Acadian Culture Center part of shutdown
By Todd C. Elliott
On Tuesday, the first day of the Federal government shutdown of 2013, it was noticeable that no one had raised the American flag at the Acadian Culture Center: Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve.
The museum and tourist attraction – which is a part of the National Park Service – had taped signs on its frontage that read: “Because of the federal government shutdown, this National Park Service facility is shut down.”
No employee was around to answer any questions about the facility and when it might re-open in light of the government shutdown and predicted government furloughs to finish out the work week with possibly abbreviated hours of operation.
Celeste Gomez, director of the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission, said that the Acadian Culture Center being closed on a Tuesday was not an odd sight as it had recently changed its hours of operation to Wednesday through Saturday. She said that park employees were making up their hours by commuting to the Lafayette Jean Lafitte National Park and Acadian Culture Center on Mondays and Tuesdays.
A recorded message at the Lafayette number greeted callers by informing them of the government shutdown and government furloughs. As a result, the voice indicated that the Lafayette facility was shut down.
On a state level, one Louisiana state commissioner said that the federal shutdown was already having an impact on Louisiana state offices and business.
“A number of things are going on,” said Mike Strain, commissioner of agriculture and forestry, in an email statement. “ We are moving personnel out of federal buildings. A number of services impacting the economy, specifically export services, will be impacted.”
On a federal level, Congressman John Fleming, the U.S. Representative for Louisiana’s 4th District, said that in Washington, D.C. it appeared to be business as usual. He said that neither he nor any of his fellow Congressmen took the day off.
“We’re probably actually going to be working every day, even through weekends, until this situation is resolved,” said Fleming. “Our workload increases, of course, when there’s a lot of media attention. Just looking around here, you don’t see any evidence of a shutdown. Everything seems to be working fine. We’re voting later today.”
Fleming said that the whole “government shutdown” stemmed from a law that was passed in 2010 – which is known as the Affordable Health Care Act or “Obamacare.
“The President made a very important commitment in this law,” said Fleming. “And every single promise that he made has been broken,” the congressman claimed. “Either he simply was being dishonest with Americans or he just didn’t know any better – which is hard to believe,” the conservative Republican said.
President Obama has repeatedly said the Affordable Health Care Act’s provisions and implementation are not a negotiable item.
The House effort to defund or delay the health care act as part of the spending authorization was rejected by the Senate, leaving most federal agencies in fiscal limbo as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
When Congress fails to set full-year spending levels by Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, it must, under terms of the Budget Act of 1974, resort to a temporary measure known as a continuing resolution. That allows the government to continue operating at current levels until normal appropriations bills pass -- which in some years, never occurs.
The House did pass some spending bills in recent months but abandoned the process. The Senate has yet to bring a single spending bill to the floor for the new fiscal year.
An emergency measure authorized continued funding of “vital” services was sent to the Obama, who signed it. It does such things as continue military spending.
Fleming asserted that President Obama has been re-writing the health care law in anticipation of a 2014 roll-out and implementation, stating that the law itself is not ready for public consumption.
“We want some input to the changes in this law as well,” said Fleming. “It’s terrible. It’s not ready to be rolled out yet. He (The President) said this morning on NPR that he will flat ‘not negotiate’ with Republicans.”
Fleming said that it’s a “matter of fairness” to individuals in this country who, like businesses and some business owners, were not given a one-year delay in the law mandate. He said that individual citizens did not get the same consideration.
However, Fleming said that in regard to the “government shutdown”, vital services will continue.
“A shutdown is never a complete shutdown, it’s always a partial shutdown,” said Fleming. “We made sure that military personnel gets paid in a separate bill. I don’t want a shutdown. No Republican wants a shutdown. There will be people hurt by it. We want to resolve this as quickly as possible.”
Fleming said that on Monday, amid recent voting, Congressional members have pleased for an audience with U.S. Senate majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, for a chance at some sort of negotiation.
Fleming said that an attempted at negotiation as Monday night’s deadline approached was rejected by Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“Basically, the message from the Democratic Party is, ‘we negotiate with President Rouhani of Iran, we negotiate with President Putin, who are potential enemies of ours. But we don’t negotiate with Congress, especially Republicans’.” said Fleming.
Fleming said that this week’s government shutdown is actually the 17th since 1976. He said the most recent shutdowns occurred in 1995.
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