Preparing for shutdown, fed government plans furloughs

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a third of federal workers would be told to stay home if the government shuts down, forcing the closure of national parks from California to Maine and all the Smithsonian museums.

Workers at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs wouldn't be around to process visa and passport applications, complicating the travel plans of hundreds of thousands.

These would be just some of the effects of a government shutdown that could furlough as many as 800,000 of the nation's 2.1 million federal workers. It could hit as early as Tuesday if a bitterly divided Congress fails to approve a temporary spending bill to keep the government running.

Supervisors at government agencies began meetings Thursday to decide which employees would continue to report to work and which would be considered nonessential and told to stay home under contingency plans ordered by the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB.

Details about shutdown plans for each agency were expected to be posted on the OMB and individual agency websites by this afternoon, according to union officials briefed on the process. Formal furlough notices would be sent Tuesday, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

"Fifty percent of our members may be locked out of work altogether during this shutdown," said J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "Half will be expected to continue to work without a paycheck."