Confusing Federal Funding Picture Continues

It’s 1 PM EST on Friday, December 21st, which means it’s T-11 hours until a possible partial government shutdown at 12:01 AM Saturday morning, and the federal funding picture is confusing, to say the least.  This Friday afternoon, the Senate is debating a funding bill (and likely voting on it this afternoon) that includes funding for the border wall that was passed by the House Thursday.

How might a partial government shutdown on Saturday morning affect EPA and domino down to state drinking water programs? The answer is, likely not a whole lot. EPA has developed a contingency plan to use carryover funding (leftover money that hasn’t expired and not exactly sure how money can expire?) to sustain most of the Agency’s operations. If there is a shutdown, some funding restrictions would be imposed on items such as travel and contractors. But the carryover funding would only cover a few weeks of operations, so if the shutdown lasts more than a few weeks, then EPA might have to shut its doors until the funding picture gets settled.