Two Days In: Stocks Falling, No Progress Apparent

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.

 

President Barrack Obama began meeting Wednesday evening with Democrat and Republican leaders to seek a resolution to the government shutdown, reports The Hill.

In nearly the only news besides the impact of the two-day shutdown was the announcement that the Navy stood up the first official F-35C squadron. VF-101 launched with two jets, four at NAS:Pax will join the squadron, reports FlightGlobal.

Contractors’ production should not be impacted if the shutdown is confined to a week or less. However, there are production fears if the government shutdown extends two or three weeks, reports Breaking Defense. And there is also growing concern among defense executives at their industry’s inability to convince Republicans that the nation’s debt ceiling must be lifted  to avoid damaging America’s credit rating and international economic standing. Already, on the second day of government closure,  stocks are falling, reports Reuters.

Both the House and Senate have introduced legislation to grant back pay, to furloughed federal workers, reports GovExec.

DefSec Chuck Hagel seeks to expand the number of  DoD civilians deemed to perform jobs that provide essential support to military operations, a category that precedent has allowed to be paid throughout the shutdown, reports CNN Security Clearance. Details of the broadest interpretation of the Pay Our Military Act were being ironed out Wednesday, reports Military.com.

The intelligence agencies consider all employees essential, but 70 percent were furloughed, putting the nation’s security at serious risk and making “a dreamland for foreign intelligence services to recruit,” CNN Security Clearance quotes Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

WWII veterans trump the shutdown and re-take their memorial on the mall in Washington D.C, reports The Hill.

DoD contracts are being awarded, reports Defense News, but they are not being announced. The whole packet of those awarded will be announced when government re-opens. Meanwhile, DoD websites go dark, reports Intercepts.

To keep track, Defense News is compiling their Shutdown Crisis stories in a single spot.