The city is making plans to deal with a possible shutdown of the federal government.
Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith issued a memo Thursday instructing all commissioners to “assess possible vulnerabilities” at their agencies in case House Republicans and Senate Democrats can’t reach a compromise on federal spending by Friday and “non-essential” federal workers are ordered home.
“In particular, officials should closely evaluate any operations that rely upon federal funding or federal agency partnerships to function,” Goldsmith wrote.
City officials were examining what happened during the last shutdown, in 1995-96, to determine the possible fallout this year.
Vital government functions such as law enforcement, air-traffic control and food inspection weren’t affected then, and that’s not expected to change.
The city derives about 9 percent of its budget from Washington, or nearly $6 billion, and some of those funds could be delayed.
Officials are also concerned that Homeland Security funding might get jammed up, affecting projects at the NYPD, the FDNY and the mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.
(Source: NY Post)