople seek their perception of safety without reason (hence their utilization of government therefor); therefore, they would be liable to become hysterical en masse.

[Elwar]

Homeland Security is just yet another task force for the Drug War. The people working there now will just move to the DEA.

[(oYo)]

I can't see it getting shut down. More than likely tax payers will just have to shell out more to keep it going.

In the unlikely event it were to shut down, I'm guessing police departments would get some early xmas presents.