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US government agencies were ordered to close for the first time in more than 17 years after lawmakers stalemated over Republican efforts to block President Obama's healthcare law. More than 800,000 federal workers were to spend today, the first day of the new fiscal year, on unpaid furloughs as agency managers executed contingency plans for the costly process of closing down operations indefinitely. The official word to shut down came from the White House just before midnight (Eastern Daylight Time). Hours earlier, the Senate, by a 54-46 party-line vote, killed a House measure that would have funded government agencies for six weeks but delayed key parts of Obamacare for a year. But enough about that because a fast-food chain in Washington is promising free hamburgers to federal workers who now find themselves furloughed by the shutdown. “If people don’t go to work, they can come and get a burger” at four Z-Burger locations in the national capital region at noon hour and again in the early evening, the chain's founder Peter Tabibian told AFP. Tabibian, whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s, acknowledged that he’s going to lose money “if this thing goes on for 20 days,” but he said he wanted to help out civil servants who are a big part of his clientele. But this offer isn't open to just anybody. The offer is open to furloughed federal employees and contractors upon presentation of an ID card, as well as municipal workers in Washington, which as a federal district is overseen by Congress. By one estimate, there are 320,000 federal employees in Washington and its adjacent suburbs, representing about 15 percent of the entire federal government payroll. For the national capital, a federal shutdown could see the shutdown of tourist attractions such as the Smithsonian museums. It could also trigger a suspension of rubbish collection and parking enforcement. This is why Congress needs to get it together. Unless both houses can sort out this Obamacare mess, the shutdown will continue to have a very real economic impact on real people.