I'll focus now on who is and isn't being impacted by the government shutdown.
Sean Michael Newhouse is a staff reporter for government executive.
He's combed through several recent reports on that topic.
And one of the key findings, Sean Newhouse, is that political party affiliation plays a big role in whether people perceive that they've been impacted by the shutdown or not.
Explain that.
unidentified
Absolutely.
So let's start with the organization who conducted the survey.
The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, good government group.
And as part of their duties, they conduct surveys regularly on how the public perceives government.
So shutdown is happening.
They did a survey on it.
And I should note this was in the second week of the shutdown.
We're now in the fourth.
But what they found, they asked the respondents if the shutdown impacted people in your community.
And 48% total of respondents said that their community was impacted by the shutdown.
Big partisan difference.
So we've got 69% of Democrats agree with that statement compared with 27% of Republicans and then 38% of Independents in the middle.
And you mentioned the SNAP news, the administration announcing that there wasn't going to be additional money for that when those benefits run out.
We'll see if that holds.
But I think the number is something like 47 million Americans who make use of SNAP.
Here's from Wallet Hub: the percentage of families in each state that receive SNAP benefits.
The states with the highest percentage of families receiving SNAP benefits, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Oregon, the states with the lowest percentage of families receiving SNAP benefits, Kansas, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Utah, and Wyoming.
New Mexico comes up as one of those states that if you live there, you're feeling this government shutdown more.
What are some of the other states?
unidentified
Yes, so unsurprisingly, DC was the state that, well, not state, city, Wallet Hub determined was the most impacted because DC has the highest percentage of workers who work for the government, also the highest amount of federal contract dollars per capita.
You mentioned New Mexico.
They determined that was the third most affected.
It is the state with the highest percentage of its residents who are SNAP participants.
Also, it has one of the highest numbers, federal contract dollars per capita, New Mexico.
And then number two, you might think Maryland or Virginia would be number two, number three, but actually was Hawaii was number two.
That's because they have a relatively high percentage of workers in Hawaii work for the federal government.
Fourth of its economy relies on real estate, and then unsurprisingly, Hawaii has a lot of national parks.
What's your read on why New Hampshire, Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota are the states with the lowest level of impact, at least according to this set of statistics?
unidentified
Yes, I wouldn't say I have any particular read.
I did notice looking at the states that were least impacted, they did tend to be in the Midwest, but it's just because of the factors that Wallet Hub determined to use, determine which states had the most impact.
Federal contract dollars per capita is another one of those factors that Wallet Hub used here.
The states with the most per capita, the District of Columbia, unsurprisingly, number one, Virginia and Maryland, right around the federal government capital, New Mexico and Connecticut, the states with the lowest federal contract dollars per capita, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oregon, Minnesota, there it is, and Delaware.
Asking you, our viewers, this morning, are you being impacted by the government shutdown?
He's been following some of these different reports on it.
Here's how you can join the conversation.
Republicans, it's 202-748-8001.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
And Independents, 202-748-8002.
As people are calling in on that, switch gears for me.
Another topic that you've been following, agencies, inspectors general.
For folks who haven't been tracking it, what's been happening to the executive branch core of inspectors general in the second Trump administration?
unidentified
Absolutely.
So let's start with what Inspectors General are.
So several agencies have inspectors general, and they lead offices of offices of staff ranging from dozens of employees to hundreds.
And their job is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the agencies.
So they issue reports that look at the effectiveness of agency programs.
Individuals can submit whistleblower complaints.
They may investigate those.
And I covered Congress before this current job, and it was very rare that you would watch a congressional markup where a member of Congress, either side, would not bring up information referenced by an inspector general.
They were really heralded as kind of the pinnacle of nonpartisanship.
And what has been happening to your second question?
So the first Friday of Trump's second term, he fired 17 agency inspectors general.
The month after, in February, he removed the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
That's an agency that has been effectively eliminated.
It's been folded into the State Department.
That Inspector General had warned that the layoffs at that agency were going to make it harder to perform oversight of foreign aid after that memo was issued.
They were removed.
And then just two weeks ago, the Inspector General for the Export Import Bank was fired by the President.
So is he saying what the president did is illegal?
unidentified
Well, that's a question that I actually just covered in the Inspector General confirmation hearing last week, and a senator asked nominees that question.
So let's start with what the requirement is.
So in 2008, Congress required the president, so the president can remove the inspector general.
Let's just be clear about that.
But in 2008, Congress required that the president had to give Congress 30-day notice before removing an inspector general.
And then in 2002, they expanded that requirement to say the president had to provide the substantive rationale for the removal.
So it wasn't enough to just say, hey, I'm firing this guy in a month.
I imagine it's Congress sort of protecting the legislative branch powers, but how?
unidentified
Absolutely.
Well, I think it gets to controversy.
So agency inspectors general are political appointees, but they're not political appointees in the classical sense.
They are, well, legally required, but also kind of traditionally expected to have some independence from the administration.
They perform oversight on the administration, so the expectation is that if something critical or bad would come out about the administration, that they would still report that information fairly and accurately.
So when it gets to if an inspector general removed, then a lot of questions is, okay, why were they removed?
You know, what might the administration be trying to cover up?
Which we know about the appointed or nominated Inspector General for the Departments of Defense, Labor, and the Small Business Administration.
unidentified
Yes, so that was actually the hearing last week that I covered.
I think the most notable is the nominee for the Labor Department Inspector General.
That's former Representative Diaz Bosito.
He was a New York Republican one term, lost his reelection race.
So just the fact that he is a former congressman is surprising because, again, it is expected that inspectors general are not political figures.
Historically, they have served across terms.
Government Shutdown Impact00:15:02
unidentified
If a Democrat's the next president, if Diaz Posito is concerned and if a Democrat is the next president, I have a hard time seeing him staying under that administration.
But also, Diaz Posito had been accused of an ethical lapse when he was a congressman.
The New York Times reported that he allegedly hired his fiancé's daughter and also a woman with whom he was having an affair.
So both his political history and that kind of ethical scandal definitely played a role in his in that hearing.
Well, my comment is on the impact of the government shutdown.
And it seems to me it's a political move just to take care of the Obamacare situation, possible increase.
Now, I'm a retired 81-year-old, and my wife is 79.
We do live on a fixed income, but we pay for our own insurance.
And it costs us over $12,000 a year out of pocket for a supplemental program and ABCD, I'm sorry, for D, for pharmaceuticals.
So I'm paying a lot of money with no supplement from the United States government.
My son at one time was on Obamacare and found it totally, totally inadequate to take care of him.
Fortunately, he's a younger person and didn't have any health issues.
My point here is: why are they holding us hostage for $1.5 trillion, $1.7 trillion, whatever the figure may be, to support a program provided by people who give donations to politicians?
And I feel that's what it's all about.
If they would only remove the boundaries from states and make the health care companies compete with each other for my dollar, we'd be better off.
That's my point.
Now we shut down the government because one side wants to keep their little boondoggle going because they're supported by health care companies.
Georgie, are you feeling the government shutdown's impacts where you are?
What is it?
Bogota, New Jersey?
Am I saying it correctly?
unidentified
Yes, yes.
I see it.
I see my neighbors.
I have two neighbors who are air traffic controllers.
They're not going to be paid.
They did tell me they're going to go to work, but they say their colleagues are up in the air whether they should report in, whether they should call sick.
And air traffic control is a critical thing for this country.
We live near Keterborough Airport.
I have aircraft flying over my home all the time.
That's the backbone of industry.
That's keeping people working.
All those airline employees that are going to be affected by reduced schedules, the airport employees that will be affected by reduced schedules because they'll all be furloughed.
George, thanks for the call from New Jersey, George.
I want to let Sean Newhouse jump in.
Have you covered much on air traffic controllers and kind of where what happens in the next couple weeks, if this goes another couple weeks on that front with the shutdown?
unidentified
Yes, so I haven't, but my colleagues have.
And there was a detail and a story.
It was about how federal employees are, and government executive, we cover federal employees.
This is our bread and butter.
It was how federal employees are responding to this financially, not getting paid, many of them.
And my colleague interviewed an air traffic controller, and he said some of his colleagues, they're working six days a week.
Again, they're not getting paid for this work at the moment because of the shutdown.
And then on their day off, they're Ubering.
You know, they're driving for Uber.
So that's definitely not a situation you want people to be in.
I know in the 2019 shutdown, it's been widely, I believe it was 2019 shutdown, it's been widely said that when air traffic controllers started not showing up for work in greater numbers, that kind of prompted Congress to come to a resolution.
So yes, air traffic controllers have definitely historically been one group of federal employees who are looked at as far as the consequences of the shutdown.
We had a caller earlier today who was very concerned about the idea of a universal health care system, of a single-payer system, of the government running health care.
You talk about why can't it be a universal price?
How concerned are you about that?
Is that something that you would support?
We lost Ted.
He hung up.
But something you cover much at all or no?
unidentified
Healthcare, no, I do relate personally to the small print at the bottom of health care forms.
But yes, like the previous caller said, I think his assessment is correct.
The expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies are the main cause of the shutdown.
I wouldn't say that's the only reason Democrats so far haven't provided the votes to pass the GOP-backed continuing resolution.
But again, Wallet Hub's analysis didn't look at health care coverage.
But if these subsidies for Affordable Care Act do expire, I think that would be another factor as far as determining which states are most affected by the shutdown or the consequences of the shutdown.
Taking your phone calls for another couple minutes with Sean Newhouse, a government executive, to hear from you about the impact of the government shutdown.
Or if you have questions about inspectors general, a good guy to ask those questions to.
He's been covering it rather extensively during the second Trump administration.
202-748-8000 for Democrats.
Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
As people keep calling in, what are you working on this week at GovExec?
unidentified
Sure.
What am I working on this week?
Well, I think with the shutdown, it is a day-by-day, you know, whatever the president announces obviously warrants coverage.
More of Trump's Inspectors General nominees are getting through the confirmation process, so I'll be looking at those.
Also, last week there was a deregulatory memo.
I don't want to bring up a completely new topic to your audience.
With regulation, whenever this would come up in the past, this act that has been around for a long time, I think it's called the Reigns Act.
Regulations that have an economic impact, I think it was over $100 million.
There was a law proposed that Congress would have to vote on those individual regulations.
What's the status of that?
Has that come back up in the second Trump administration?
unidentified
I was about to say I don't know what you're talking about, but as you're talking, I'm like, this is ringing a bell.
And this was an act, you said, so not allowed yet.
Actually, I don't think I have.
You'd think if that was introduced, I'd get a press release about it.
I haven't yet, but I'll have to look into that if that has been introduced.
With Republican Congress, that I don't know if it probably wouldn't get past a filibuster in the Senate, but you'd think that might be a bill that congressional Republicans would be spotlighting.
Certainly one that we have talked about in years past here on the Washington Journal, but it might be time for another segment on it.
This is Linwood out of Beltsville, Maryland, Independent.
Linwood, good morning.
You're on with Sean Newhouse.
unidentified
Good morning to speak to you all.
I have a comment in regards to Inspector General's, the Inspector General for the Department of Justice.
Is there one in place at this point in time?
As well as I have a comment, I've been reaching out to the United States Attorney for Washington, D.C., Pirro, as well as I would think she would pipe my information over to the Department of Justice because there's an employee with the Department of Justice for whom fraudulently used government funds on an absurd amount of occasions for which I propose to terminate.
And she's an attorney with the United States Attorney's Office out of D.C.
And in that particular regard, and unfortunately, I was terminated because I proposed her termination and I was retaliated against as a whistleblower.
So just reaching out and just trying to navigate the system is how difficult it is to just seek justice and particularly desperate impacts in this particular season, for which I'm actively pursuing.
Yes, and I didn't immediately review this, but if my memory is correct, I forget his first name, but Horowitz was the Inspector General at the Justice Department.
He is no longer there.
The deputy then became the Acting Inspector General.
Trump then put a different person in the Acting Inspector General position.
That has been a separate controversy.
However, in this case, I do not believe I'm relying on a Bloomberg article here, so cite my sources, but I don't believe there was anything particularly controversial about the current acting inspector general at the Justice Department.
Michael Horowitz, the former, I was going to say Anthony, so Michael Horowitz, that's his name.
Process that the viewer was talking about in terms of whistleblowers and when and why they would go to an inspector general versus other routes.
Just how much can you tell us about the process of inspectors general and their interaction with individual federal employees?
unidentified
Absolutely so, I can't speak too much about the process, but I'm still really glad you asked that question.
So, as I mentioned, inspectors general traditionally and also by law, are supposed to have some degree of independence from the agencies they work at or the agencies that they audit.
So a whistleblower might be more inclined to go to an inspector general because of that independence, and the good government groups have warned that with these firings of inspectors general, it is probably they say or they argue is going to have a chilling effect on whistleblowers being willing to come forward.
Yes, i'd like to uh speak about how all this is uh how in effective.
Everything we're discussing here today is uh in effective.
Donald Trump has already taken over the federal government and anything is muted.
Sir, i'm listening to you Jim, Oh Man and I, and I think what uh the American public needs to prepare themselves for is uh a government controlled by uh Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone.
Hey, as it relates to inspector generals, how do we square 130 billion dollars being given anonymously for our military and also 40 billion dollars being given to Argentina during a government shutdown?
I mean, how do we square that as as our government and the people?
I think the donor for the military has been revealed.
I believe it's um Melon, but that that was anonymous for a time.
But yeah, that is a matter where I I could foresee an inspector general would look uh into that to make sure that, because they weren't providing those millions of dollars, they weren't then receiving any favor from the government.
And this is what the good government groups would say.
Is that when you have, when the president has, kind of an adversarial relationship with, or I should say more adversarial relationship with, the inspectors general uh, that might make the people who work in these oversight offices less inclined to pursue those potentially high-profile cases and again, i'm not saying that any there's anything uh untoward about what happened just yet, but that I could see that being something an inspector general might look into, depending on the circumstances.
But when it comes to a, a funding issue like that, couldn't Congress always uh hold hearings and investigations?
They control the purse strings.
Isn't this something that Congress could look into?
It's not the the first job of the inspector general, isn't it Congress that that that's part of their job as the Legislative branch?
unidentified
Yes, that is a great point.
And there's probably a joke here to be made about congressional experts say that Congress doesn't really hold hearings anymore.
That might be a too niche of a joke even for a C-SPAN.
But you're absolutely right.
Congress absolutely can do oversight on their own.
That being said, having done this for a couple years, many members of Congress describe the Inspectors General as their eyes and ears in the agency.
You know, members of Congress have a lot of responsibilities, not just in their legislative role, but also as politicians, whereas Inspectors General and the teams that they leave are actually in these agencies, have a lot of influence and authority to be able to investigate these matters, and then Congress is able to use that information.