From a bus crash in Tennessee that killed eight people that is not being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board to auto safety defects going undetected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the shutdown is halting activities that keep U.S. commerce safe and efficient, a panel of experts testified Friday before a Congressional committee. The shutdown is even threatening the Oct. 15 kickoff date for Alaska’s king crab fishing season as the national fisheries managers who are supposed to assign individual quotas for the multimillion-dollar are among the federal workers who have been furloughed.
“Fleets have already invested millions of dollars out-of-pocket just getting geared up for the season,” said Keith Colburn, captain of the Wizard and whose crew is featured on the Deadliest Catch reality show. “We are losing thousands by the day every day we don’t go out there.”
Colburn and others detailed for the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee just how the shutdown was affecting consumers and local economies across the country just hours after a partisan group of lawmakers met at the White House to discuss reopening the government. In less than two weeks, the country has seen a 0.5 percent decrease in domestic product growth but in several weeks, that could increased to 1.5 percent, noted U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
That slowdown largely affects small business owners. Those that directly support government agencies are now facing limited cash flows, said Marion Blakey, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association.
“Smaller firms are facing very difficult decisions because they have no assurance their work will be paid during the shutdown,” she said, adding, that they could be forced to shutter operations in the event of an extended shutdown.
In Colburn’s case, it’s not just the crab fishing industry being held hostage – his business directly impacts others like shippers, welders and especially retailers. And the upcoming weeks are crucial for financial survival – if crabbers are not able to catch, process and ship their product by the second week of November, they stand to lose access to the entire holiday market, he said.
Consumer and traveler safety is also taking a hit. The NTSB has suspended work on more than 1,000 transportation investigations and 14 accidents have occurred since the shutdown that are not being investigated at all. NHTSA is not able to alert consumers about safety recalls and any auto safety defect that arises during the shutdown will not be investigated properly, according to Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and senior counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.
The shutdown could also mean big losses for the scientific community, said Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. New patients are not being accepted at the National Institutes of Health and six clinical trials there have been suspended, meaning that potentially 200 people are not getting what could be life altering treatment. NASA scientists that have been tracing the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy have now missed nearly two weeks of observations, meaning a year’s work of data could go to waste and they would have to start over.
The losses could not only discourage foreign scientists from coming to work in the U.S., it could lead to fewer scientific break throughs and fewer jobs.
“This is coming at the same time as ... many of our competitor countries are accelerating their investment,” Leshner said. “This could threaten America’s very standing in the global scientific community.”
