NASA is currently CLOSED | Hacker News Reader

NASA is currently CLOSED

nasapeople.nasa.gov

68 pointsjohnhenry11 comments

Open articleView on HN

For here am I sitting in a tin can

Far above the world

Planet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do

Looks like it was pretty well anticipated and planned

Everytime it looks like there might be a shutdown, affected agencies are supposed to start planning for it and get all this stuff together ahead of time whether or not the shutdown happens. Takes a couple weeks. Is a real waste of time.

Doesn't the US government shut down like twice a year for at least a day or two? I assume this is a canned webpage used multiple times.

No, historically that's not been true. You'd see slowdowns at the end of the fiscal year as contracts and other things change over or have to be renewed (so one office is busy making the contracts and others may be slowed down waiting for them). But a full on shutdown has been rare.

Most departments, however, do contingency planning so things like this should be available with minimal tailoring for the current situation.

It's been the longest shutdown ever. A short shutdown doesn't usually effect very much because departments have extra cash in the bank. This time it's going on long enough things are actually starting to shutdown.

> It's been the longest shutdown ever.

By 2 days (so far), the previous record was under Bill Clinton.

It might seem that way, but since 1997 there have been only 3 shutdowns:

2013 under Obama over the Affordable Care Act

2018 under Trump over Immigration

2019 under Trump over the Border Wall (still ongoing)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_...

4, there were two shutdowns in 2018.

Technically yes, but I didn't count it because that one ended before the next work day started.

I must say this is really quite entertaining. Unfortunate how many people are suffering because of it though. Why exactly are government shutdowns a thing?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com