I suspect it would be illegal to run those servers. The Anti-Deficiency Act forbids the government from “involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated”. The Army can’t purchase new tanks, NASA can’t order a new space shuttle, and I bet most agencies can’t rack up more obligations with their ISPs and electric companies.
This act, by the way, is the reason nonessential workers are forbidden from volunteering for work.
I suspect it would be illegal to run those servers. The Anti-Deficiency Act forbids the government from “involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated”. The Army can’t purchase new tanks, NASA can’t order a new space shuttle, and I bet most agencies can’t rack up more obligations with their ISPs and electric companies.
This act, by the way, is the reason nonessential workers are forbidden from volunteering for work.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ seems still to run.
BLAST and PubMed are running automatically but there is no updating of either of them with new materials.