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- Currently in Philadelphia — October 4, 2023: Sunny and warm
Currently in Philadelphia — October 4, 2023: Sunny and warm
Plus, could a coalition Speaker of the House avoid a shutdown?
Eric Holthaus & Abe Musselman
October 03, 2023
The weather, currently.
Sunny and warm, strangely
I have a couple great flannel shirts that I thrifted this summer, and I hoped I would get a chance to wear them by now. Unfortunately, today will be warm and gorgeous again. The heat continues to climb by inches, with today reaching a high of 84˚F, as the short run of warm weather we’ve been having for the past few days reaches its peak. But temperatures will begin to dip on Thursday and fall back into the 60s by the weekend, which sounds nice to me. I know it’s not spooky season quite yet, but this kind of heat this late in the year has been creeping me out.
— Abe Musselman
What you need to know, currently.
A US government shutdown just become more likely — again.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted out their leader for the first time in national history. What comes next isn’t readily apparent.
What are the odds we get 12 fully funded appropriation bills in the next six weeks? Zero or less than that? 🙃
— em dash aficionado (@imjacobnotjames)
11:43 PM • Oct 3, 2023
While the House is in a chaos of their own making, no business will get done. And the deal to stop a shutdown last weekend gave only a 45-day window — until November 17th — to formulate and pass funding bills for the entirety of the federal government.
The Washington Post has a good overview (gift link) of all the effects on the environment, climate, and weather operations of the federal government if the government shuts down. Some highlights:
Less enforcement of clean air and water protections. Closure of national parks and other public lands. Interruption of some environmental cleanups. Delays in new federal rules aimed at boosting clean energy.
Those are some of the potential effects of a federal shutdown — consequences that could compound the longer Congress is unable to agree on a way to keep the government operating.
While we are in the middle of an escalating climate emergency, having a functioning federal government is in everyone’s best interest — it helps direct disaster aid, it helps coordinate greenhouse gas regulations, it can stimulate investment in renewable energy.
There’s also a scenario in all this mess that Republicans effectively lose control of the House — and form a coalition government with Democrats — something that has hardly ever been tested in national American politics but is common in other parts of the world. Here’s hoping.
If there are 8 Republicans, perhaps moderate ones, interested in a Coalition government, even temporarily, Hakeem Jefferies would make a great Speaker of the House.
— MidwestCharm (@voter_indie)
12:26 AM • Oct 4, 2023
What you can do, currently.
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One of my favorite organizations, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, serves as a hub of mutual aid efforts focused on climate action in emergencies — like hurricane season. Find mutual aid network near you and join, or donate to support existing networks:
