No trips to Alcatraz but school lunch is still being served: How government shutdown would affect daily life as Senate prepares to vote tomorrow

BENEFIT PAYMENTS

Social Security and Medicare benefits would  keep coming, but there could be delays in processing new disability  applications. Unemployment benefits would still go out.

FEDERAL COURTS

Federal courts would continue operating  normally for about 10 business days after the start of a shutdown, roughly until  the middle of October. If the shutdown continues, the judiciary would have to  begin furloughs of employees whose work is not considered essential. But cases  would continue to be heard.

MAIL

Deliveries would continue as usual because  the U.S. Postal Service receives no tax dollars for day-to-day operations. It  relies on income from stamps and other postal fees to keep running.

RECREATION

All national parks would be closed, as would  the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo in Washington. Visitors  using overnight campgrounds or other park facilities would be given 48 hours to  make alternate arrangements and leave the park. Among the visitor centers that  would be closed: the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York,  Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Alcatraz Island near San Francisco and the  Washington Monument.

HEALTH

New patients would not be accepted into  clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, but current patients  would continue to receive care. Medical research at the NIH would be disrupted  and some studies would be delayed. The Centers for Disease Control and  Prevention would be severely limited in spotting or investigating disease  outbreaks, from flu to that mysterious MERS virus from the Middle East.