Live updates: The shutdown showdown

Dave Williams from TaxPayers Protection Alliance argues against the statement that bringing back pork barrel spending would help get the controversial budget passed through Congress. (In Play)

The Supreme Court will continue to conduct its normal operations through Oct. 11. The court building will be open to the public during its usual hours, and the court will hear the scheduled oral arguments, it was announced Thursday.  A further update will be provided in the event the lapse of appropriations continues beyond Oct. 11.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) move to raise the debt ceiling by any means necessary — including with mostly Democratic votes — could present a “significant breakthrough” in negotiations.

“This could be the beginnings of a significant breakthrough,” Schumer said in a statement. “Even coming close to the edge of default is very dangerous, and putting this issue to rest significantly ahead of the default date would allow everyone in the country to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Of course, Democrats retain our position that the full faith and credit of the United States cannot be held hostage to achieve a political agenda.”

Boehner himself hasn’t confirmed the strategy, which GOP aides have said is in the works. Doing so could risk backlash from conservatives who want to extract concessions from Democrats while guaranteeing against the government defaulting on its debt.

Law enforcement has confirmed that the driver of a car involved in a chase between the White House and the Capitol was shot and killed near the Capitol.

For more, see all the latest updates on our other live blog.

One of the last remaining veterans of World War II in Congress called Thursday afternoon for his colleagues to end the government shutdown, suggesting that members of the legislative body who have appeared at the World War II memorial this week are not doing enough to support those who served in the conflict.

“If this Congress truly wishes to recognize the sacrifice and bravery of our World War II veterans and all who’ve come after, it will end this shutdown and re-open our government now,” John Dingell, (D-Mich.), said in a joint statement issued with former Republican Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, a combat-injured veteran of World War II.

The Department of Veterans Affairs warned this week that its progress is cutting the backlog of disability claims by 30 percent over the last six months is likely to be reversed by the shutdown. The department said that it is no longer able to pay overtime to claims processors, an initiative begun in May that officials say was supposed to continue until November.

“The current shutdown has slowed the rate at which the government can process veterans’ disability claims and, as the VA has stated, it is negatively impacting other services to our nation’s veterans,” Dingell and Dole said in their statement.

Dingell and Rep. Ralph Hall, (R-Tex.), are the only veterans of World War II remaining in Congress.

Several veterans groups, including the American Legion, have issued statements calling for an end to the shutdown.

“The American Legion wants Congress to stop its bickering and stop making America’s veterans suffer for its own lack of political resolve in the face of this national crisis,” the organization said Thursday.

The Senate has adjourned for the day and will reconvene at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) gave brief remarks on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, mostly to thank U.S. Capitol Police and the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms for their work in response to the shooting incident on Capitol Hill.

An e-mail from American United for Change president Brad Woodhouse says the incident on Capitol Hill is a good reason to end the shutdown.

Subject line: “How about this for an idea…”

Text of the e-mail: “…end the Shutdown…and PAY THE CAPITOL POLICE.”

House leaders will not make a decision on whether to remain in session over the weekend until Friday, House Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday.

“We will announce in the morning what to expect as far as votes for the weekend,” Cantor said in response to questions from House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

From Luz Lazo:

The shutdown of the federal government this week has left some area residents turning to their local government for some answers.

Non-emergency call centers and the social media accounts of local governments across the region are hearing from hundreds of residents wanting to know if their local services are impacted, if tax deadlines have been extended, and if they can start applying for unemployment benefits. Some want to know what’s open and what’s closed in the area.
Local officials say they want to remind residents that the local governments are open, and service, including trash pickups, are not interrupted during the federal shutdown.

In Prince George’s County, the 311 Call Center has received more than 500 calls since Tuesday, said Jennifer Hawkins, the center’s manager.

Between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the center received about 200 calls from federal workers who weren’t sure if they needed to report to work, Hawkins said. And on Thursday federal workers who reside in the county have been asking about unemployment benefits, she said.

It has been a busy week, officials say.  The main numbers have been bombarded with calls about Obamacare. Prince George’s, Montgomery and Fairfax counties are home to tens of thousands of federal workers.

In Prince George’s, residents inquiring about unemployment benefits are directed to the Maryland division of unemployment insurance or call 301-313-8000.

The Fairfax County main number has received about 100 calls since Tuesday and dozens of inquiries through the county’s main mailbox and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Fairfax residents have also been asking if the personal property tax deadline of Oct. 7 would be extended due to the shutdown, said Jeremy Lasich, a county spokesman.

Sorry, the answer to that is “No, it won’t,” Lasich said.

Residents seeking information about personal assistance can find more information here.

From Reid Wilson on GovBeat:

With little hope of a quick resolution to the federal government shutdown, and as polls show voters largely blame the GOP for the impasse, Republicans could find themselves jeopardizing their hopes of winning control of the United States Senate next year.

That’s because, for the second electoral cycle in a row, Republicans are banking on a large number of House members running for Senate seats in key states. And, for the second cycle in a row, House Republicans are the most unpopular subset of a deeply unpopular Congress.

Republicans are likely to nominate a sitting House member for Democratic-held Senate seats in four states. Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has no real opponents in his bid for the Republican nomination in the contest against Sen. Mark Pryor (D). Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is the front-runner in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D). Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) leads a wealthy self-funder in the race to face Sen. Mary Landrieu (D). And Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is likely to join the race to replace retiring Sen. Max Baucus (D) in the coming weeks.

Read more here.

“Our hearts and our prayers are with the officers injured today,” Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.) said from the House floor as the proceedings resumed.

Then lawmakers held a moment of silence before Culberson resumed debate on a short-term spending bill to provide funding for military service members.

From Post Politics:

Shortly after reports surfaced of shots fired on Capitol Hill, Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) sent a tweet calling on Democrats to cease their “violent rhetoric.”

Griffin later admitted the tweet was “not helpful” and was done out of emotion.

Here’s the original tweet, which Griffin has since deleted:

Stop the violent rhetoric President Obama, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. #Disgusting

— Tim Griffin (@TimGriffinAR2) October 3, 2013

Griffin send the tweet shortly after noting the shots fired.

Gun shots outside the Capitol.

— Tim Griffin (@TimGriffinAR2) October 3, 2013

Later, Griffin tweeted that he didn’t intend to blame Democrats for the situation.

“The shooting today is a terrible and inexcusable tragedy and an act of terroism,” Griffin said. “No one but the shooter is to blame. I tweeted out of emotion but agree that the timing was not helpful.”

White House officials and Democrats in recent days have used various metaphors for the current budget situation, including suggesting that Republicans were negotiating with a “gun to their head” and likening the GOP to someone with a bomb strapped to their chests.

Gun violence is often politicized, even in the near aftermath of a shooting. Shortly after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot in 2011, some on the left cited Sarah Palin, who had featured Giffords’s district on her political action committee’s website by putting crosshairs over it.

Update 3:22 p.m.: Griffin isn’t the only one who cited political rhetoric after the shooting. Howard Kurtz reports that Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) has as well — though Vargas didn’t blame either party, it should be noted.

Rep Juan Vargas tells us “the rhetoric is unfortunate, it’s so high. It does bring out the crazies,”

— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) October 3, 2013

A sampling, from Post Politics:

Shots fired outside the Capitol. We are in temporary lock down.

— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) October 3, 2013

There had been some short of shooting here at the capital, we r on lockdown awaiting more info

— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) October 3, 2013

Gun shots reported at Capitol. — Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) October 3, 2013

Capitol on lockdown shots heard outside. Everyone stay inside. pic.twitter.com/wqLxPgyZ6k — Grace Meng (@RepGraceMeng) October 3, 2013

Just got this on txt: SHELTER IN PLACE. All House staff should shelter in place until further notice. Update to follow.

— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) October 3, 2013

Shots were fired at the US Capitol. We are on lockdown. I’m safe and so is our team.

— Kyrsten Sinema (@RepSinema) October 3, 2013

There is security situation on Capitol Hill. My staff & I are safe. Appreciate patience of #SouthJersey residents trying to contact offices — Frank LoBiondo (@RepLoBiondo) October 3, 2013

BREAKING: If you are near the DC Capitol, please seek shelter. News reports of gunshots. Stay safe. — Gwen Moore (@RepGwenMoore) October 3, 2013

All Members and staff, we are in temporary lockdown as Capitol police work quickly to secure the area. Please stay safe.

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) October 3, 2013

Please say a prayer. Reports of people hurt, but we really don’t know.

— Rep. Martha Roby (@RepMarthaRoby) October 3, 2013

The House and the Senate have both been recessed until further notice.

There have been multiple reports of shots fired near the U.S. Capitol. Head here for the latest updates.

From Laura Vozzella:

RICHMOND — The federal government shutdown has inspired TV and radio ads in the Virginia governor’s race, with Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli II each accusing the other of Washington-style intransigence.

McAuliffe released a television ad Thursday that seeks to link Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general, to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the architect of the shutdown and a fellow tea party favorite. Cuccinelli put out a radio spot that says McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, has sided with dug-in Democrats in Washington and threatened to shut down state government if he doesn’t get his way on Medicaid expansion.

For more on this battle, head to Virginia Politics.

While the shutdown has threatened weddings and postponed other events, not everything happening around the Mall this weekend has been canceled.

Case in point: The Race for Every Child, an event scheduled for Saturday beginning at 7 a.m. in downtown D.C. While the 5K begins and ends at Freedom Plaza and roams near the Mall and the U.S. Capitol, organizers say it’s still on despite the shutdown.

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon, originally set for Sunday, has been delayed until Nov. 10. This was because the first eight miles of that course was on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which is overseen by the National Park Service.

For more on the Race for Every Child, head here.

From the Federal Eye:

As we enter the third day of the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal government employees remain furloughed. These workers have a wide array of jobs from park rangers and lawyers, to animal keepers and economists. Here’s your chance to find out who they are and what they do. Today, Jason Dworkin, chief of astrochemistry at NASA, shares what it’s like to be a scientist at the agency.

What have you always wanted to know about NASA? Leave your questions for him in the comments, and he will return later this afternoon to answer selected questions right here in this post. Jason will try to respond to as many relevant questions as he can.

Click here to leave a question for Jason.  Read the full post here.

(Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post)

With workers furloughed, and many attractions across the District shut down, many people have apparently decided to spend their free time biking through the area.

The first two days of the shutdown were two of the busiest days in Capital Bikeshare history, according to a note posted on Facebook today.

Bikeshare had 10,367 trips taken on Tuesday and 10,393 rides taken on Wednesday. Each day was among the 20 busiest single days since Bikeshare launched in 2010.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says the federal government shutdown is a symptom of a larger problem with Washington. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says it’s a “failure of everyone who is responsible for the system.” And Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says there is enough blame to go around for everyone in the nation’s capital.

Sensing a theme here?

Republican governors who may run for president in 2016 have taken square aim at the federal government shutdown in an effort to amplify their long-running message that the states — in particular, their own states — do it better.

Briefing reporters in Washington Wednesday, Jindal, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, argued that the shutdown is just one part of a larger systemic problem in Congress that can only be fixed by sweeping “structural” changes.

“It didn’t start with his current challenge,” Jindal said.

More on The Fix.

From Ed O’Keefe and Lori Montgomery:

With a deadline for raising the debt limit fast-approaching, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has been telling colleagues in recent days that he will do whatever necessary to avoid defaulting on the federal debt, including relying on House Democrats to help pass an extension, according to GOP aides familiar with the conversations.

In a series of small group meetings held in his office suite off the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Boehner has been meeting with colleagues to hear them out and reiterate that he will not permit a vote on a “clean” continuing resolution that does nothing about ending or delaying parts of the new federal health-care law.

Relying on a majority of House Democrats, or less than the majority of House Republicans to pass a debt ceiling extension likely would infuriate some of the most conservative members of the GOP conference, but would be a repeat of a strategy that ensured passage earlier this year of measures to avert another fiscal impasse, to renew the Violence Against Women Act and to provide federal relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel would not confirm the details of the speaker’s conversations with members in recent days, but said the Boehner has always believed that defaulting on the federal debt must be avoided.

“Speaker Boehner has always said that the United States will not default on its debt, but if we’re going to raise the debt limit, we need to deal with the drivers of our debt and deficits.  That’s why we need a bill with cuts and reforms to get our economy moving again,” Steel said.

Another group that will be hit by the shutdown: Low-income D.C. residents who rely on public health-care programs. As Mike Debonis explains:

The federal government shutdown means payments related to publicly funded health programs will cease until further notice, city health-care finance officials said Thursday.

That includes payments made directly to health providers, as well as the massive “capitated” payments made to the managed-care organizations that handle most city Medicaid enrollees.

Providers and managed-care organizations who serve residents enrolled in Medicaid or the locally funded D.C. Healthcare Alliance were set to receive checks Friday for services already rendered. Those checks — totaling $89.2 million — are now on hold, said Health Care Finance Director Wayne Turnage, and will remain on hold until the shutdown breaks.

Head here for more.

One provocative thing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in his news conference today: That a so-called “clean” continuing resolution might not pass in the House even if it came to a vote.

That statement is at odds with the assumptions of many political watchers — including us — who have documented how it is likely to pass if House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) were to allow a vote on it.

So does Cantor have a point? Are we wrong? Let’s break it down:

1) Our current whip count shows 19 House Republicans have said they would support a “clean” CR, with another four sounding favorably predisposed toward it.

2) There are 200 Democrats in the House

3) A bill needs 217 votes to pass (it’s usually 218, but there are currently three vacancies)

In other words, at this point, at least a few Democrats would have to vote against the clean CR in order for it to fail.

In addition, it’s likely that more than 19 House Republicans would back the clean CR. Yes, there are the four who sound amenable to it, but there are also likely others — from swing districts, for example — who would vote for it if it came down to it.

(These members have little reason to make their position public unless and until a vote is actually held, because otherwise they are just unnecessarily inviting a backlash from conservative groups, who are already suggesting they may target such members.)

So, assuming that there are at least two dozen GOP supporters, for example, at least seven House Democrats would have to vote no.

For what it’s worth, Senate Democrats were unanimous in support of the clean CR when that chamber voted last week. But the House caucus is different, with many more liberal members than the Senate. Cantor suggested they might vote against a budget that continues the sequester cuts, for example.

While that’s possible, we have no indication at this point that House Democrats would balk at a clean CR. But we’ll keep you posted.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday targeted House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in very personal terms, suggesting that Boehner is holding out on a budget deal because his feelings are hurt.

“He single-handedly is keeping the government shut,” Reid said at a news conference. “Some recent stories have even suggested the speaker is keeping government shut down because I hurt his feelings. If that’s true, I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. But we shouldn’t take it out on hundreds of thousands of Americans who are out of work.”

Reid then went even harder after Boehner.

“We shouldn’t be dysfunctional government; there’s no reason to be other than one man: Speaker Boehner,” Reid said. “He can’t perform the most basic functions of government because he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to that small band of anarchists.”

Reid also said, provocatively, that Boehner told him in early September that he wanted a “clean” continuing resolution — the same thing House Republicans are now resisting.

After a tense exchange Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will sit down with CNN’s Dana Bash today for an interview.

The interview will air in the 3 o’clock hour of CNN’s coverage.

On Wednesday, Bash asked Reid why Senate Democrats wouldn’t pass a bill funding the National Institutes for Health if it means even one child with cancer could enroll in a clinical trial — something that doesn’t happen during a government shutdown.

Reid responded by saying that furloughed employees are also facing tough times — a response that conservatives criticized as dismissive, including Reid’s “Why would we want to do that?” remark.

Democrats are instead holding out for a bill that funds the entire government, rather than the piecemeal approach taken by House Republicans.

Reid closed the exchange by telling Bash: “To have someone of your intelligence suggest such a thing” is “irresponsible.”

The House of Representatives passed a measure on Wednesday afternoon letting the D.C. government conduct business. On Tuesday, a similar measure had failed because most House Democrats opposed it.

Mike DeBonis writes:

The Democrats explained their opposition in the same terms as they have explained their opposition to similar bills that would carve out appropriations for veterans or for national parks: They are not participating in any piecemeal Republican schemes to exempt parts of the federal government from the ongoing shutdown.

District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) was granted floor time to urge her colleagues to vote for the D.C. funding bill, joining Republicans like Darrell Issa (Calif.), chairman of the powerful Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Meanwhile, several prominent Democrats urged votes against it, including Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) — chair of the appropriations subcommittee handling the city budget and an oft-recognized friend of the District.

Even more ironic was that more than 100 House Democrats — including leaders Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Steny Hoyer (Md.) and James Clyburn (S.C.) — had signed a letter Monday urging House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to hold the District harmless in case of a federal shutdown, citing the potentially disastrous effects of such a “predictable and avoidable calamity” on the city.

After the vote, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray called on the Senate to pass the bill:

For locals seeking affordable ways to spend their furloughed days or tourists looking for alternatives to shuttered museums, the Going Out Guide has been essential this week. Guide to food deals? Check. Roundup of open museums and galleries? Right here. Drink specials? So many drink specials.

But perhaps you have additional questions. Maybe you’ve already checked out some of the open venues, you’ve sampled some happy-hour deals and now you want something else to do over the weekend. The Going Out Guide will be chatting with readers today at 1 p.m., so head there with your questions and suggestions.

Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), after an intense exchange with CNN anchor Carol Costello about the current government shutdown Thursday, said the anchor is “beautiful” but needs to be honest.

“Carol, you’re beautiful, but you have to be honest as well,” Rokita says.

Prior to that comment, Rokita said Costello and the media were “part of the problem” when it came to the government shutdown.

Earlier in the interview, Rokita noted that Costello looked “much too young” to have grandchildren.

Update 2:01 p.m.: Rokita has issued a statement in which he says he “intended no offense.”

“At the end of a spirited and very important debate, I was simply keeping it from unnecessarily ending in an unfriendly or contentious way.  I intended no offense to Ms. Costello.”    

“Due to the lapse in funding, the Employment Situation release which provides data on employment during the month of September, compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, will not be issued as scheduled on Friday, October 4, 2013,” the Labor Department said in a statement on Thursday. ”An alternative release date has not been scheduled.”

The BLS is down to just three employees from its usual 2,400 while the shutdown is in effect.

For more, head to Federal Eye.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) accosted a U.S. Park Service ranger on Wednesday in an exchange captured on video by NBC Washington.

“How do you look at them and say — how could you deny them access?” Neugebauer says at the World War II Memorial. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s difficult,” the ranger responds.

“Well, it should be difficult,” Neugebauer says.

“It is difficult,” the ranger says. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves,” Neugebauer says.

“I’m not ashamed,” the ranger says.

“Well, you should be,” Neugebauer says, before walking away.

He is then confronted by a man who says he is a 30-year federal government employee who is out of work. The man tells Neugebauer that the ranger is just doing her job, and that Congress is responsible for federal parks and memorials being shuttered.

Republicans have criticized the Park Service for initially not allowing people to visit the memorials during the government shutdown. Since then, the Park Service has allowed veterans and others access for “1st Amendment activities,” after veterans moved aside barricades to visit memorials to the wars they served in.

(h/t Mediaite)

Ed O’Keefe joined PostTV’s On Background on Wednesday to explain why some members of the House and Senate are lining up to say they will either defer or donate their pay while the federal government is shut down. You can see his list here.

Host Nia-Malika Henderson asked On Background viewers what lawmakers should do with the pay they receive while other “non-essential” federal employees are furloughed. Here’s what a few of them said:

@PostTV They should donate their salaries to food banks in their home states. #postback

— Donna McEvoy (@DonnaMcEvoy) October 3, 2013

@postpolitics Shouldnt get any salary. Should non-essential workers suffer alone cause Congress cant do its job? Share the misery! #postback

— Aaron Dillon (@Aa_Dillon) October 3, 2013

@postpolitics #Postback pay down the debt. it may b insignificant, but it's better than nothing.

— Bill (@C41151GNwh1t3y) October 3, 2013

What do you think? Should lawmakers keep, refuse or donate their salaries during the shutdown? Tweet your response using #Postback.Tweet #PostBack

Republican leaders continue to pressure Democrats to support a bill funding the National Institutes of Health by pointing out that, without the funding, kids with cancer won’t be able to enroll in clinical trials.

“…While we work out our differences here in Washington, children should not be denied their treatments,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said today. “We passed a bill in the House last night that would provide the NIH necessary funding to reopen the clinical trials that (Rep.) Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) spoke about –- that give hope to parents who may not have hope otherwise when they find their kids have cancer.

“I believe that Senator Reid must take up this legislation today for the sake of those children and their health.”

Republicans have criticized Reid for an exchange with CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday in which Reid appeared to dismiss Bash’s contention that passing the NIH bill would help at least one child with cancer.

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have been highlighting the exchange, in which Reid said, “Why would we want to do that?”

Democrats say they want to fund the entire government all at once rather than pass piecemeal government funding bills, as House Republicans have begun doing.

President Obama has begun to shift his rhetoric from the government shutdown to the looming debt-ceiling crisis.

The U.S. Treasury is expected to reach its borrowing limit by Oct. 17, and economists have warned that a potential default, if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling, would damage the economy far worse than the shutdown.

“As reckless as the government shutdown is, as many people who are being hurt by a government shutdown, an economic shutdown resulting from default would be dramatically worse,” Obama said during a speech at M. Luis Construction in Rockville.

“The United States is the center of the world economy,” he continued. “If we screw up, everybody gets screwed up. We’ll all have problems. … It would be the height of irresponsibility.”

What’s funny about the shutdown? If you’re a pro, you start with the obvious.

“The first thing I thought of was, nonessential personnel? So why is Congress still here?” said Elaina Newport, a writer at the venerable Washington comedy group the Capitol Steps. “Is Joe Biden leaving town? No, Bo still needs to be walked every day.”

Or maybe: “Joe Biden was really bummed that the White House tours were cancelled; now he’ll never get into the West Wing.”

She mulls. “We’re still working on that one.”

These are harried — and happy — days in the Capitol Steps’s cluttered headquarters in Old Town Alexandria. As Washington ground to an official halt Tuesday, the satirical mill wheels of the 32-year-old troupe kicked into overdrive, racing to squeeze parody from headlines already dripping with absurdity. Before their next show Friday, they must sharpen new punch lines, rehearse new songs and rush to make up stuff in a week that has the world saying, “You can’t make this stuff up.”

For more, head here.

Montgomery County, visited by President Obama Thursday, is losing about $760,000 a day in income tax revenue because of the federal government shutdown, according to new calculations.

County Finance Director Joseph Beach said it is a “fairly conservative” estimate. It is based on Montgomery’s approximately 70,000 resident federal employees, and county taxes as a ratio of total state taxes collected. Maryland estimates a daily loss of $4.2 million in taxes.

More on Maryland Politics.

From Brad Plumer:

We’re already seeing the effects of the government shutdown. More than 700,000 federal workers have been sent home without pay. National parks and memorials have been barricaded. The National Institutes of Health is turning away cancer patients from clinical trials.

But when do these effects become so overwhelming that the political pressure on Congress becomes unbearable? How long can members of Congress hold out before they have to end the shutdown?

That’s a harder question, and there’s reason to think that Congress can easily hold out for quite some time — a week, perhaps more. During the last shutdown in 1995-96, only a small portion of the country felt the impacts at first. It wasn’t until contractors and businesses started laying people off that the political pressure became more acute. And that could take awhile.

For more on how long that would be, read the Wonkblog.

Speaking at a Rockville construction company, President Obama warned that the government shutdown could harm the United States’s economic recovery.

“We can’t afford to threaten that progress right now,” Obama said at M. Luis Construction, a family-owned small business. “Right now hundreds of thousands of Americans, hard-working Americans, suddenly aren’t receiving their paychecks. … The worst part about it is that this is not happening because of a once-in-a-lifetime economic recession; it’s not happening because of some financial crisis. It’s happening because of a reckless Republican shutdown in Washington.”

It’s official: The monthly jobs report that is due Friday will not be released, as a result of the government shutdown.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics already said it wouldn’t collect or release data in a shutdown, but now it’s official, regardless of whether the shutdown ends today.

Bureau of Labor Statistics says monthly employment numbers will not be released as scheduled Friday due to the #shutdown

— Ed O’Keefe (@edatpost) October 3, 2013

Commuters outside the Capitol South Metro on Thursday. (Mnadel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

The government shutdown means that hundreds of thousands of federal workers are no longer heading to the office. Yet many still hitting the road to head to work encountered heavy congestion.

Why didn’t the traffic improve? As Katherine Shaver, Dana Hedgpeth and Lori Aratani explain, there are a couple of reasons:

The short answer: Federal workers telecommute, carpool and take transit in disproportionate numbers, local commuting experts said. That means they don’t take up as much room on the road as their numbers might indicate.

Moreover, experts say, the Washington area’s traffic volumes are so crushing that even taking thousands of people out of the equation leaves enough traffic that everyday occurrences — fender benders, debris in the road — still create quick backups that can take hours to dissipate.

Meanwhile, some carpools partially made up of federal workers likely have broken up, leaving the remaining people to drive in individual vehicles, experts say.

There were some spots where the congestion eased. Inrix, a company that records and monitors traffic flow, found that the traffic volume on Interstate 95 was down between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday from the same period a week earlier.

But there were also stretches that looked the same as they did any other day. The outer loop of the Beltway in Virginia, for instance, had roughly the same traffic on Wednesday as it did a week earlier, according to Inrix. On the inner loop in Virginia, there was only a noticeable decrease on Wednesday from the a week earlier during the afternoon and evening commute. 

Because so many federal workers take transit, the shutdown was more visible on trains and buses. Metro reported a 20 percent drop in ridership on Wednesday morning from the week before. The transit agency announced that it would only operate six-car trains, rather than mixing six- and eight-car trains.

The Obama administration warned Thursday that a prolonged debate over whether to raise the federal debt ceiling would harm the economy by depressing business and consumer confidence, increasing stock market volatility, erasing household wealth and increasing interest rates on mortgage and corporate loans.

In a new report, the Treasury Department studied the economic fallout from a similar debt ceiling impasse in 2011 – when the nation came within days of defaulting on its obligations – and said that the country could see similar effects this year if lawmakers wait until the final hours to raise the debt ceiling.

In 2011, according to Treasury economists, “consumer and business confidence fell sharply, and financial markets went through stress and job growth slowed. In 2011, U.S. debt was downgraded, the stock market fell, measures of volatility jumped, and credit risk spreads widened noticeably.”

Given that the ongoing government shutdown is already harming the economy, they warned, the effects this year could be worse.

For more on the reports, head here.

From Wonkblog’s Lydia DePillis:

Well, Netflix’s stock sure started looking good on the eve of the government shutdown.

Yeah, it might have something to do with a sweet distribution deal with a Swedish cable company. And sure, there’s the dramatic shift toward online streaming as the modern way of consuming content, not to mention the infectious tech stock optimism around Twitter’s IPO.

But we suspect 800,000 workers suddenly being off the job, maybe catching up on old “West Wing” episodes, couldn’t hurt either.

To view a graph of Netflix’s stock moves, head here.

From Brian Fung:

Thanks to the government shutdown, nearly a dozen federal Web sites are offline and 19 of them are no longer being updated. But a less obvious casualty of the widespread furloughs are the online tools that automatically relay government data to the public.

Federal agencies maintain hundreds of application programming interfaces, or APIs. Whenever you see an interactive map that’s based on Census statistics or pollution data or other official information, that’s often the result of a government data feed. These days, however, when a map or a program phones in to the feed for updates, it’s often met with a “sorry, we’re closed” message — just like the kind human visitors see when they visit Data.gov.

To know more about the impact of the shutdown on the date economy, read The Switch.

The big thing keeping the House from voting on (and very likely passing) the Senate-passed “clean” continuing resolution and ending the current shutdown is the so-called “Hastert Rule.”

The Hastert Rule states that legislation doesn’t come to a vote unless a majority of the majority part in the House — in this case the GOP — supports it. It’s pretty clear that’s not the case with a clean CR — at least for now.

But the rule isn’t technically a rule and isn’t always followed.

In fact, even the man it was named for — former speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) — says it’s a “misnomer.”

“Lookit, the Hastert rule didn’t exist,” Hastert said in an interview Thursday. “What happened is you lined up 218 votes.”

The idea gained traction after Hastert made an offhand comment during a 2006 news conference on an immigration bill, when he was asked by a reporter if he would consider moving the legislation with Democratic support. Hastert replied that that is “something I would not generally do,” adding he preferred to push legislation that enjoyed the backing of a majority of the Republican Conference.

“When I used the term ‘majority of the majority,’ that was in one specific case,” said Hastert, who is now a senior adviser at the law firm Dickstein Shapiro.

Hastert declined to say whether Boehner was right to stick to this approach in the current budget standoff, though he suggested it made no sense to team up with Democrats to advance their agenda at the expense of the GOP’s.

“You don’t go to the other party to move their philosophy,” he said. “You’ve got to move your party’s philosophy.”

And he faulted both parties for failing to get the needed spending bills on time, since that sets up a situation where “ people are playing these games to get what they want to get” given the urgent need to keep the government operating. “That’s the real problem,” Hastert said. “If you don’t have regular order, you get jammed up in the end.”

From reporter Emily Wax-Thibodeaux:

FLORISSANT, Mo. — They moved here to get off the farm or off the assembly lines of a declining auto industry. Others arrived searching for work after serving long tours in the military.

A federal government job was a ticket out of a harder life, a way to secure a place in the middle class.

But this week, the Burnett family, along with about 2,000 other federal workers who live in this northern suburb of St. Louis, found their hopes in jeopardy, their community besieged.

Read the full report here.

From Sports writer Gene Wang:

The Air Force-Navy football game will be played Saturday morning as scheduled after having been put on hold because of the federal government shutdown.

The decision late Wednesday night came after the Department of Defense reviewed submissions detailing how each of the service academies would support athletics without federal funds, a Pentagon spokesman said.

The teams will be allowed to play because the games are paid for with non-appropriated funds and have been long planned. Army’s game at Boston College also will be played, but there was no indication the suspension of athletics at the service academies would be lifted beyond this weekend.

Read the full report here.

From PostTV’s Jeff Simon:

It’s day two of a partial government shutdown that may not end for a while, and the daily tedium of Congress usually witnessed only by people who are paid to watch is in full view for an estimated 800,000 furloughed federal workers and, say, anybody interested in visiting Yosemite.

Because more folks than usual are paying attention, we thought we’d put together a short guide to some of the jargon you may be hearing or reading.

See the full guide here.

From The Fix’s Chris Cillizza:

Here’s an interesting political conundrum: The federal government could reopen tomorrow. But it would end John Boehner’s speakership.

Cillizza explains the way in this analysis.

From Federal Eye blogger Josh Hicks:

The economic impacts of a government shutdown are likely to vary depending on geographic location, how many federal employees live in a given area, and how long the partial halt in operations lasts, according to one economist.

Ball State University economist Michael J. Hicks made those conclusions based on an analysis of the unemployment rates and employment levels in the nation’s capital during the 11 shutdowns that occurred since 1976.

Hicks found that the impacts have not been immediate, but that “employment within Washington, D.C. is negatively affected” within two months of a lapse in appropriations. His models show a reduction of roughly .02 percent in employment for each day of a shutdown for the Beltway.

Read the full report here.

On some level, the current debate is less about policy and more about one or the other side winning.

Few have made that as abundantly clear, though, as Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.).

Here’s what Stuzman told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday:

“We’re not going to be disrespected,” Marlin Stutzman said. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”

The latest CBS News poll, released Thursday, shows that 44 percent of Americans blame the government shutdown on Republicans in Congress, compared with 35 percent who said they blame Obama and Democrats. Seventeen percent said they blame both sides.

The CBS poll showed that 72 percent of Americans disapprove of shutting down the government over differences related to Obamacare.

The new poll mirrors finding of earlier polls, including a Washington Post-ABC News poll on the eve of the shutdown.

In that poll, barely one in four (26 percent) approved of congressional Republicans’ handling of budget negotiations, while 34 percent approved of their Democratic counterparts and 41 percent approved of Obama’s approach. In each case, larger numbers said they “disapprove” of how Republicans, Democrats and Obama are handling things. Underscoring the disgruntled mood, 27 percent of Americans disapprove of all three.

Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) is the latest House Republican to urge his party to accept a “clean” bill funding the government.

“I would take a clean (continuing resolution),” he told the Utica Observer-Dispatch. “I have voted dozens of times to repeal, reform and defund Obamacare. There are glaring problems with the law and we see more daily.”

There are now 19 House Republicans supporting a clean CR — just about the number at which point we can say pretty safely that a majority of the House supports a clean bill. This assumes just about all 200 Democrats would support one.

Of course, unless many more House Republicans are onboard, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is unlikely to allow a vote on a clean bill.

President Obama sent his regrets via video Wednesday evening to the annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala and implored House Republicans to work with Democrats to reopen the federal government.

“I’m having to cancel some public appearances,” Obama explained at the beginning of a video message aired at the black-tie gala.

Read more here.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said Wednesday that the standoff in Congress that triggered a federal government shutdown is symptomatic of a larger problem that won’t be solved until “structural changes are made.”

“Regardless of how they resolve the short-term challenge, we’re going to be right back here,” Jindal told reporters in Washington.

Read more here.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came out of the meeting with President Obama at the White House and again blamed House Republicans and Speaker John A. Boehner for the government shutdown.

“What the speaker has to accept is yes for an answer. He said that he wanted to go to conference. He sent us something from the House, so I thought we would throw him a lifeline. I said, ‘Fine, we’ll go to conference; all we want you to do is open the government.’ … We’ll talk about anything you want to talk about. And he says no,” Reid told reporters.

“All we want to do is go to conference on a short-term [continuing resolution]. We have the debt ceiling staring us in the face and he wants to talk about a short-term CR? .. My friend John Boehner cannot take yes for an answer,” he said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the meeting with the president “worthwhile,” and that the congressional leaders held some “candid”discussions, but reiterated that the GOP’s aim of overturning Obamacare will not be achieved.

“If they won’t take yes for an answer, I can only conclude they want to shut down the government. … We know what that is, overturn the Affordable Care Act, and that’s not going to happen,” Pelosi said.

Mr. Reid said:  “One thing we made very clear in that meeting: We are locked in tight on Obamacare.”

After meeting with President Obama for an hour and a half at the White House, House Speaker John A. Boehner said the president “reiterated tonight he will not negotiate.”

In a statement to reporters, Boehner said:

“The president reiterated tonight that he will not negotiate. We’ve got divided government. Democrats control the Senate, Republicans control the House. We sent four different proposals to our Democratic colleagues in the Senate; they’ve rejected all of them. We asked to go to conference, to sit down and try to resolve our differences. They will not negotiate. We had a nice conversation, a light conversation, but at some point we’ve got to allow the process that our Congress gave us to work out. We’ve appointed conferees on the House side to sit down with the Senate. It’s time for them to appoint conferees. All we’re asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare. I would hope that the president and my democratic colleagues in the Senate will listen to the American people and sit down and have a serious discussion about resolving these differences.”

The speaker did not take questions and left the White House after the statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the meeting with the president was cordial but unproductive.

“While I appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with the President about this pressing issue, I was disappointed that he had little interest in negotiating a solution or in encouraging Senate Democrats to agree to the House request for a conference,” McConnell said in a statement.

Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.

In Play’s Jackie Kucinich looks at key players in the fight over the budget — and why they have every reason not to come to the negotiating table.

From White House reporter Juliet Eilperin:

The National Park Service politely declined the Republican National Committee’s offer to keep the World War II  memorial open for the next month.

In an e-mail, National Park Service spokeswoman Jennifer Mummart said the agency had no choice but to reject the RNC’s donation.

Mummart added there is an official process through which the agency accepts and accounts for donations, and it lacks the staff to conduct such a screening.

Read the full report here.

We’re on Day Two of the government shutdown. How long will the actual shutdown last? Share your guesses here.

No. 18 is Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). According to the Miami Herald:

So should the House bring a so-called “clean” bill to the floor now?

“I think we’re beyond that,” he said, though he indicated he would vote for one now, provided it had the same level of spending reductions.

And here’s the latest whip count:

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) grew heated when discussing funding for medical research on the House floor Tuesday, the second day of the government shutdown.

Katherine Boyle reports:

With federally funded arts and culture spots closed, area museums are at the ready to pick up the slack, which seems especially pronounced in group tours. Some are also offering freebies or discounts to help lure visitors who were maybe counting on the free admission at the Smithsonian Institutions.

“Based on our 3:00 clicker, we’ve seen five times the amount of visitors today as on a typical Wednesday,” says Joanna Kauffmann, spokeswoman for the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Visitor numbers were perceptibly higher at the Phillips Collection.

“In fact, the number of guests we saw yesterday was more than double what we typically see on a weekday when there is no special exhibition on view,” says Sarah Schaffer, spokeswoman for the Phillips Collection.“We expect to end today with numbers that are even higher than yesterday.”

The Phillips, always free during the week, will welcome those affected by the shutdown by offering buy-one-get-one free admission this weekend for all federal employees who present valid ID.

At the Newseum, “we saw double the walk in traffic yesterday, from the same Tuesday last year, and [Wednesday] we’ve seen four times as much walk in traffic as the same day last year,” says spokesman Jonathan Thompson.

Spy Museum visitor numbers are also up, says spokesman Jason Werdon.

Amy Mannarino, spokeswoman for the National Museum of Women in the Arts says they don’t have definitive numbers “but almost half the people who came yesterday were federal employees, and we’re able to track that because we’re offering them free admission and they showed government ID.”

This is almost double the people who would normally have come out, Mannarino says.

The Post is asking readers how the government shutdown will affect them personally, whether they’re a furloughed federal worker, D.C. resident or otherwise generally inconvenienced. Some of those told to stay home from work are frustrated by an inability to finish projects, but others have more pressing concerns about making rent and paying bills. Here are some of their stories:

Click over to the full graphic to read more responses or share your own experience.

President Obama took the unusual step Wednesday of telling Wall Street that it should be concerned about the government shutdown.

After CNBC’s John Harwood noted that the market’s response has been somewhat muted, Obama said it shouldn’t be.

“I think this time is different,” Obama said. ” I think they should be concerned.”

President Obama said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday that he’s “exasperated” by the Republican Party’s tactics in the current budget debate.

“I think it’s fair to say, during the course of my presidency, I have bent over backwards to work with the Republican Party and have purposely kept my rhetoric down,” Obama said. “Am I exasperated? Absolutely, I’m exasperated. Because this is entirely unnecessary.”

Obama said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) could put a “clean” continuing resolution on the floor today, and it would pass — a contention that appears true, judging by the 17 House Republicans who have come out in support of a clean CR.

Ian Shapira reports that the shutdown has actually benefited some businesses in D.C.:

Catherine Ker, general manager of Bearnaise in Capitol Hill, said her French restaurant on the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE saw a 25 percent increase in revenue thanks to the shutdown.

More people, she said, are free to swing by for lunches and early happy hours and then stay for early dinners. And now that people aren’t working, she’s also seen a new late dinner crowd come around 9 p.m.

“I’ve spoken with a few other managers on Pennsylvania Ave. and the same thing is true all over. We’re all busy, all the way through to 11 p.m,” she said.

Predictably, she said, Bearnaise has had double the number of guests at its bar than on days before the shutdown.

“We were actually expecting the shutdown to hit us in a malicious way, but everyone’s running specials, like doing happy hours for lunch,” she said. “We’re willing to take the business regardless of the circumstances.”

Even in the Navy Yard, where a shutdown of both the federal government and the Washington Nationals season might be a double dose of bad news, the Park Tavern restaurant said it too has seen an increase in foot traffic and revenue.

“We had a huge pop during lunch today,” said Caroline Kilner, the restaurant’s general manager. “Most people were at work but with very flexible schedules. People are fairly relaxed about it, and they’ll be back at work soon, hopefully. It just seems like lots of people were drinking at lunch time.”

No. 17 is Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.).

Rep. Bill Young, R-FL, says he would vote for clean CR, to start harder bud work. “The politics should be over. It’s time to legislate.”

— Alex Leary (@learyreports) October 2, 2013

And here’s the latest whip count:

Carol Morello reports:

As the impact of the federal shutdown started to ripple across the region, it gave one Washington charity an instant boost.

DC Central Kitchen, which distributes meals to homeless shelters and nonprofit groups around the city, late Tuesday received a donation of 6,000 pounds of produce from the Hyatt Regency Hotel after the shutdown forced the cancellation of a trade show.

Amy Bachman, procurement manager for the charity, said that if the shutdown continues, she expects more canceled conventions and shows, leading to more food donated by caterers and convention hotels.

“We have trucks that are able to pick up donations to make sure that food doesn’t go to waste,” she said.

Several other food pantries and soup kitchens in the region said they had not seen a sudden uptick in donations yet. But some are bracing for an increase in clients as the shutdown drags on. Patty Stonesifer, president of Martha’s Table, said she expected the charity’s food distributions to rise 15 to 40 percent in October, due partly to the shutdown and partly to benefit cuts already expected to take place by the end of the month.

“Everyone in the food support business is gearing up to see a demand bump,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had a tense exchange with CNN’s Dana Bash today, after Bash asked him why the Senate wouldn’t pass the House’s bill funding the National Institutes of Health.

Bash noted that passing the bill would allow clinical trials for cancer treatments to proceed.

“If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?” she asked.

Reid was taken aback, as Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said: “Why pit one against the other?”

Reid then said: “Why would we want to do that? We have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.”

“To have someone of your intelligence suggest such a thing,” Reid says to Bash, is “irresponsible.”

House Republicans have sought to pass individual bills funding things like the NIH instead of passing a bill funding the entire government.

Bash said after the clip aired that she was playing devil’s advocate.

Update 5:25 p.m.: Reid appeared on Bill Press’s radio show and responded to those who have accused him of being dismissive of kids with cancer.

“The whole answer is this: Why would we want to have the House of Representatives – John Boehner – cherry-pick what stays up and what’ll be closed?” Reid said. “Of course I care about (kids with cancer). I have 16 of my own grandchildren, five children. But I also care about the Centers for Disease Control. … They are not working today, looking for the next scourge that affects people.”

“So what I told Dana Bash, who is a fine reporter, is that we care about all these things. We care about our state parks, we care about our veterans. But we can’t fall into the trap (of passing piecemeal bills), and finally at the end, everything will be open except the money to finish Obamacare.”

(h/t Peter Ogburn)

GovBeat’s Reid Wilson talks with On Background Nia-Malika Henderson about where the government shutdown is being felt outside the Washington area, and which state has been hit hardest.

Watch the full episode here.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday that the RNC will pay to keep the World War II Memorial open for the next 30 days.

Republicans have criticized the Obama administration after National Park Service officials reportedly told visiting veterans that they wouldn’t be able to visit the memorials, which were closed during the government shutdown. Veterans have moved aside barricades and visited the memorials anyway.

The National Park Service has now opened the memorials for “1st Amendment activities.”

“The Obama administration has decided they want to make the government shutdown as painful as possible, even taking the unnecessary step of keeping the Greatest Generation away from a monument built in their honor,” Priebus said. “That’s not right, and it’s not fair. So the RNC has put aside enough money to hire five security personnel to keep this memorial open to veterans and visitors. Ideally, I’d hope to hire furloughed employees for this job.”

Priebus invited the Democratic National Committee to help foot the bill.

It’s not yet clear whether the RNC is allowed to pay to keep the memorial open. The National Park Service does accept gifts, but there is generally a process by which they are given. Park service employees, who have been furloughed, couldn’t be reached for comment.

RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the RNC is putting the offer on the table.

Updated 4:05 p.m.: DNC spokesman Mo Elleithee calls Priebus’s event a “silly stunt.”

“We’ve already been working on a plan to open the memorial — and the entire government — after the GOP caused them to close,” Elleithee said. “It’s called a clean funding resolution, and it sounds like the votes are there if the speaker would just call for a vote. “

Much of the attention being paid to the government shutdown has focused on how it will impact the Washington region. That makes some sense, given the massive concentration of federal workers and contractors in and around D.C. The region could lose an estimated $200 million a day, according to a local economist’s projections.

But it is worth noting the impact far from the shuttered museums and memorials of the Mall. The federal government employs people across the country, and many of these workers are facing furloughs. There are also plenty of services offered and venues operated or maintained that will no longer be available.

Military members will continue to be paid, as will many civilians working for the Defense Department, thanks to a bill signed into law on Monday. But civilian employees who work at military bases and support the National Guard are being hit hard, something acknowledged by President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week

The shutdown is also threatening programs and services relied upon by people across the country. A federal program that provides food for poor women and children in Wisconsin should be able to continue for a few weeks if the shutdown persists, but after that point it could stop getting shipments of food, officials warned. In Washington state, a nutrition program that provides health screenings, nutrition education and other support to pregnant women, new mothers and young children has enough money to operate for nine days. A similar program in North Carolina could also shut down this month. And American Indian tribes are dealing with a loss of funding for services including financial aid for the needy, foster care payments and nutrition programs.

For more, head here.

You might be hearing more about this one in the coming days.

From KBOI-TV (emphasis ours):

Officials at Craters of the Moon National Monument are about to get more boots on the ground to search for a missing Boise woman.

The monument has 19 employees and all but three were about to be placed on furlough due to the government shutdown. On Wednesday, however, officials there say the park has received permission to keep 10 workers under the “excepted” status during the search.

Officials have been looking for 63-year-old Jo Elliott-Blakeslee for about a week. Her hiking partner, 69-year-old Amy Linkert, was found dead last Wednesday.

“The probability of finding her (Elliott-Blakeslee) alive has diminished, but we are committed to continuing the search until we find Dr. Jo and bring closure to her family, friends and all those who have been involved in this search,” said Dan Buckley, park superintendent.

With 16 staff employees being placed on furlough, Ted Stout, chief of interpretation and education at Craters, told KBOI 2News that no one was looking for 63-year-old Jo Elliott-Blakeslee Tuesday morning.

“It’s pretty much just park staff that are continuing the search,” Stout said. “But we’re also faced with the government shutdown — we’ve been busy with that.”

Metro said Wednesday it will run shorter trains as ridership during the morning commute dropped 22 percent, Dana Hedgpeth and Katherine Shaver report.

The transit agency said it will run only six-car trains instead of a mix of six- and eight-car trains on the rail system. Each rail car can carry roughly 120 passengers so riders typically favor trains with more cars.

Metro’s ridership was down between 20 and 25 percent during the Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning rush hours, said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for the transit agency. Roughly 750,000 rider trips a day are taken on Metro — 200,000 of them during the rush hour. Of the rush hour riders, roughly 40 percent are federal workers.

Day One of Life after the Shutdown: Sleep late, make a list.

Denise Hawkins, 62, a branch chief with the EPA, did not get up in the 6 o’clock hour, as she usually does, and did not board the Metro for work downtown. She rose at 8 a.m. in her Bethesda home, read the newspaper, played Bejeweled on her computer. Then she stopped herself.

“Enough is enough,” she decided. Days with no work ambled along at a different pace. “I told my husband this was practice for retirement,” she said.

Hawkins made a do list: Go to Staples. Stop at the cleaners. Call Comcast. Call a handyman. Place photos in albums. Fix the belt on a coat. She decided she would increase her visits to the gym.

She mused that it might be the perfect time to shop. But shopping meant spending. “I’m trying to keep away from things that cost money,” she said.

She guessed she might have two more weeks of free time, figuring the impasse in Congress would not end until after the debt ceiling deadline. “Nobody has a crystal ball, but that would be my guess,” she said. Her list would go on, she said. She would cross some of her items off, then add more.

Republicans have spent much of the day citing reports of World War II veterans being asked not to visit shuttered memorials and blaming the Obama administration for handling the matter poorly.

And now, the Republican National Committee is taking it a step further.

At 3pm, @Reince will go to the WWII memorial & announce that the @RNC will foot the bill to keep it open for the next 30 days.

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 2, 2013

The National Park Service, for what it’s worth, has now opened such areas for “1st Amendment activities.”

During today’s media briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked whether President Obama would donate his salary during the shutdown to charity, as more than 70 members of Congress are doing.

Carney implied that Obama won’t: “Our position is that the government should be open.”

Carney added that the administration hopes Congress would authorize back pay for furloughed workers.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Carney said.

With Aaron Blake.

No. 16 is Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), which means we are now on the precipice of a majority of the House supporting a “clean” continuing resolution.

.@CongMikeSimpson “I’d vote for a clean CR, bc I don’t thnk ths is a strategy tht works. I thnk th strategy tht works is on th debt ceiling”

— Daniel Newhauser (@dnewhauser) October 2, 2013

(Note: Other whip counts have a 17th member, New Jersey’s Leonard Lance. His office has said his position is more nuanced than that.)

The fate of the Navy-Air Force game scheduled for Saturday is still up in the air, despite tweets that were posted and deleted by the Naval Academy this afternoon.

The game’s fate has been jeopardized by to the shutdown, with a decision expected before noon on Thursday.

But on Wednesday afternoon, the Naval Academy Twitter account posted that the game was indeed on for Saturday. Those tweets were up for about 20 minutes before being deleted shortly before 2 p.m.

The account followed that with these messages:

Federal employees have a strong sense of mission. Now in the second day of furlough because the government is shut down due to a congressional budget impasse, many workers are idle, and the services they provide the nation either won’t get done or will be delayed.

When Stephanie Graf is allowed to work in her Labor Department office, her mission is to help get emergency grants to people in need.

“We provide grants for people like me. I’m dislocated now,” she said before leaving the office Monday.

More about Graf and other federal workers at the Federal Eye.

Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Bank of America President and CEO Brian Moynihan were among a group of Wall Street CEOs who just met with Obama.

Moynihan, left, and Blankfein. (David Nakamura/Washington Post)

Virginia state Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli (R) held both parties responsible for the shutdown in an interview with PostTV’s In Play on Tuesday.

“At a point like this I expect them to be staying at work, I expect them to be pushing concepts and ideas back and forth — even if they don’t like what the other side has to say,” said Cuccinelli.

“The attitude that I see and that a lot of Americans see here is very frustrating.”

Watch the full video and tune in to In Play for more clips from Cuccinelli’s interview.

Michael E. Ruane reports from the Mall:

On Wednesday, it seemed that the barricades around memorials on the Mall weren’t doing much to keep people out of the memorials. Yet another group of World War II veterans made their way to the closed World War II memorial, following a similar scene on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the National Park Service tweeted Wednesday that veterans would be granted access to the World War II Memorial under the First Amendment. Jeff Miller, co-founder of the Honor Flight Network also said officials have told him they will no longer bar veterans groups from entering the memorial.

“The Park Service they have been so compassionate, they have done everything they could,” Miller said.

He said the Park Service “bent over backwards” to make sure veterans were not inconvenienced or disappointed.

“We don’t need representatives, senators anybody here,” he said.”We will be allowed to move the gate if there’s no one here and our veterans [can] go in.”

The Korean War memorial is barricaded with bicycle racks, but people just walked around the barricades and entered the memorial. At the memorial for veterans of the Vietnam War, there are barricades present at one entrance but they look as if they have been pushed aside and the memorial was crowded with visitors on Wednesday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) just sent this letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), in which he proposes a conference committee to deal with spending levels — but only after Republicans pass a “clean” continuing resolution.

Reid also notes that, even though he opposed the Iraq war vehemently, he didn’t use the budget process to try and defund it.

“I faced a lot of pressure from my own base to take that action,” Reid writes of a possible defunding effort. “But I did not do that.”

Boehner’s response, from spokesman Michael Steel: “Offering to negotiate only after Democrats get everything they want is not much of an offer.  Today, the House will continue to pass bills that reflect the American people’s priorities.  The Senate passed the troop funding bill this weekend — will they now say ‘no’ to funding for veterans, our National Parks and the National Institutes of Health?”

Update 1:29 p.m.: Republicans point out that Reid, at one point, co-sponsored a bill that would have ended funding for the Iraq war and redeployed troops.

From our report in 2007:

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid yesterday endorsed the Senate’s toughest antiwar bill yet, a bid to cut off funding within a year, sending a clear signal to President Bush that the Iraq debate will continue in Congress regardless of whether he carries through on his veto threats.

Reid (Nev.) announced that he had teamed up with Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), one of the Democrats’ strongest war critics, on legislation to set a deadline of March 31, 2008, for completing the withdrawal of combat forces and ending most military spending in Iraq.

Reid’s decision came as House and Senate Democrats were just starting to deliberate a compromise war spending bill. The package is likely to include language at least calling for troop withdrawals to begin, but the Feingold plan would go much further, essentially giving Bush a year to end most U.S. military activities before the money dries up.

With Jackie Kucinich.

More and more House Republicans are coming out in support of a so-called “clean” continuing resolution — as the Senate has already passed — to end the government shutdown.

But it doesn’t yet constitute a movement. Here’s why:

So far, the 15 members supporting a “clean” CR come from very specific areas — namely the Philadelphia suburbs (7 of the 15), New York (2 of the 15) and Virginia (4 of the 15).

The reason these members are the first to jump on-board is that they come from tough districts in the generally blue Northeast or they come from districts with a heavy military influence in Virginia.

But there aren’t many northeastern Republicans left, and the Virginia Republicans who are on-board all come from the same area — the eastern and northern parts of the state, where there are many more federal employees than your average district.

There just aren’t many more districts like these.

Until more members form the middle of the country start to come onboard, this isn’t really a movement yet, and it won’t put as much pressure on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to actually allow a vote on the Senate-passed bill.

Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Le wanted to get married on the site of their first date. Guests were invited, flights booked, and people had already begun flying in from all over the country to attend.

The problem: Their wedding was to take place on the lawn of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and if the government was still shut down on Saturday afternoon they would be barred from the property.

Carol Johnson, a spokeswoman for the National Parks Service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks unit, was sympathetic but said there was nothing she could do. There are 24 weddings scheduled for the Mall in October, and those cannot take place during a shutdown.

“I can’t even imagine it,” Johnson said. “It’s clearly so crushing. It would be so devastating.”

Ian Shapira has the full story.

Much of the government’s sprawling scientific and technological machinery has been turned off, and researchers and engineers fear that a prolonged shutdown could imperil their projects and create lasting harm to U.S. innovation. Sick people hoping to join clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health are being turned away.

Nearly three-fourths of NIH employees have been furloughed. Patients already enrolled in NIH clinical trials will continue to receive care. If the shutdown continues it could affect about 200 people per week who, under normal circumstances, would be admitted to new trials, said John T. Burklow, a spokesman for NIH. Roughly 30 of those new patients would be children, and about 10 would be children with cancer, he said.

“Everyone feels absolutely awful. It’s antithetical to our mission and why we’re all here. Even if it’s a delay,” Burklow said. “If you have a child who needs help, even if you’re told, well, we can’t help you today, it just creates anxiety and frustration I’m sure.”

For more on the impact of the shutdown on the scientific community, head here.

For at least one day, the high-profile and heated Virginia gubernatorial race between Terry McAuliffe (D) and Ken Cuccinelli II (R) turned its attention to the same issue gripping the rest of the Washington region: the shutdown. 

McAuliffe was visiting MicroTech, a technology company in Vienna on Tuesday. The chief executive of the company said most of his government projects had been halted, and his workforce sent home. So the event became all about the government shutdown, as Ben Pershing and Fredrick Kunkle report:

McAuliffe quickly pinned the blame for MicroTech’s plight on his opponent. “I think it’s so sad what we just heard here with Tony,” he said. “There are thousands of Virginians today, unfortunately there’s a lot of collateral damage because of the tea party’s ideological war.”

The shutdown came up during a debate between the two candidates last week in McLean. Cuccinelli, a longtime opponent of the health-care law, said he didn’t want to see a government shutdown.

“Well, I’d like to see Obamacare pulled out of federal law, but, you know, we’ve got to keep moving forward and make compromises to get the budget going,” he said during the debate.

But during an appearance on Post TV’s “In Play” on Tuesday, Cuccinelli said the fault also lies with President Obama and congressional Democrats who refuse to negotiate.

The shutdown remained a campaign issue on Wednesday. Cuccinelli released a statement minutes ago calling on all members of Congress to forgo their salaries during the shutdown.

Virginia is home to many federal workers and contractors, so the issue could become a key one for many undecided voters going into next month’s election. There are 15 Republican representatives so far who have said they would vote for a budget bill that does not delay or defund the health-care law, and four of them come from Virginia: Rob Wittman, Scott Rigell, Frank Wolf and Randy Forbes.

Rigell said in a statement that “Republicans fought the good fight” in attempting to fight the health care law, but said it was time to move on. “The shutdown is hurting my district – including the military and the hard working men and women who have been furloughed due to the defense sequester,” the statement said.

More than 60 members of Congress have announced that they will donate their paychecks to charity during the current government shutdown.

Is your member on the list? Here’s the rundown.

Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) becomes the 15th. Once we get to the 17-20 range, it will become pretty clear that a majority of the House (including all or almost all 200 Democrats) support a clean CR.

Here’s the latest whip count, courtesy of The Fix:

From The Post’s Ellen Nakashima:

At a Senate  Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning on the government’s surveillance programs, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. criticized the shutdown and the furloughing of many federal workers.

Clapper said that by using the legal standard of “that which is necessary to protect against imminent threat — imminent threat — to life or property,” roughly 70 percent of employees were furloughed. He added that if the shutdown continues, the intelligence community would make adjustments, “depending on what we see as the potential imminent threats to life or property.”

Clapper also said that in the 50 years that he has been in the intelligence business, he had “never seen anything like this.”

“From my view, I think this — on top of the sequestration cuts that we’re already taking, that this seriously damages our ability to protect the safety and security of this nation and as citizens,” he said. “This affects our ability — this is not just a Beltway issue; this affects our global capability to support the military, to support diplomacy and to support our policymakers.

“And the danger here, of course, that this will accumulate over time. The damage will be insidious. So each day that goes by, the jeopardy increases,” Clapper said.

Clapper also said that counseling services are being set up for employees to help them manage their finances, as they face challenges related to the furloughs.

The National Security Agency’s director, Gen. Keith Alexander, echoed Clapper’s comments about employee hardship.

“We have an amazing workforce,” Alexander said about NSA employees. “When I look at what our folks are capable of doing, we have over 960 PhDs, over 4,000 computer scientists, over a thousand mathematicians. They are furloughed. Our nation needs people like this. And the way we treat them is to tell them, you need to go home because we can’t afford to pay you; we can’t — we can’t make a deal here.

“From my perspective, it has had a huge impact on morale.”

A group of World War II veterans entered the grounds of the closed World War II Memorial on Wednesday morning, Michael E. Ruane reports from the Mall. The veterans were part of an honor flight group from Missouri.

This followed a similar scene on Tuesday, when a group of veterans from Mississippi filed into the memorial after the barricades were moved. And a group of Korean War veterans from Puerto Rico similarly bypassed the barricades on Tuesday at the Korean War Memorial to lay a wreath.

As was the case on Tuesday, the veterans entering the World War II Memorial on Wednesday were accompanied by Republican members of Congress.

The National Park Service said the memorial remained closed, but there was little they could do about the surge of veterans and legislators.

“This is not the Park Service determination, “spokeswoman Carol Bradley Johnson said of the closed memorial. “It’s because of the government shutdown.”

As more House Republicans back a “clean” continuing resolution, it’s becoming clear that a clean bill is getting close to support from a majority of the House. At that point, the question is whether there would be a vote.

One avenue to force a vote would be if a majority of House members were to sign what’s called a “discharge petition.”

But that doesn’t really apply in this case, as the Monkey Cage explains:

Contrary to claims that the discharge rule will “end this nonsense,” more likely it’s a procedural dead end for the CR.

Why is the discharge rule so lame? As always, procedural mechanics and political context shape the effectiveness of congressional rules.  The cumbersome nature of the rule — coupled with GOP unwillingness to join forces with the Democrats — consigns the discharge rule to the dustbins of congressional procedural history.  (Not a bad place, if you’re into that sort of stuff.)

First, the mechanics.  Under the House discharge rule, a majority of the membership (218 lawmakers, even if some seats are vacant) can sign a petition to dislodge a bill or resolution from a House committee.  With the requisite number of signatures (made public here), a majority can extract any bill that has been stuck in a committee for more than 30 legislative days.  Members can also target special rules that are stuck in the Rules Committee, so long as the rule has been before House Rules for more than seven legislative days and so long as the rule targets a bill stuck at least 30 days in committee. Once 218 members sign on, motions to discharge land on the House discharge calendar.  If you are a bill in a hurry for a vote, don’t tread there.   The House considers motions from the discharge calendar on only the second and fourth Mondays of the month.

Time lags built into the discharge rule are bound to frustrate lawmakers if they seek to open a shuttered government.   Even if an aspiring lawmaker bones up on the House rule book and today introduces a CR and a discharge motion to dislodge it, the earliest the motion to discharge would make its way onto the discharge calendar after securing 218 signatures would be November.  (I am assuming that the House’s calendar and legislative days run roughly in tandem this month).  If the motion doesn’t make it onto the calendar until after the second Monday of the month, the bill would be discharged at the earliest in late November.  Procedural details make the discharge rule ill-suited for swift enactment of a clean CR.

The White House has invited the four top congressional leaders — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — to the White House for a 5:30 pm meeting over the current budget standoff and looming debt ceiling crisis, according to aides to several participants.

“The President will urge the House to pass the clean CR to reopen the government, and call on Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling to pay the bills we have already incurred and avoid devastating consequences on our economy,” wrote a White House official in an e-mail, asking not to be identified because the meeting had not yet taken place.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck welcomed the invitation, even as he criticized the president’s handling of the ongoing budget battle.

“We’re pleased the president finally recognizes that his refusal to negotiate is indefensible,” Buck said in a statement. “It’s unclear why we’d be having this meeting if it’s not meant to be a start to serious talks between the two parties.”

The White House has been walking what aides believe is a fine line on the engagement/disengagement front. There are some there who fear the president staying out of the fray will contribute to a disengagement storyline that was building as a result of Syria and Larry Summers/Federal Reserve situation. They had actually tried to set up a meeting last week, but Reid squashed the idea.

Karen Tumulty contributed to this post.

About an hour ago, The Fix launched its new whip count of House Republicans who say they would join with Democrats to vote for a so-called “clean” continuing resolution to end the shutdown.

Well, conservative groups are taking notice of who is prepared to cross party lines.

The Club for Growth, which supports primary challenges against incumbents who are insufficiently conservative, just tweeted this ominous message:

Thank you for compiling this useful list! RT @AaronBlakeWP: 14 House Rs now support a ‘clean’ CR. Our whip count: http://t.co/kpZw5mIy7i

— Andy Roth (@andyroth) October 2, 2013

The Club earlier this year launched a Web site asking supporters which Republican incumbents it should target in primaries.

President Obama has canceled part of his upcoming trip to Asia due to the government shutdown, the White House said early Wednesday, nixing planned stops in Malaysia and the Philippines.

The National Security Council tweeted about the cancellation a short time ago, calling for an end to the shutdown and noting that trips to Indonesia and Brunei will be evaluated based on what happens during the rest of the week:

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe says he supports a bill from Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine (D) and Mark Warner (D) to pay furloughed federal government employees retroactively once the shutdown concludes.

“I strongly support the bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Warner and Kaine to mitigate the damage that this shutdown will cause for Virginia families,” McAuliffe says in a statement. “While my opponent has tacitly endorsed the strategy of Tea Party Republicans and Senator Cruz that led to the shutdown, I believe we should all agree that Virginia workers should not be punished for the actions of an extreme few members of Congress.”

With the House set to vote on five smaller, individual continuing resolutions, the White House has again issued veto threats, saying it will accept nothing besides a “clean” continuing resolution that funds the entire government.

“If the President were presented with H.J. Res. 70, H.J. Res. 71, H.J. Res. 72, H.J. Res. 73, and H.R. 3230, he would veto the bills,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget says.

Wednesday was the first full day of furloughs stemming from the government shutdown. That meant fewer people riding Metro and lighter traffic on the roads, as Dana Hedgpeth and Katherine Shaver report.

Metro reported that rail ridership had dropped 25 percent on Wednesday between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. when compared to the same time frame a week earlier. Bus riders said they encountered fewer passengers on their Metrobus routes. And an operator for a regional traffic monitoring system said there was less congestion on typical trouble spots like the northbound 14th Street Bridge this morning.

Of course, some drivers still encountered backups in a region where traffic can readily snarl. It’s not clear yet just how much of an impact the shutdown will have on the area’s notorious rush hours.

We’ve been updating this live blog regularly with how many House Republicans are supporting a so-called “clean” continuing resolution — as the Senate passed — to end the government shutdown.

Now, The Post’s great graphics team has created a handy graphic so you can just click “refresh” to keep tabs on it. Head on over to The Fix to check it out, and make sure to bookmark it.

We’ll keep updating this live blog too, as other House Republicans call for a clean CR.

The government shutdown is doing more than closing tourist attractions and forcing workers to quickly wrap things up and head home. It is impacting federal workers in very clear and bracing ways.

Joe Davidson, writing in today’s Federal Diary column, explains:

The loss of pay is serious. For some households, a federal job is the single source of income. Some families with two federal workers will now have none.

But more than the money, broken spirits appear to be emerging among some federal employees….

Unless Congress decides otherwise, which can’t be assumed, furloughed employees won’t get paid for the days they are locked out. Those working because they are excepted from the furlough will be paid, but who knows when? They can’t take “eventually” to the bank or to their creditors.

All this leaves federal employees upset and frustrated. But there’s something more. Conversations with workers point to a growing level of alienation among some who were once proud members of the federal service.

Head here to read more.

The Department of Veterans Affairs warned Tuesday night that the government shutdown will reverse its progress on lowering the backlog of disability claims.

The department said it can no longer pay overtime to claims processors, an initiative begun in May that department officials credit as a major reason for a 30 percent drop in the inventory of disability claims over the last six months.

“Due to the government shutdown, this clear progress for veterans and their families is at risk without immediate action by Congress to make fiscal year 2014 funding available,” the VA said in its statement.

More at the Federal Eye.

From Wonkblog’s Brad Plumer:

The shutdown of the federal government has sent some 710,000 to 770,000 employees home, delayed the paychecks of another 1.3 million “essential” workers, and shuttered various government functions.

That will put a crimp in the Washington D.C. area’s economy — costing some $200 million per day.

…But, surprisingly, D.C. isn’t even the city most dependent on its federal workforce. That honor belongs to Colorado Springs.

For a map of where federal workers are located and which cities are most dependent on its federal workforce, head here.

From GovBeat’s Reid Wilson:

The nation’s editorial boards spent Tuesday much the way tourists on the Mall did, expressing their outrage over the government shutdown. The overwhelming number of editorial boards came to the same conclusion: That Republicans — specifically the tea party caucus — are to blame. Even those editorial boards that don’t like the Affordable Care Act think shutting down the government is a bridge too far.

Here’s a sampling of the editorials from around the country.

Hoping to increase the political pressure on Democrats to help approve a series of short-term spending bills, House Republicans announced plans Wednesday morning to vote on two additional measures to help military reservists and government-funded medical research.

The bills would provide funding to pay members of the National Guard and military reservists who are on active duty and to allow the National Institutes of Health to resume most of its research programs.

The two bills are in addition to votes expected again Wednesday on measures that would fund veterans’ health programs, the District of Columbia and the federal government’s museum system and national parks. The House failed to pass those measures Tuesday night under a suspension of normal rules.

Taken together, the five bills represent five of the most high-profile government programs or groups of people affected by the shutdown – U.S. military service members; essential city services provided by the District of Columbia;  Washington’s iconic and well-visited museums and the nation’s 300-plus national parks; and now NIH, which has been shuttered by the spending impasse. Each of these groups or locations has provided dramatic backdrops for television news cameras and the front pages of the nation’s newspapers in the hours since the shutdown began.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), appearing on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown,” suggested that Democrats aren’t negotiating with Republicans out of principle — and out of worry that any capitulation would only embolden the cast-iron conservative wing of the party.

“Every parent knows that if you give into a spoiled child today, it’s going to be worse tomorrow,” Durbin said. “And that’s what we’re facing here.”

Durbin said Democrats would talk to Republicans about repealing the medical device tax, for instance, but not until the shutdown is over and the debt ceiling is raised.

“We’re not even going to consider that conversation until the government is funded and the debt ceiling is reauthorized,” Durbin said.

We can now add three more House Republicans to the list of those supporting a so-called “clean” continuing resolution, which the Senate passed last week.

The new additions are: Reps. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.).

That brings the number of House Republicans supporting a “clean” CR to 14 — approaching the number (17) that would be needed to join with all Democrats to pass a clean bill — if a vote were allowed on it (and, we must emphasize, that’s a big “if”). Another three representatives sound like they would likely vote for one.

The 14 are:

1. Scott Rigell (R-Va.)
2. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.)
3. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.)
4. Peter King (R-N.Y.)
5. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)
6. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.)
7. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
8. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)
9. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.)
10. Rob Wittman (R-Va.)
11. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.)
12. Lou Barletta (Pa.)
13. Randy Forbes (Va.)
14. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.)

And a few more who sound amenable but haven’t committed:

1. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
2. Steve Womack (R-Ark.)
3. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.)

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi warned Wednesday that the shutdown could pose a risk for global economic recoveries if it continues for too long.

Draghi said Wednesday the shutdown “is a risk if protracted,” but “the impression is that it won’t be,” according to the Associated Press.

Asked if he thought the United States could default on some of its debt obligations in coming weeks, he said, “I don’t.”

French government officials have also voiced concerns about the impact of the shutdown on Europe’s economic recovery.

Caitlin Dewey has compiled a list on The Fix of some of the most surprising effects of the government shutdown — from whales to wineries:

1) No one will oversee the program that makes sure your organic food is actually organic. That’s called the National Organic Standards Program, and its entire staff was furloughed. Also on the Department of Agriculture furlough list: the people who check that your meats, shellfish, produce, nuts and ginseng are labeled with their country of origin.

2) The Department of Homeland Security will stop civil liberties complaint lines, investigation and training. The training will affect employees on the state, local and federal level.

3) Wild horse and burro adoptions will stall. (Yes, wild horse and burro adoptions are a real thing.)

Read the full list here. 

The House is expected to try once again Wednesday to pass three short-term spending bills to provide temporary funding for veterans’ health programs, the District of Columbia and the nation’s national parks and Smithsonian museums.

Lawmakers failed to pass the bills Tuesday under a suspension of normal House rules that required at least two-thirds of the House to approve the measure. While a handful of Democrats voted with Republicans on each of the bills, they still came up short.

On Wednesday, Republicans plan to pass the three spending bills by a simple majority and send them over to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) vowed Tuesday night to block them.

In other words, another day of for the government shutdown and another day of legislative ping-pong.

From Federal Eye blogger Josh Hicks:

The government shutdown that started Tuesday could prevent the Bureau of Labor Statistics from releasing its monthly employment report, which serves as the basis of an economic and political obsession known as “jobs day” among White House officials.

BLS had planned to reveal the September numbers on Friday, but the agency is down to just three workers due to a lapse on congressional appropriations that allows only “essential” operations to continue.

Read the full report here.

From federal government reporter Emily Heil:

Playlists of shutdown songs are popular this week. (Of course, we like the one compiled by our colleagues at The Fix.)

But for a real soundtrack to furlough by, we’re partial to this track, written and recorded by three middle-aged guys we’re told are federal employees living in Indiana. The song is vintage 2011, when you might recall that a shutdown was narrowly averted, though the lyrics ring particularly true today.

Read the full post here.

The government shutdown has closed national parks across the U.S. Visitors to Yellowstone are told they can not come in. (Associated Press)

From Federal Diary columnist Joe Davidson:

Broken spirits appear to be emerging among some federal employees.

Conversations with workers point to a growing level of alienation among some who were once proud members of the federal service.

This shutdown, along with three years of a freeze on their basic pay rates and a recent string of unpaid days because of budget cuts, leaves many feeling unappreciated and disrespected.

Read’s Davidson’s full column here.

From The Fix’s Chris Cillizza:

If Day 1 of the government shutdown told us anything, it’s that this situation isn’t going to resolve itself anytime terribly soon.

Entrenchment in established positions is the name of the game at the moment. And, you don’t dig in deeper when you are looking for ways to move on.

Read the full analysis here.

From GovBeat’s Reid Wilson:

The stalemate over a short-term spending bill that has shut down the federal government and furloughed 800,000 employees and contractors offers the latest example of an evolving Republican Party, an evolution that is shifting the party’s traditional power base.

In are conservative activists, who insist that any continuing resolution or debt-ceiling increase be paired with drastic spending cuts and a roll-back of the Affordable Care Act. Out are business and financial interests, which have traditionally held great sway over Republican policymakers.

Read the full report here.

From Debbi Wilgoren:

The White House said early Wednesday that President Obama would skip stops in Malaysia and the Philippines when he travels to Asia next week because of the partial shutdown of the federal government.

Obama phoned the president of the Philippines and the prime minister of Malaysia to say he would be unable to visit those countries, the White House said. For now, he still plans to travel to Indonesia and Brunei, where he is slated to attend two major international summits.

The trip is scheduled to begin Saturday, and is an important part of the president’s effort to strengthen U.S. foreign policy in Asia. The White House said Secretary of State John F. Kerry will visit the Philippines and Malaysia instead of the president.

Read the full report here.

The House failed to pass a short-term spending bill to reopen the nation’s more than 300 national parks and the Smithsonian museum system.

Lawmakers voted 252 to 176 on the measure, falling short of the two-thirds majority vote necessary to pass the measure under the suspension of normal House rules.

Despite a passionate plea by the District’s non-voting member, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), to provide the nation’s capital with emergency federal funding, the House failed to pass a short-term spending bill for the District of Columbia Tuesday evening.

Lawmakers voted 265 to 163, falling short of the two-thirds majority vote needed to pass the bill under the suspension of normal House rules.

The House voted 264 to 164 to approve a veterans’ spending bill, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill under suspension of normal House rules.

“House Democrats just voted to block our bill to honor our promise to America’s heroes and provide immediate funding for veterans benefits,” House Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) said on Twitter immediately following the vote.

Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) adjourned the Senate by saying that his chamber would reject the three spending bills the House is planning to vote on Tuesday evening.

“We won’t allow them to pass here anyway,” Reid said as he wrapped up the day ‘s proceedings. “We want the government to pass legislation to reopen government. Then we’ll talk about anything they want to talk about.”

The Senate is scheduled to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is splitting with House Democrats, urging them to support a Republican-backed measure that would appropriate funding for the District of Columbia but allow other parts of the government to remain shut-down.

Democratic leadership is arguing that the three GOP-measures — which would also fund national parks and programs for veterans — are a tea party-backed ploy to reopen the most noticeable pieces of government while leaving the remainder of the government closed while a fight over the federal health-care bill grinds on.

Because of procedural rules, the measures must get a 2/3 vote of the House to be sent this evening to the Senate, meaning Democrats are more important than normal to the process.

And Norton urged Democrats to make a distinction between the bill for D.C. and the other two measures.

Thundering on behalf of a “living, breathing” city, she asked her colleagues to support the measure for the District.

“Keep the District open!” she said. “Don’t dare compare us to your appropriations.”

“I understand the resentment on my side to what is being done here,” she said. “But carry out your resentment without putting us in the position of a thing — nothing but another piece of appropriation that you have something to do with!”

The District government, for the time being, is open for business as usual after Mayor Vincent C. Gray moved to tap a $218 million emergency fund. Those funds, however, could run out within two weeks, and it is unclear whether Gray would move forward with threats to keep the government open in apparent violation of federal law. Gray said Tuesday he had spoken to congressional leaders, urging them to exempt the District from the ongoing shutdown.

Gray on Tuesday afternoon also called the White House, according to a senior Gray administration official, and spoke to senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett about securing support for a District exemption to the shutdown. Late Tuesday, the Obama administration and Hill Democrats remained united in their opposition to any exemptions to the shutdown.

Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.

The government shutdown has impacted a variety of services. But it can be tough to know what remains open (The U.S. Postal Service? Open) and what has actually been closed (Yosemite National Park, along with the rest of the national parks? Closed). In case you missed it, here’s our guide to what’s open and what’s closed.

Following the White House’s veto threat, House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office is out with this, from spokesman Michael Steel:

“How does the White House justify signing the troop funding bill, but vetoing similar measures for veterans, National Parks, and District of Columbia?  The President can’t continue to complain about the impact of the government shutdown on veterans, visitors at National Parks, and D.C. while vetoing bills to help them.  The White House position is unsustainably hypocritical.”

Rep. Michael Grimm’s (R-N.Y.) office tells Post Politics that he would vote for a so-called “clean” continuing resolution, and Rep. Rob Wittman’s (R-Va.) office is telling constituents that he would also support a clean bill.

“I voted to avoid a government shutdown at every opportunity, to continue government funding, and although I have not had an opportunity to do so to this point, I would support a ‘clean’ Continuing Resolution to get our government back up and running,” Wittman told a constituent in an e-mail shared with Post Politics.

The addition of the two of them means we now have 10 House Republicans supporting a “clean” CR:

1. Scott Rigell (R-Va.)
2. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.)
3. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.)
4. Peter King (R-N.Y.)
5. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)
6. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.)
7. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
8. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)
9. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.)
10. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.)
11. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.)
12. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.)

And a few more who sound amenable but haven’t committed:

1. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
2. Steve Womack (R-Ark.)
3. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.)
4. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.)

Lori Aratani reports:

In addition to being a town filled with federal workers, D.C. is a major tourist destination. For visitors and tour guides alike, the shutdown is a big problem.

Doug Hanson and his daughter Sara hit the Mall just after 1 p.m. on Tuesday and found it strangely deserted. They’d landed in the capital just a few hours before from their home in Minnesota. It was their first time to D.C. By coming in the fall, they hoped to beat the summer crowds and take in the sights.

They beat the crowds all right – but the sights were an entirely different manner. Smithsonian, closed. Lincoln Memorial, closed. As they stood on the Mall, they pondered their options.

“It appears the whole purpose of our trip is to see the government shut down,” joked Doug Hanson, a pilot with Delta Airlines. “At least we won’t have to fight the crowds.”

Meanwhile, the shutdown is also an issue for the people who rely on tourists for their livelihoods. Tour guide Tim Krepp is going to have to be very creative if the government shutdown stretches through the weekend.

He has 90 eighth graders from Fort Worth, Tex., arriving on Sunday. And he has to find something for them to do.

“I have to figure out what I can do for free for 10 hours a day for three days,” he said. “They’ve already paid, so I can’t ask them to pay more. I’m scrambling.”

Tour guides and operators are also worrying about the impact the shutdown will have on people considering a visit to the Washington region.

“People come here from all over the world expecting to see a pretty awesome city and we’ve just shut the door in their face,” said Canden Schwantes, a tour guide with DC by Foot.

The White House, as expected, is not supporting the House GOP’s plan to pass three individual continuing resolutions rather than a regular one.

“These piecemeal efforts are not serious, and they are no way to run a government,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement. “If House Republicans are legitimately concerned about the impacts of a shut down — which extend across government from our small businesses to women, children and seniors — they should do their job and pass a clean CR to reopen the government.”

Brundage added that Obama would veto the individual CRs.

“The president and the Senate have been clear that they won’t accept this kind of game-playing, and if these bills were to come to the president’s desk, he would veto them,” she said. “The Senate passed a clean CR that would pass with majority support in the House, and the House Leadership should give it an up or down vote right now. It is time for Congress to do its job.”

From Ed O’Keefe:

Hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file federal employees were forced out of the office Tuesday morning because of the start of a government shutdown and won’t be paid over the course of the impasse.

But members of Congress and the president, who are so at odds over who caused the shutdown, will continue being paid and must be by law. That’s because their jobs are authorized by the U.S. Constitution and are paid with mandatory funds, not discretionary spending dependent on annual appropriations.

Several lawmakers have already said that they plan to donate or refuse compensation earned over the course of the impasse.

Ed is keeping a running tally that he will continue updating through the shutdown.

See the full list here.

Midnight Tuesday was the beginning of the government shutdown and the Obamacare exchanges.

But it was also the end of the third quarter of fundraising — a key period during which members of Congress are trying to raise as much money as possible to send a message to would-be challengers that they will be tough to beat in the next election.

Those third-quarter fundraising reports are due Oct. 15 — unless, that is, we’re still in the middle of a shutdown.

In that case, members and candidates will not be required to file their reports.

Due to #shutdown, there will be no FEC filings + campaign contributions will go unreported: http://t.co/HYL5MelAUJ #datadown

— Sunlight Foundation (@SunFoundation) October 1, 2013

Dana Hedgpeth reports:

Metro ridership looked like a roller coaster Tuesday as the transit system saw less crowded trains and buses.

During Monday morning’s commute, rail ridership was down roughly 10 percent to 238,500 riders, compared to the same time period a week ago. By mid-day, some federal workers who had come into their offices for a few hours in the morning headed home. That led to a slight spike in Metro’s mid-day rail ridership. About 50,000 rode the system between noon and 2 p.m. Tuesday, compared to 40,000 who rode during the same time period a week ago.

Overall, as of 4 p.m. ridership was slightly down from last Tuesday, dropping to 411,000 trips from 420,500 trips during the same time period that day, according to the transit agency.

On Metrobus, there were no immediate numbers available on ridership because data from each bus have to downloaded at the end of the day into a database.

Remember Ted Cruz’s marathon speech?

It was only a week ago, and it wrapped up with a reference that many thought to be in poor taste — to the Bataan Death March.

After Filipino veteran groups called on Cruz to apologize, Cruz on Tuesday obliged.

From Post Politics (click here for the video):

“Let me say to each of you: I apologize for causing offense,” Cruz says in a meeting with Filipino veterans, video of which was posted to YouTube on Tuesday. “I should not have said what I did.”

Cruz then explains that he didn’t mean to compare his effort to those who suffered and died during the Bataan Death March, in which thousands of Filipino and American troops died while being marched to a prison camp.

He said he was merely thanking staff who endured the marathon speech.

“It was in the context of thanking them that I thanked them for enduring — and that’s when I used the analogy,” Cruz said. “I understand that that comment caused offense, and I apologize. That was not right.”

First came the government shutdown, and Washington is already bracing for a potential debate over raising the debt ceiling. So you may not yet be paying attention to the second batch of automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January if Congress doesn’t act to avoid them.

Market analyst Saruhan Hatipoglu explains on PostTV’s On Background why “Sequester II” could be worse for the economy than the first one.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) called the House’s latest proposal “just another wacky idea from the tea party Republicans.”

“The Republicans seem willing to fund veterans–but what about the rest of the government?” he said on the Senate floor. “We need to reopen the government and the key to that still remains over in the House of Representatives. It’s a Senate passed clean CR for the whole government. Doing anything is just sour grapes.”

Reid was referring the latest idea being considered by some House Republicans. As Paul Kane reported:

Adopting a strategy first suggested by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), House Republicans are pushing a new approach that would break up the federal spending bills into small pieces and move them separately over to the Senate.

According to a senior GOP aide in a closed-door huddle in the Capitol basement, Republicans hope to approve three bills Tuesday that would fund the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Park Service and the District of Columbia. This is an attempt to move the appropriations process through regular order, but Senate Democrats have rejected such a move as too late.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is the latest to say he would vote for the Senate’s “clean” continuing resolution, per his office.

Here’s the list of those who support a “clean” CR:

1. Scott Rigell (R-Va.)
2. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.)
3. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.)
4. Peter King (R-N.Y.)
5. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)
6. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.)
7. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
8. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)

And a few more who sound amenable but haven’t committed:

1. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
2. Steve Womack (R-Ark.)
3. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.)
4. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.)
5. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.)

Ann E. Marimow reports:

Federal courthouses are open for business for at least the next 10 days, but civil lawsuits involving the government are likely to slow significantly because of the government shutdown.

Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s criminal division are continuing to work, but only a skeleton crew of attorneys in the civil division are on call. In dozens of federal court filings throughout the country this week, including in the District and Maryland, prosecutors are asking judges to delay upcoming deadlines and court proceedings until Congress has restored funding.

Even the outgoing voicemail for the department’s public affairs office was on message Tuesday: “In the event of a lapse of appropriation, this message will be listened to and responded to upon a funding resolution.”

Justice Department attorneys are prohibited from working during the shutdown even on a voluntary basis, except in cases involving public safety, according to a series of motions filed by department attorneys.

“We greatly apologize to the court and to the plaintiff in this matter for any disruption this may have caused, however, the matter is outside of counsel’s, the defendant’s or the Department of Justice’s control,” assistant U.S. Attorneys Darrell Valdez and Addy R. Schmitt wrote in asking for a delay in a case involving the Department of Energy at the U.S. District Court in Washington.

At least one major civil case involving the government will go forward, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled Tuesday. The judge rejected the government’s request to delay proceedings for the upcoming anti-trust trial involving the merger of U.S. Airways and American Airlines. Kollar-Kotelly called a delay “inappropriate” because of the deadline for the pending merger of two major airlines and said it is “essential” that DOJ attorneys continue to litigate.

How will the shutdown affect the billions (and billions and billions) of dollars worth of business the federal government does with private contractors? That’s still up in the air. Some contractors know where they stand, including health-care providers. But the status of military contracting (worth $360 billion last year) is much more unclear.

Brad Plumer has more on this uncertainty. Meanwhile, head here and here to see what some contractors have to say.

Earlier, we listed seven House Republicans who have said they would support a “clean” continuing resolution to end the government shutdown.

And a few more sound like they would be on-board, even if they haven’t explicitly said so yet.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told the Post last week that she would be inclined to support a clean CR, and Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) told the Post he would “lean yes” on such a bill.

And Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) told National Journal: “If my people back home say: Oh my gosh you voted to fund Obamacare, so be it. We’ve lost this battle. We need to move on to the next one.”

Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) also sounds as if he might be on-board but isn’t committed.

We’ve asked their offices for clarification.

For what it’s worth, if all 200 House Democrats voted for a clean CR, 17 House Republicans would need to join them to pass the bill.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), of course, would have to allow such a vote in the first place (in violation of the s0-called “Hastert Rule,” which requires a majority of Republicans to support the legislation), or all 217 members would have to sign a “discharge petition,” which has rarely been used, to force the vote.

Keith Alexander reports:

D.C. Superior Court has temporarily stopped paying witnesses, jurors and even court-appointed attorneys, and will issue those payments once the federal government shutdown ends, court officials said. In addition, the court has also stopped payments to mediators, language interpreters, expert witnesses and investigators hired by court-appointed defense attorneys.

Court spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz said the court will pay people for their service once a federal budget is passed.

Betty Ballester, head of the court’s D.C. Superior Court’s Trial Lawyers Association, said she was concerned that some witnesses, unless subpoenaed by a judge, would be reluctant to show up for court without the $40 a day payment they typically would receive immediately after a court appearance.

“This raises major concerns about trials,” Ballester said. “If a witness knows they aren’t going to be paid, they may not be able to take off work.”

Ballester said court appointed attorneys, investigators and court experts are accustomed to being paid at later dates, but Ballester worried about the length of work without pay. Jurors, meanwhile, are given $4 for transportation. Those who aren’t paid by their employer while on jury duty receive an additional $30 a day. During the shutdown, jurors will be told their payments will be mailed to them, court officials said. D.C Superior Court officials also said Tuesday that the marriage bureau would continue to accept marriage license applications. On Monday, the court had said it would not accept them during the shutdown.

Juliet Eilperin and Zachary A. Goldfarb engage in a bit of outside-the-box thinking and surmise a situation under which House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) could bolt from his conservative base and serve as speaker with the support of Democrats and moderate Republicans:

The current budget standoff offers House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) a historic opportunity: to become the first-ever bipartisan speaker, by striking a pact with House Democrats to switch his governing tactics as long as they support his right to lead the House.

It won’t happen, of course. But it’s worth exploring because such a dramatic move would address some of the problems bedeviling the nation’s leaders right now, and just might change Congress’ current trajectory.

Boehner–a fiscal conservative who made his mark on Capitol Hill by targeting the ossified Democratic majority’s questionable tactics as part of the Gang of Eight — has spent almost three years fighting both Obama and the tea party wing of the GOP. White House officials think Boehner is a mainstream Republican who would strike a deal on a range of issues but is terrified of losing his speakership to the far right of his party. Tea party members, meanwhile, have been pressing him to prove his conservative bona fides, and some of them even tried to remove him from power earlier this year.

And the press tends to trumpet two unflattering themes: that Boehner can neither manage his own conference nor make a credible deal with the White House. As a result, the narrative runs, Americans are left careening from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, and Congress can’t even tackle popular initiatives such as immigration reform. A host of other potential changes supported by huge swaths of both parties — from tax and entitlement reform to infrastructure spending — are also left on the table just because of the fallout Boehner faces from a few dozen, ultra-conservative Republicans.

At least that’s the rap against Boehner, whose speakership so far has been defined by blocking Obama’s priorities rather than producing significant laws. But that could all change if he were just to decide to say to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.): “Let’s enter a grand coalition. Democrats will vote for me for speaker as long as Republicans hold a majority. And we’ll do a budget deal that raises a little bit of tax revenue and reforms entitlements. We’ll overhaul the tax code for individuals and businesses. We’ll pass immigration reform and support the infrastructure spending that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and labor unions want.”

And, he can add: “We’ll do it before 2014.”

Sound unthinkable?

Well, consider that state legislative chambers are sometimes hijacked by the minority party aligning with one or a few members of the majority to form a working majority. The latest examples are the New York state Senate, the Tennessee state House and the Washington state Senate. And all three occurred in the last five years.

No, it almost surely won’t happen in the U.S. House. But it could.

If the House passes a so-called “clean” continuing resolution and brings the shutdown to an end, it will have started in Philadelphia.

According to local reports, two more Philadelphia-area members of Congress have said they would vote for a clean CR.

“Enough is enough. Put a clean (continuing resolution) on the floor and let’s get on with the business we were sent to do,” Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.)  said, according to the Burlington County Times.

And according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is also on board.

That brings the number of House Republicans supporting a “clean” bill to seven, by our count. In theory, a clean bill could pass with just 17 Republican votes if all 200 Democrats in the House voted in favor of it and a vote were to take place.

The seven Republicans who have said they support a “clean” CR are: Reps. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), Peter King (R-N.Y.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Runyan and Fitzpatrick.

Four of them — including Dent and Meehan — comes from the Philadelphia area.

“I came to DC to fix gov’t, not shut it down. It’s time for House to vote for a clean, short-term funding bill to bring Senate to the table,” Meehan tweeted.

Supporters of a clean CR are so far relegated to Republicans from the Northeast and California – not exactly a harbinger of the broader House Republican conference. And there aren’t many more Republicans in the Northeast.

Update 3:56 p.m.: This post initially included Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) as a supporter of a “clean” CR. He has not taken a firm position yet.

In addition to offices, national parks and museums, the shutdown is also affecting scores of government Web sites.

My colleague Andrea Peterson noted on Monday that this would happen, warning that the shutdown would shutter the National Zoo’s panda cam and plenty of other government sites. And some of the sites that remain up, like the homepages of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Elections Commission, will be updated infrequently if they’re updated at all.

So someone looking for the status of, say, Yosemite National Park will be greeted with this message:

(Screenshot of www.nps.gov taken on Tuesday afternoon.)

Speaking of uninterrupted air travel, White House press secretary Jay Carney just announced President Obama’s trip to Asia starting Saturday is still on.

Carney: No changes to Obama’s week-long Asia trip that starts Saturday. #shutdown

— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) October 1, 2013

The week-long trip includes stops in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Ashley Halsey III reports:

Air travel continued without interruption Tuesday as more than 14,000 air traffic controllers were ordered to remain on the job without pay. But their union warned that the furlough of 3,000 support personnel would have long term implications for aviation if the congressional deadlock persists.

“It is unacceptable that thousands of our aviation safety professionals have been forced to stay home due to partisan posturing in Congress,” said Paul Rinaldi. president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Rinaldi said thousands of FAA projects would be delayed if much of the agency’s workforce continues to be furloughed.

In addition to 3,000 members of his union, more than 12,000 other FAA employees have been furloughed, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In Play’s Chris Cillizza explains what all the wonk talk on Capitol Hill really means. Click here to watch the video.