Is a Nationwide Shutdown Legal

To prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help our country manage the pandemic, the CDC has sometimes issued legally binding orders and regulations. While discretionary expenditure must be allocated annually, compulsory expenditure is authorised either for multiannual periods or on a permanent basis. As a result, mandatory spending usually continues during a shutdown. However, some services associated with mandatory programs may be reduced if their funding includes a discretionary component. For example, during the 1996 and 2013 shutdowns, social security checks continued to run out. However, employees who handled new registrations and other services, such as changing addresses or processing applications for new social security cards, were initially placed on leave in 1996. In 2013, some activities were discontinued, including the verification of benefits and the issuance of new and replacement cards, but the processing of claims for benefits or changes of address continued. During the 2018-2019 shutdown, the Department of Agriculture had to rely on a special agency included in the previous CR to enable it to continue to provide SNAP benefits. Biden`s communications director told CNN that the president-elect is focused on promoting mandatory masks and increasing testing nationwide. The president-elect said that “every community can be different,” meaning the idea of a nationwide closure would be “counterproductive.” He alluded to businesses and his own church taking steps to limit capacity and wear masks. President Donald Trump has expressed conflicting intentions for a national or even regional lockdown.

On March 24, in order to avoid further economic and social damage from business closures and other key physical distancing measures, the president said the U.S. should be open for business by April 12. Finally, influenced by warnings from public health experts that lifting restrictions too early could cause many more deaths, he has now extended that timeline until the end of April. On March 28, Trump said he could order a two-week quarantine in New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut. Such an order would have restricted the movement of millions of Americans, even in areas at low risk of COVID-19, and could have backfired had it triggered mass migration. However, faced with questions about legal applicability, Trump waived the mass quarantine and, instead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a domestic travel advisory for the region, urging residents of the three states to forgo non-essential domestic travel for 14 days. In the rare cases where a federal order is issued by the CDC, these individuals will receive a quarantine or isolation order. An example of quarantine order for novel coronaviruses (printed only) PDF icon [PDF – 5 pages] is provided. This document outlines the reasons for federal regulation, as well as information about where the person will be, quarantine requirements including the duration of the order, CDC legal authority, and information describing what the person can expect under federal order.

Several public health experts appointed to President-elect Joe Biden`s COVID-19 advisory board have said he is not in favor of a national lockdown. Many federal agencies and programs rely on annual funding passed by Congress. Each year, Congress must be passed and the president must sign a budget bill for the following fiscal year, consisting of 12 budget bills, one for each subcommittee on funds. Congress has yet to pass any of the 12 fiscal year 2022 bills that make up the discretionary spending budget. In the event of a closure, federal agencies must cease all non-essential discretionary functions until new funding legislation is passed and signed. Essential services continue to function, as do mandatory spending programs. A member of Biden`s coronavirus task force made headlines in mid-November when he mentioned the idea of a national lockdown. The New Fiscal Year (FY) begins on October 1, 2021, and Congress has yet to pass any of the 12 budget bills that set discretionary spending levels. Lawmakers have until midnight on the last day of the fiscal year — Sept. 30 — to pass legislation to fund programs covered by the allocation process, or the government will be shut down. An ongoing resolution (CR) to give lawmakers more time to complete work on spending bills will likely be considered.

A shutdown for fiscal year 2022 would impact all federal activities covered by discretionary means, unlike the recent shutdown of fiscal year 2019, which began in late 2018 and extended into early 2019 and affected departments and agencies covered by the seven allocation acts that Congress had not yet passed. “I`m not going to shut down the economy. Period. I`m going to extinguish the virus,” Biden said at a news conference in Wilmington, Delaware. “I`ll say it again. No national closure. Closures also impose costs on the economy. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced gross domestic product (GDP) by a total of $11 billion, including $3 billion that will never be restored. In addition, CBO notes that prolonged shutdowns have a negative impact on private sector investment and hiring decisions, as businesses cannot obtain federal permits and certifications or access federal loans. A 2019 Senate report found that the three government shutdowns in 2013, 2018 and 2019 cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion. Federal, state, local, and tribal health agencies may have and use separate but coexisting statutory quarantine powers in some cases.

In the event of a conflict, federal law prevails. All of this means that a federal government lockdown may not be legal, but neither is it what is needed to protect the American people from COVID-19. However, to allow for legal restrictions and voluntary social distancing, the country must see real leadership and trust that its physical and economic needs will be met. Otherwise, thousands more will die needlessly – the unfortunate path we seem to be taking. While estimates vary widely, evidence suggests that closures tend to cost money, not save, for a number of reasons. On the one hand, there are real costs associated with the development of contingency plans. In addition, many user fees and other fees are not charged during a shutdown, and federal contractors sometimes include premiums in their schedules to account for uncertainty when paying. While many federal employees are forced to sit idly by during a shutdown, they have received a retroactive payment in the past and are now assured of receiving it, negating much of those potential savings. The OMB`s official estimates of the 2013 government shutdown revealed that $2.5 billion in wages and benefits were paid to employees laid off for hours not worked during the shutdown, as well as about $10 million in penalty interest payments and lost fee income. In the event of a shutdown, the federal government temporarily stops paying employees and contractors who provide government services, while in the event of an outage, the list of unpaid parties is much broader.

In the event of default, the government exceeds the legal debt limit and is unable to pay some of its creditors (or other obligations). Without enough money to pay their bills, all federal government payments are at risk, including all government spending, mandatory payments, interest on our debt, and payments to the United States.