“I think the government should shut down. I think that’s what our country needs right now: a slap in the face to figure out
what’s going on.” Daniel Hinson, senior industrial
distribution major
What are your thoughts on the
government shutdown?
Q:thebattalion asks
“I’m not in favor of Obamacare, but I’m not in favor of government
shutdown, necessarily. The government spends too
much money and we need to get it under control, but I think we’re going about it
in the wrong way.”Coleman Veale, sophomore
construction science major
“I really just think that Congress needs to make a decision and compromise. It should not have dragged
out this far.”Alya Ayers, sophomore civil
engineering major
government shutdown
With the opening of the Healthcare Insurance Exchange, Tuesday marks the next major step in the implementation of the Afford-
able Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” Laura Dague, assistant professor at the Bush School
of Government and Public Service, said the exchange will provide citizens with an online marketplace of health care plans from private insurers that meet the new minimum federal requirements.
Dague said uninsured people will be able to go on the marketplace website and both look for an insurance plan and see if they are eligible for a subsidy, and if so, how much it would be.
To aid in this process, Dague said insurance com-panies participating in the marketplace are required to clarify their plan to customers by putting forward a sheet that clearly outlines what the plan offers.
“The marketplace is where you can go if you do not currently have insurance and you want to look for a policy,” Dague said. “If you already have insurance through your parents or your job, you don’t need to make any changes. If you are uninsured, you are going to have to look at whether you want to go ahead and buy insurance or whether you want to pay the [penal-ties], which are relatively small next year but start to go up a little more over time.”
Penalty payments will begin January 2014 and will start at $95 per adult or 1 percent of adjusted family income depending on which sum is greater. By January 2016, the penalties for being uninsured will be up to $2,085 per family or 2.5 percent of income depending on which is greater.
The marketplace is one of four main initiatives that come with the Affordable Care Act, Dauge said. The other initiatives include a provision to
Exchanges open Tuesday
affordable care act
Health care bill takes step in implementation process
See Care Act on page 3
Happy b-day to The BattOn this day 120 years ago, a handful of cadets were gifted the opportunity to produce a newspaper. The first editor-in-chief, E.L. Bruce, wrote in a salutary address in that first issue of his goal to “long have a paper that can claim its rank high up among the literary editions of every college in the Union.” Here’s to you, Mr. Bruce.
Jake Walker, editor-in-chief
insidecampus | 2BUILD project begins SaturdayCampus organizations will come together to aid in the building of houses for Bryan-College Station families, as part of a service project called BUILD.
gsc | 4Grad council to aim for later classesGraduate Student Council will discuss issues concerning graduate students Tuesday, including a proposal to change the time of classes that conflict with student work schedules.
CloseDParts of governmentopen‘Obamacare’ exchanges
The George Bush Presidential Library could be among closures caused by the government shutdown.
Congress failed to approve a 2014 spending plan Monday night, leaving the U.S. to enter the new fiscal year in a government shutdown.
This shutdown, the first federal shutdown in 17 years, is the product of a stalemate between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate over the Affordable Care Act amendments on this year’s spending bill.
The government shutdown will require all federal employees deemed non-necessary to go on a furlough — a forced holiday without pay — and the effects could be felt at the local level.
Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said the shutdown could spell bad news for any such employees at Texas A&M and in Bryan-College Station, depend-ing on how long it lasts.
“How federal pause or shutdown impacts us is mostly a function of how long such an interruption [would] last,” Sharp said. “In the short term, we would not anticipate any significant disruption. If shutdown continues beyond several weeks into months, then we would have to reassess the situation, particularly in our research arenas.”
The shutdown could affect research by forcing Uni-versity researchers with federal grants to place their experiments on hold — experiments that may be in critical stages and require timely attention.
University President R. Bowen Loftin issued a simi-lar statement, and said that while he did not expect disruption from a short-term federal government shut-down, areas of the University and local services could face uncertainty in the case of a long-term shutdown.
“We do not expect a disruption in operations due to a federal government shutdown,” Loftin said. “From research projects, airport operations or federal financial aid, University functions in the short time
Budget bill stalls, furloughs followHealth care entanglement in spending bill results in 1st shutdown since 1996
See Shutdown on page 3
Annabelle Hutchinson & Allison Rubenak The Battalion
Penalties under the Affordable Care Act for those who fail to purchase insurance coverage will take effect in 2014 and increase each year until 2016.
Monday Senate vote
Lindsey GawlikThe Battalion
Bryan Johnson — THE BATTALION
(Left) The House of Representatives passed a spending bill Sunday with an amendment to push implementation of the Affordable Care Act by one year. (Right) Senate Democrats voted Monday to send the clean bill back to the House.
Sunday House vote
Texas votes in House
Graphics by William Guerra — THE BATTALION
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ANSWERSto todays puzzles
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The BaTTalion is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center.
News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs. Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: [email protected]; website: http://www.thebatt.com.
Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 979-845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: [email protected].
Subscriptions: A part of the Student Services Fee entitles each Texas A&M student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional copies $1.
thebattalion The IndependenT STudenT VoIce of TexaS a&M SInce 1893
Jake Walker, Editor in Chief
Service project to build Aggie Spirit on campus
Last spring, students suggested a nonprofit project that would unite students from all
over campus by providing them with a way to give back to the community.
The project, BUILD, will be partnering with Habitat for Humanity to create houses for those in need in Bryan-College Station and will be holding a groundbreaking cer-emony on Saturday to kick off the project.
Students will spend the next seven weeks building the walls of a house on Simpson Drill Field. The house will then be trans-ferred to a site in Bryan where students will continue construction.
Andrew Abbott, BUILD command team leader and senior pe-troleum engineering major, said the idea for the project origi-nated when student leaders gathered to-gether and noticed campus had begun to feel disconnected. To remedy this, former deputy Corps com-mander and Class of 2013 Bryson Sutter-field came up with the idea of BUILD.
“We all grew up hearing about the Aggie family and about the spirit that brought everyone to-gether, but we didn’t notice those traits de-fining campus,” Abbott said. “We wanted a project that brought students from all corners of campus together to serve others.”
The goal of BUILD is to involve every organization that is willing to participate, Ab-bott said, and he hopes it will bring students from all walks of life together.
“Our slogan is, ‘BUILD — A Tradition of Unity,’” Abbott said. “We want BUILD to be defined by bringing all students together for a central purpose.”
Abbot said he is excited for the project to begin, especially with the massive amounts of support the program has received.
Donations have already been made in sup-port for the project from Artie McFerrin, Class
of 1965 and namesake for McFerrin Indoor Athletic Center and the Cox-McFerrin Bas-ketball Center. Widespread campus support has been received from sources including Sys-tem Chancellor John Sharp, the Texas A&M Board of Regents and Student Body President Reid Joseph.
Abbott said this year will provide the or-ganization with the opportunity to build a good foundation.
“It’s like starting a business,” Abbott said. “This year will allow future projects to have a foundation to start from.”
Antoinette Gillian, sophomore biology major, said she believes the project has the potential to effectively bring students togeth-er because Aggies are quick to show support.
“I think it’s a thoughtful project. And an accurate reflection of what an Aggie may do to help someone in need,” Gillian said.
Because this is the project’s first year, some students have questions about the scope of BUILD as well as its long-term effects.
Mark Goloby, senior chemis-try major, said if BUILD wants to be seen as a separate o r g a n i z a t i o n
from Habitat for Humanity, they will have to actively try to involve more campus organizations.
“Personally, I think this is just a sub-cat-egory of Habitat for Humanity and just a marketing campaign to get new houses built that centers around A&M culture,” Goloby said. “Not saying that’s wrong, it’s just what I feel.”
Abbott said while BUILD and Habitat for Humanity have similar goals of provid-ing service, BUILD is made up entirely of students who come together to give back to the community.
The groundbreaking ceremony for BUILD will take place at 8 a.m. on Saturday at the job site in Bryan.
Jennifer ReileyThe Battalion
We all grew up hearing about the Aggie family and about the spirit that brought
everyone together, but we didn’t notice those traits defining campus. We wanted a project that brought students from all corners of campus together to serve others.”
— Andrew Abbott, BUILD command team leader
and senior petroleum engineering major
thebattalion
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thebattalion
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tuesday 10.1.2013
ensure health care plans cover certain preven-tative health measures such as contraception, mammograms and immunizations for children; provisions to enable people under the age of 26 to be on their parent’s insurance; and provi-sions to require that insurance companies do not deny health care because of pre-existing conditions.
Rep. Bill Flores of District 17 said Repub-licans in Congress will continue to attempt to put an end to the Affordable Care Act as the American people are faced with what he said would be damaging local and national ramifica-tions resulting from the act.
“We are doing our best to repeal the act and to replace it with market-oriented health care reforms,” Flores said. “We’ve made 40-plus at-tempts to repeal it and delay it and take parts of it apart and again try to get ourselves in a position where we can replace it with some-thing better.”
Most recently, Republicans in the House of Representatives have attempted to thwart the Affordable Care Act by including a provision to delay it by one year with the current federal spending bill before sending it to the Senate for approval.
On the other side of the spectrum is Beto O’Rourke, Democratic representative from Texas’ District 16. In a press release explain-ing his decision to vote against the Republican version of the spending bill because of the delay of the Affordable Care Act that would result, O’Rourke said Republicans are compromising the system with their actions.
“Using government solvency as leverage to achieve other political aims puts at risk our abil-ity to meet our obligations and function as a country,” O’Rourke said.
Dague said from a purely econom-ic standpoint, the move by Republicans is irresponsible.
“I think that is not a good idea to threat-en the whole economy over one policy that has been legally passed and voted on multiple times,” Dague said. “And I think many econo-mists share that opinion regardless of how they feel about the particular policy in question.”
But Flores said his actions to replace the Af-fordable Care Act with a plan that doesn’t drive up costs is in line with what he believes his con-stituents want. He said part of his understand-ing of what constituents want comes from small business employers in Bryan-College Station who have contacted him over the past couple of months and informed him of their prospec-tive business changes.
“In the past, they’ve always been happy to provide insurance and health care coverage to their employees,” Flores said. “And what they are telling me now is because of the high cost of health care coverage, they are thinking about doing a number of things.”
Flores said the requirements of the Af-fordable Care Act have already resulted in an increase in premiums, which has forced busi-nesses in Bryan-College Station and across the nation to make difficult sacrifices.
Flores said employers were thinking of re-ducing their number of full-time employees to below 50 so the Affordable Care Act is not ap-plicable to them, reducing the hours their em-ployees work to below 30 hours a week as that constitutes full-time under Affordable Care
William Guerra— THE BATTALION
Care ActContinued from page 1
According to a government census, Texas has the most uninsured people within its borders, followed by Florida. On the other end, Massachusetts has the fewest uninsured people.
period should not be affected. We are engag-ing with government officials regarding the situation because of possible uncertainty pre-sented in a long-term shutdown.”
Students who work for the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum will be im-mediately affected by the shutdown. They must be on a furlough with other federal em-ployees of the library who are not deemed im-mediately necessary.
Jordan Meserole, director of communica-tions for the Bryan-College Station Visitor’s Convention Bureau, said the Bush Library and Museum could be forced to close its doors due to being short staffed, potentially turning away a portion of the approximated 100,000 visitors it welcomes annually.
The closing of the library could indirectly affect local businesses, Meserole said.
“If people who are planning on visiting our area find out the Bush Library is closed, I could see them potentially changing their plans,” Meserole said. “If the visitors are not coming, then they are not eating in the restaurants, they are not staying in the hotel rooms, so in turn that’s also impacting our local economy.”
In past government shutdowns, like the 21-day long shutdown under President Clinton in 1995 and 1996, federal funding was frozen for anything deemed unnecessary. Passport pro-
cessing was stopped, national museums and parks were closed, food stamps weren’t sent out, soldiers fought but didn’t get paid and the Food and Drug Administration was unable to monitor food or disease.
The U.S. Postal Service, Congress’ and the president’s pay and social security checks will be unaffected.
State-funded services will still run, which limits the impact the shutdown will have on the Texas A&M campus.
Chelsea Downy, lead office assistant of the Study Abroad Office, said the of-fice would still be processing passports because they create enough revenue in the state to support their own production and distribution without federal funding.
Delisa Falks, executive director of scholar-ships and financial aid, said the repercussions of the shutdown in the Texas A&M Student Financial Aid Office will be slight, and students shouldn’t worry about getting the funding for their tuition.
Many student organizations and individuals expressed differing opinions on the govern-ment shutdown.
Publicity coordinator for the Aggie Demo-crats and junior philosophy major, Sam Tay-
lor, said he thinks the government shutdown is detrimental and could have been avoided. He said the Republican Party is to blame for the shutdown.
“The American people want Obamacare as exhibited in their re-election of Obama,” Taylor said. “The most damning part of the shutdown for the Republican party is the fact that Obamacare will still be implemented in
the shutdown, so this is all for naught. The Republican Party is acting child-ish, bringing hurt not only upon itself, but the on the nation as a whole.”
Marc Pitts, senior biochemistry major and member of Texas Aggie Conservatives,
said he does not see what the major concerns about the government shutdown are and notes that most people probably won’t even notice it.
“I honestly don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal over the government shutdown,” Pitts said. “All essential personnel, such as our military and law enforcement agen-cies, will remain at work. We should think of it like an extended weekend. In reality, the vast majority of Americans won’t even notice.”
Political science professor Warren Dixon said the government should worry more about
other national issues. “We have had 17 government shutdowns
within the last 30 years,” Dixon said. “I think Congress needs to focus more on the national debt issue coming up in mid-October.”
Cody Alejandro, junior psychology major and public relations officer of Aggies for Lib-erty, said as a Libertarian, he was hoping for a government shutdown.
“We don’t think the government should be too involved with our lives,” Alejandro said. “So, as for the government shutdown, I be-lieve it is a great opportunity to show people just how much we can take care of ourselves. It’ll outline some of the nuisances that govern-ment involves themselves in.”
In bunkering down for the worst, Congress passed a bill ensuring the military, employees of the Defense Department and employees of the Pentagon will still be paid in the event of a government shutdown.
The shutdown will continue until the House and Senate reach an agreement on 2014 spending. House Republicans are pushing to pass a spending bill that includes amendments to delay implementing the Affordable Care Act for a year and will repeal the tax on medi-cal device manufacturers. Senate Democrats want to pass a clean spending bill free of these amendments.
Even with the government shutdown, the first part of the Affordable Care Act will go into effect Tuesday.
ShutdownContinued from page 1
Act and abandoning health insurance plans in favor of asking employees to go into health care exchanges.
“It’s been a bad deal for employers and em-ployees,” Flores said. “It looks like it’s going to get worse.”
Of the businesses that Flores heard from, he recalled a dry cleaning and laundry business that would have liked to open up at a new location but held back because the expansion would put them at over 50 employees, a business move that would drive costs up under the Affordable Care Act.
“Whereas three years ago they would have been inclined to make that expansion, now they’re holding back on that expansion,” Flores said. “That’s bad for them. That’s bad
for potential employees who are going to work there.”
Flores said big businesses like UPS, Home Depot and Trader Joe’s have also informed him that they are reconsidering how they provide health care.
With 12 Democrats and 26 Republicans representing Texas in Congress, Flores’ echoed the sentiments of the majority of Texas legisla-tors when he said he believes the Affordable Care Act is a solution to a problem that entails having government bureaucrats stand between the patients and the doctors.
Bradley D’Sousa and Homero Segovia contributed to this story
As for the government shutdown, I believe it is a great opportunity to show people just
how much we can take care of ourselves.”
— Cody Alejandro, junior psychology major
BAT_10-01-13_A3.indd 1 10/1/13 12:20 AM
thebattalion
newspage 4
tuesday 10.1.2013
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ALL STUDENTS:walk in or scheduleyour free yearbookportrait sitting nowJust walk in to have your portrait made for Texas A&M University’s 2014 Aggieland yearbook. 10 a.m – 4:30 p.m. Monday – Thursday in the Student Media office, Suite L400 of the MSC. Or, for appointment email [email protected] or call 979.846.9690. December grads: have your portraits made by Oct. 10 to have them for graduation announcements.
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The Graduate Student Council will hold its bimonthly meeting on Tuesday to dis-
cuss insurance, class times and Aggie Rings. Amanda Rutherford, GSC executive vice
president and political science graduate stu-dent, said the upcoming meeting will discuss a proposal to push graduate classes held at 5 p.m. back to 5:30 p.m.
The bill to change 5 p.m. class times was written by Kevin Andrews, agricultural lead-ership, education and communications gradu-ate student.
Andrews said he felt the bill needed to be written to start conversations among graduate students to see if changes in scheduling would make things easier for students.
“We are using this bill just to gauge out how each others’ schedules work out,” An-drews said. “We want to see why grad stu-dents choose these classes and how we can try to accommodate to meet their needs. We are trying to get the conversation going about how this could possibly be better for graduate students with families or who work until 5 o’clock and don’t want to have to leave work early — who want to get that extra bit of work done.”
Andrews said a 30-minute push back in class time would help graduate students with parking, as well as they would be paying eve-ning rates in garages and spots closer to their classrooms would be available.
Andrews said the idea for the bill came to him when he was talking to fellow graduate students who were upset that they had to leave work early to make it to class on time, and still had to park in West Campus Garage for classes on main campus.
Andrews said he hopes the proposed bill will allow graduate students to discuss what possible improvements could be made to make their commute easier.
He said he is aware the desires of the class instructors and transportation services must also be taken into account for this bill and hopes the Graduate Student Council will find a compromise that will work best for every-one.
“I think that each person has different needs, that’s why it’s going to be a great point to talk about at the meeting,” Andrews said. “Somehow, some point, someway, the classes we have were somehow set. Why were they set that way? Has anyone looked at it recently from the student perspective, though? That’s what we are trying to do. It won’t be an ul-timatum, we will collaborate with instructors and transportation services but it will get them looking at it from the student perspective.”
In addition to class time changes, guest speaker Kevin McGinnis, director of the Risk Management and Benefits Administration at Texas A&M, said he will discuss insurance changes that graduate students could face as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
“[We will discuss] more coverage, decrease in premiums for graduate students, domestics and an increase for international [students],” McGinnis said. “Graduate students will have access to more coverage at less premium.”
Brittany Bounds, GSC president and his-tory graduate student, said the meeting might also include a celebratory toast for graduate students who recently received their Aggie Rings.
Graduate Student Council to address later class timesLindsey Gawlik The Battalion When & where
The Graduate Student Council will convene for its bimonthly meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Koldus 144.
