well, the countdown continues to a potential government shutdown. just over 12 hours to go, and congress has not yet agreed on a deal. at about 2:00 p.m. eastern the senate convenes and they ll vote on the bill passed by the house this weekend with a provision to delay obama care. as the clock ticks, time is running out for hundreds of thousands of workers facing furloughs. nasa and the epa take the biggest hits, more than 90% of their employees forced to stay home if the government shuts down. the commerce and treasury departments lose 80% of their staff. justice, homeland security and veterans affairs get to keep more than 80% of their workers. our team of reporters are at some of the places at the mercy of capitol hill. msnbc s alex witt is in lower manhattan. john yang is at a post office in north riverside, illinois, and krig m craig melvin is at ft. dix.
services. they say they have got enough money to operate as normal for the first 15 days or so. that includes juror fees. after that juror fees may be delayed. andrea. john yang in illinois. the military is a moving target in this scenario. msnbc s craig melvin live mcguire, dix. ft. dix. where are you? you re right, andrea. it s called joint base mcguire-dix-lakehurst in new jersey. this government shutdown, abstract to a lot of people, not the folks filing in behind me, 6700 civilian employees who show up every day. i just spoke to the deputy commander a few moments ago. he said if the government shuts down, everyone still has to report tomorrow morning as usual. however, they will determine who is essential, who is not
revenue. now to john yang, he s in illinois. reporter: thanks, alex. national parks will be closed but the post office will be open. mail will still be moving. they get their money from someplace else and social security checks will be moving too. they get funded by permanent law, not the annual appropriations that congress is fighting over. federal courts will still be open. they re considered essential services. jury trials will go on. but after the first ten days or so, jurors may get their jury payments delayed. and passports, applying for a new passport or renewing a passport, that may be delayed as workers get furloughed. now with a look at what s happening on military bases, here s my colleague, craig melvin at ft. dix, new jersey. reporter: john, thank you here at the joint base, southern new jersey, commanders are preparing for what they are calling an orderly shutdown. unfortunately they have gotten a bit used to it here.
and today, it happened on a military installation in our nation s capital. it s a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel. these are men and women who were going to work, doing their job, protecting all of us. they re patriots, and they know the dangers of serving abroad, but today, they faced the unimaginable violence that they wouldn t have expected here at home. horrific. the worst mass shooting at a u.s. military base since ft. hood, tragedy, since the ft. hood tragedy where major nidal hasan killed 13 individuals, wounded dozens ort others. 12 are dead here. there was a conspiracy, although one did not come to fruition, by violence at ft. dix.
no, i think he emerges as an enlarged figure, a bigger presence. governor christie is completely right in terms of the mainstream electoral, but the republican primary electoral is very different. christie s numbers in the polls are not very healthy. rand paul is very strong when it comes to that prime year electoral rat. the facts here don t matter. kentucky gets back about $1.50 for every dollar it sends to washington. rand paul comes back and says, but we have military bases. has the guy never heard of ft. dix? new jersey has military bases. it does. but none of this is relevant to the ideologues. the great irony is the guys from the red states receive all these benefits, mostly financed by the blue states. that s the very spending they re trying to cut.