BBC News, Tom
Espiner, Technology reporter, Ellis Island, 1 Oct 2013
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| Federal websites and Twitter feeds, including for the Statue of Liberty, were suspended after a partial US government shutdown. |
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A number of
US government websites and Twitter feeds have been suspended due to a partial
US government shutdown.
Nasa's
website was unavailable as non-essential services were closed, and the White
House web page was not being updated, after a lapse in federal funding.
The US
Department of Homeland Security was not responding to public emails submitted
via its website.
US
government employees affected by the shutdown were not able to access email.
Republican
opposition to President Obama's healthcare reform law, the Affordable Care Act,
lead to the the government shutdown on Tuesday.
The act,
known also as Obamacare, has caused legislative deadlock. Congress failed to
pass legislation to fund the government on Monday.
Workers'
email access suspended
Thousands
of federal workers who had been sent home on Tuesday were barred from accessing
work emails as part of US government policy.
The same US
law which gave the legal basis for the shutdown, the Antideficiency Act, also
prohibited work "via mobile devices or remote computer connections"
for employees who had been sent home.
Communications
channels for members of the public were also affected by the shutdown.
US citizens
can normally use federal websites and Twitter feeds to put queries to
government institutions.
On Tuesday,
email questions from the public were not being processed by US bodies including
the US Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
"Due
to the lapse in government funding, information on this website will not be
routinely updated, the transactions submitted via the website may not be
processed, and the department may not be able to respond to inquiries until
funding has been restored," read a notice on the Department of Justice
site.
People
trying to reach Nasa's main website were redirected to a US government notice
explaining that the page was not available.
Other
federal websites such as the US Department of Agriculture and the US Census
Bureau displayed holding pages.
Dozens of
Twitter feeds, including tweets from the National Park Service for the Statue
of Liberty, were stopped.
Smaller
federal institutions such as the Smithsonian National Zoo were affected by the
shutdown.
The zoo's
webcams, which normally stream images of giant pandas, cheetahs, flamingos, and
naked mole rats, were also down.
"None
of our live animal cams will broadcast," said a notice on the Smithsonian
National Zoo web page. "The cams require federal resources, primarily
staff, to run and broadcast. They've been deemed non-essential during
the shutdown."
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