8.49pm: The US department of defence has a transcript of a briefing with senior officials earlier today, going into great detail about the effects on the military and their families:
Let me start by saying I very much hope we can avert a government shutdown. It'll be harsh and unfair to our people. It will be inefficient and disruptive.
But we are a country of laws, and if we go through a government shutdown, we will follow the law, and that's important to realize. We won't be following a set of priorities, necessarily, but rather a specific set of laws, the Anti-Deficiency Act and exception to it. The Anti-Deficiency Act basically says if we don't have an appropriation, we can't obligate or disburse funds, except with some very narrow exceptions for safety of life and protection of property. And based on those exceptions, we can maintain key national security functions - the war in Afghanistan, the transition in Iraq, the Libya operations, the humanitarian operations in Japan - and other key national security missions, and the support that's directly required for the legal, financial, acquisition.
