The partial government shutdown, which began on Dec. 22, entered its 21st day on Jan. 11, making it the second longest in U.S. history. If the impasse between President Trump and Congressional Democrats over border wall funding continues through the weekend, the shutdown will become the longest on record, surpassing the Clinton-era shutdown over domestic spending cuts that lasted from Dec. 5, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996.
The shutdown has affected nine federal departments as well as other agencies, and has impacted approximately 800,000 federal workers, half of whom have been furloughed. The remaining “essential” staffers are working without pay.
The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) alerted members on Jan. 8 that the November 2018 Fertilizer Trade data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has been delayed due to the lapse in federal funding. The DOC issues monthly reports detailing U.S. fertilizer imports and exports. The November report was scheduled for release on Jan. 8.
“The government has not issued a date to resume operations,” TFI said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and release the November 2018 fertilizer trade data once the data is released by the government.” More than 80 percent of DOC staffers have reportedly been furloughed by the shutdown.
The USDA on Jan. 4 issued a statement saying that the World Agricultural Outlook Board reports, prepared by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the Office of the Chief Economist, have also been suspended due to the lapse in federal funding. Those reports were scheduled for release on Jan. 11, and include Crop Production, Crop Production-Annual, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), Grain Stocks, Rice Stocks, Winter Wheat and Canola Seedings, and Cotton Ginnings.
“The date of all NASS and OCE-WAOB releases will be determined and made public once funding has been restored,” USDA said.
Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments, which are administered by the County Farm Service Agency within USDA and include tariff aid payments to farmers hurt by the trade war with China, have also been delayed. USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey said producers who applied to MFP and provided production information by Dec. 21 will likely receive their second round of payments, but all other applications are on hold until the shutdown ends, as are some of USDA’s other loan programs. Northey said USDA may extend the MFP application deadline from Jan. 15 to May 1 because of the delay.
Bloomberg reported that the shutdown has also likely delayed efforts to approve year-round sales of a 15 percent ethanol blend for gasoline, a promise made by President Trump in October that was cheered by corn and ethanol producers. EPA earlier said it would present a final rule on the higher ethanol blend by May 2019, but the shutdown has reportedly furloughed some 13,000 EPA employees, making the May deadline unlikely.
“From the outset, the EPA gave itself very little wiggle room to complete the year-round E15 rule making before summer, so the shutdown is making a tight time line even tighter,” Geoff Cooper, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, told Bloomberg. Under current rules, sales of E15 are blocked from June 1 to Sept. 15 in areas like California, where smog is a problem in hot weather. Only about 1,675 of the nation’s 122,000 or so stations offer it, Bloomberg reported.
Both the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) are operational and fully funded through the first nine months of 2019, due to a minibus appropriations bill signed by President Trump in September.
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), however, is essentially shut down. Approximately 95 percent of the CSB’s staff has been furloughed, and all current investigation have been suspended.
Over at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), roughly 87 percent of the total workforce is considered exempt from furlough because employees are engaged in “essential” work with the Border Patrol, Coast Guard, FEMA, and TSA. Still, a reported 32,000 DHS employees have been barred from working during the shutdown.