Federal Shutdown Starts Today in Spending Impasse

The federal government planned to shut down some of its weekend activities today because of a dispute between President Reagan and Congress over spending programs that is unlikely to be resolved until next week.

The federal government technically lost its authority to spend money at 12:01 a.m. today, but no serious problems will occur until noon Tuesday. The overwhelming majority of federal workers will have a three-day weekend, with Columbus Day an official holiday Monday.

If the President and Congress have not agreed on the terms of a $562-billion spending bill by Tuesday afternoon, federal agencies will begin sending their workers home.

However, the pre-summit agreement on critical arms control issues reached late Friday is expected to help break the impasse over funding the government.

Limited Impact

The immediate impact today will be strictly limited. Essential personnel, such as air traffic controllers and security personnel at various facilities, will continue working.

National parks will be open, with park police on duty, but there will be no one to collect fees or conduct tours. Other essential workers, such as prison guards, sanitation workers and medical staff at the National Institutes of Health, will keep working. Operations by the U.S. Postal Service, a quasi-public agency, will not be affected.

Any shutdown exempts the 2.15 million members of the nation’s military forces.

As many as 500,000 civilian workers could be furloughed Tuesday, said Edwin L. Dale, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. Workers sent home would not be paid unless Congress approved special appropriations bills. This was done in 1981 and 1984 to pay workers for time lost during shutdowns lasting a few hours.

Would Refuse to Sign

Congress passed a continuing resolution Friday to give the government spending powers through Wednesday. But President Reagan has said he would refuse to sign the resolution because the spending bill now before Congress contains a variety of provisions highly objectionable to the Administration.

“The President’s advisers will recommend that he not sign the short-term continuing resolution and the government will enter a shut-down mode over the weekend,” Dale said Friday night.

Despite agreement between the President and Congress on the arms control issues, an OMB official said, it was unlikely that Reagan would sign a stopgap measure until defense spending levels and other controversial issues were addressed next week. The White House, through the OMB, sent orders to federal agencies Friday to prepare for shutting down the many activities of the government, which employs 2.1 million civilian workers.

‘Hasn’t Shut Down’

However, veteran legislators who have experienced previous fiscal crises seemed confident that an agreement would be patched together next week.

“The government hasn’t shut down yet, and we don’t expect it to happen now,” said Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), a member of the House-Senate conference committee. “There is no major crisis.”

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Highland) said that, although “there are still very serious” disagreements, the issues should be resolved quickly.

However, he said, the precise timing could be linked to the success of the summit meeting in Iceland.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate conferees agreed on a provision by Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey) that prohibits any oil or gas lease sales off the California coast until February, 1989.