FOXNews.com: Slimdown puts Syria, immigration, other key issues on back burners

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Slimdown puts Syria, immigration, other key issues on back burners Oct 5th 2013, 14:26 Published October 05, 2013 FoxNews.com The Capitol Hill budget debates to fund the federal government and end the partial shutdown has pushed aside other important work including immigration reform, imposing sanction on rouge nations and congressional investigations into the IRS scandal and the Benghazi terror attacks. The White House warned Friday that U.S. sanctions against Iran may suffer because of the slimdown. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Treasury office that handles sanctions had to furlough nearly its entire staff and cannot sustain its core functions, which includes new sanctions on Iran, Syria, terrorist groups and drug cartels. The Capitol Hill situation unfolded in the weeks ahead of the partial shutdown -- the Republican-led House negotiating with the Democrat-run Senate and President Obama to avoid the partial shutdown. And the situation has only intensified since the slimdown started, with both parties trying to strike a deal to, in part, bring back to work roughly 800,000 federal workers and avoid further voter dissatisfaction. The slimdown that kicked in Oct. 1 has also resulted in Congress delaying work on other, pressing matters because members have had to slash their staff, which organizes hearings and helps draft legislation. For example, New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotta has reduced her 38-member staff to a handful of essential staffers and Wyoming Republican Sen. Jon Barrasso has cut his in half. Among the numerous scheduled hearing cancelled this week was one on the Washington Navy Yard shootings before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Committee, according to The Washington Post. The office of West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin attempted to highlight the situation by releasing a photo of the lawmaker answering phone calls in his Capitol Hill office. Immigration reform was supposed to be a top priority for this Congress, potential legacy legislation for Obama that was passed in the Senate but has stalled in the House. Sources tell Fox News there is no movement on immigration but that lawmakers are working on reform to the National Security Agency's surveillance program, exposed in recent months for collecting data on Americans' phone calls and Internet activities, as part of it anti-terror efforts. In fact, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the issue, titled "Continued Oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." The Associated Press contributed to this story

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