Firms Saving Millions In Fees
Millions of dollars in securities registration fees at the Securities and Exchange Commission automatically dropped by nearly half on Tuesday as the budget authority expired for part of the fees. With companies poised to save money on the lower fees, the SEC was flooded with registrations for at least $65 billion worth of securities, 20 times the volume on an average day.
By evening, the securities commission calculated that it had lost at least $9.4 million in fees, with a few last-minute filings still to be processed this morning.
A toast to being non-essential
Some federal workers who were deemed non-essential took it philosophically.
An attorney in the office of Housing and Urban Development, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “I worked on the Hill for years. I know that I’m not essential to anything. I’ve had it drilled in that I’m just a staff person.”
A more embittered Commerce Department staffer said many more people should have been sent home than actually were, if the term “non-essential” were used accurately.
“Ninety percent of the time what you do in the federal government is a waste of time,” he said.
He allowed as to how he had been drinking steadily since being sent home at 11:30 a.m. and asserted that the furlough is “contributing a tremendous boost to the alcoholic beverage industry.”
First family cuts back
President Clinton, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea, 15, will now have to get by with a reduced staff of butlers, maids, chefs, electricians and engineers.
According to Neel Lattimore, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, that means the first family will have one chef, butler and usher during the day and one of each during the evening.
No savings from shutdown
The last time the government closed down in a budget squabble between Congress and the White House, it actually cost taxpayers more than it saved. Congress’ General Accounting Office estimated that the last government shutdown, over the 1990 Columbus Day weekend, cost $1.6 million.
White House Budget Director Alice Rivlin said the additional costs are mostly the result of having to secure emptied-out federal buildings and pay penalties on contracts that can’t be honored.
Dangerous toys slip through
The government shutdown means there aren’t enough investigators to inspect toys for defects that could endanger children, said the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“This is a tremendous concern,” Ann Brown said as she prepared to send home more than 400 workers, or 10 percent of her force. “It’s the holiday buying season.”
The agency suspended its dockside inspections of imports and won’t have the staff to conduct routine product testing and recalls, Brown said. And stores won’t know which items to take off shelves.
“This is a serious situation.”