Posts tagged congress
U.S Government Shut down at Midnight: Effects on Boulder
Sep 30th
A government shutdown has a significant and direct impact on Boulder, particularly due to the city’s large concentration of federal labs and employees. The effects ripple through the local economy, from missed paychecks for federal workers to disruptions in scientific research and local businesses.
Impacts on federal employees and contractors
- Furloughs and missed paychecks: Boulder is home to a dozen federally funded research labs and approximately 1,700 federal employees, along with thousands more whose jobs are tied to federal funding. Furloughed employees will miss paychecks, creating economic hardship for many families.
- Federal contractors: Unlike direct federal employees, government contractors are not guaranteed back pay once a shutdown ends. This places many contractors in aerospace, defense, and research industries in a precarious financial situation.
- Potential layoffs: Recent reporting has indicated that mass layoffs of federal employees have already occurred in some agencies in the region, with more potentially coming during a shutdown.
Impacts on research and science
- Boulder’s federal labs: Prominent federal facilities in Boulder, including those at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), are heavily affected.
- Furloughs and staffing cuts will stall critical scientific research.
- Reports indicate that budget cuts have already affected these facilities, leading to a “brain drain” of talented scientists seeking more stable employment.
- University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder): A significant amount of research funding for CU Boulder comes from federal agencies like NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
- Since early 2025, CU Boulder has faced cancellations and pauses on dozens of grants, totaling tens of millions of dollars in lost funding.
- A shutdown would further exacerbate this, delaying projects, affecting students, and potentially driving faculty and researchers away.
Economic and community impacts
- Local businesses: With federal workers missing paychecks, local businesses—including restaurants and retail stores—will see a drop in consumer spending. Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, has stated that shutdowns have historically caused billions of dollars in lost economic activity.
- Small business loans: The Small Business Administration (SBA) will not process new loans for small businesses, putting a hold on financial support for many local entrepreneurs.
- Social services: Programs that rely on federal funding, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), could see their funding dry up, though the governor has taken steps to secure some state funding to cover the gap.
Visitor services and national parks
- Rocky Mountain National Park: Governor Polis has expressed willingness to use limited state funds to keep Rocky Mountain National Park open, as it is a major economic driver for the state. In previous shutdowns, the closure of national parks hurt local economies.
- Essential services: Some services, such as air traffic control and weather forecasting, are generally considered essential and are expected to continue, though delays and maintenance issues can arise in a prolonged shutdown.
Certain government services are not affected by a government shutdown either because they are deemed essential for public safety or because their funding is not dependent on annual appropriations. While essential federal employees must continue working, their pay is withheld until the shutdown ends.
Services funded by mandatory spending
These are programs funded by permanent law, not annual appropriations, so they continue without interruption.
- Social Security: Payments for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) continue to be paid. However, non-critical administrative tasks, such as benefit verification and issuing replacement Social Security cards, may be suspended.
- Medicare and Medicaid: Benefits and payments for Medicare and Medicaid continue normally, though some services could be slowed by staffing shortages.
- Other benefits: Veterans benefits (including health care services, disability, and pension payments) and unemployment benefits are generally unaffected.
- SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits continue in the short term, though a prolonged shutdown could threaten payments.
Essential services for public safety
These services are legally required to continue, with essential employees working without pay during the shutdown.
- Law enforcement and border security: The FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and other federal law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), continue operations.
- Military: All active-duty military personnel, along with Reservists on active duty, must continue working.
- Air travel: Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, and air traffic controllers continue to work. A prolonged shutdown could cause delays due to workers calling out.
- Emergency and medical care: Inpatient and emergency medical care, including VA medical facilities, remains operational.
- Disaster relief: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will continue to respond to emergencies.
- Critical health activities: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will continue to handle drug and device recalls, monitor foodborne illnesses, and respond to other imminent public health threats.
Fee-funded and independent services
Services funded by fees or that operate independently from the annual appropriations process can continue.
- U.S. Postal Service: As a self-funded entity, the USPS is not impacted by a shutdown, and mail delivery continues as usual.
- Consular and immigration services: Passport, visa, and other consular services primarily funded by user fees are expected to continue. However, staffing issues could cause delays, especially during a longer shutdown.
Impacted services
Some services may experience partial impacts or be threatened if a shutdown is prolonged:
- WIC: Funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) could run out quickly, potentially within a week, threatening benefits for families.
- Student Loans and Pell Grants: While disbursements may continue briefly using carryover funds, staffing reductions will cause delays in processing, and a prolonged shutdown could exhaust funding.
- Small Business Administration (SBA): The SBA would stop processing new business loans.
- National Parks: Although parks often remain physically accessible, visitor centers close, and services like trash collection and road maintenance stop.
However, if Trump shuts down NIST, NOAA, and NCAR. that will be a loss of 30,000 jobs @$200,000. ea and a lost of 6 Billions dollars annually to the Boulder Economy this is the tsunami the city is not prepared for
#tech #boulder Just what’s so bad about #SOPA and #PIPA ?? plz explain:
Jan 12th
This is a story of your comments on SOPA and PIPA: WHERE YOU THE TECH WORLD EXPLAIN TO THE REST OF US just why these bills are bad. So far no one has done that. Somebody needs to explain this. On the surface SOPA and PIPA seem like a good bill FOR American business and American people. It looks like a bad bill for criminals. SOME OF YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN how these bills are bad.
Do you favor piracy?? theft? crime? Do you favor stealing companies brands and IDs. ? Do you steal movies and music??
Are you involved in hacking? Do you break into other companies websites. ?? Whose got balls?? who wants to anser some questions here??
SOPA ^ H.R.3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act; editorial by Jann Scott
Jan 11th
Editorial by Jann Scott
Below is the actual bill before congress. You can read it for yourself. In Boulder there is a severe reaction to this bill by techies led by tech entrepreneur Brad Feld. In a tweet to me he said that he does “not support Piracy or Hacking or theft:” so why is he against this bill??
Privately most techies are hackers, steal songs and movies and feel the internet should remain a lawless wild west. They think everything on the Internet should be in the public domain. They are anti-business anti capitalist though many of them work in so called Start-up business’s. They are anti-protected rights though all techies demand it for themselves. We have come to a cross roads where the US Congress has now taken up the cause of protecting artists and film makers from world wide internet Piracy and Organized crime.
At Boulder Channel 1 we see both sides of the issue. We are concerned about censorship and the far reaching arm of a bad law. We have been victims of it many times. So we don’t like the idea of government reaching into our television channel or newsroom. On the other hand we don’t steal movies or music. We don’t allow criminal enterprises to advertise with us. So we are pretty clean.
Other issues at hand are hacking, corporate espionage, identity theft, credit card theft and theft of anything online. This now becomes a moral crisis for all in the Boulder tech world.
