The partial government shutdown is at the two-week mark, but many core functions remain unaffected. Mail is being delivered, the military is still funded, law enforcement personnel continue to work and entitlement programs are still running.
Still, many operations have ceased and about 800,000 government employees are affected, with about half sent home on unpaid leave and half working without pay.
In Idaho the shutdown has not had the impact it has in other states, according to one online report and various reporting.
WalletHub conducted a study of all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and ranked them from most affected by the shutdown to least. The rankings were based on the percentage of federal employees in the state compared to employees in general, the percentage of families receiving food stamps and proximity to national parks, among other things.
Idaho ranked middle-of-the-pack at No. 25; unsurprisingly, the District of Columbia ranked No. 1.
According to the Idaho Department of Labor, Idaho had 13,300 federal employees as of November 2018, making up about 1.8 percent of all nonfarming jobs in the state.
If past shutdowns are any indication, employees out of work can expect to receive back pay, but federal contractors have complained that they have no such expectation.
Here’s a brief look at some of the government functions that the shutdown has affected, and those it hasn’t.
Parks and museums
Most national parks are closed to visitors, and while some have remained open despite bare-bones staffing, the National Park Service has warned that “access may change without notice.”
Take Joshua Tree National Park, about 130 miles from Los Angeles. It closed Wednesday at noon, in part because the park service could not keep up with the mess left by visitors.
In Idaho, a list of places affected by the shutdown can be found online at the National Park Service website. Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve near Arco is still open, though “no facilities or services will be available,” according to the site. Yellowstone National Park, which has a western sliver in Idaho, remains open and law enforcement are still on hand; however, entrances to the park will not be staffed and administrative offices are closed.
The websites and social media accounts for the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service will not be updated, either.
Atop the U.S. Forest Service’s website is the following message:
“Due to a lapse in federal funding, this USDA website will not be actively updated. Once funding has been re-established, online operations will continue.”
Museums have been affected, too.
On Wednesday, the Smithsonian announced that all 19 of its museums and the National Zoo were closed because of the shutdown. (“Essential personnel” are on hand to care for the animals at the zoo.)
INL
The Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls was not expecting to be affected much, according to the Post-Register; INL is already on a smaller staff due to the holidays, and its budget was previously assigned in September.
“It would have minimal impact to INL,” INL spokeswoman Sarah Neumann told the Post-Register. “We will continue to operate business as usual.”
Also expected to operate as usual is Fluor Idaho, the contractor running the Idaho Cleanup Project, the Post-Register reported.
The IRS
Under the shutdown, most IRS operations have stopped. According to a contingency plan covering the final weeks of December, only about 1 in 8 of the agency’s nearly 80,000 employees were slated to work.
That plan does not make clear, though, what the IRS will do as the shutdown extends into January. (Tax filing season has not yet begun, but the agency will no doubt face plenty of questions from filers as the 2017 tax law goes into effect this year for the first time.) The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Idaho Statesman’s attempts to reach the local branch of the IRS were unsuccessful.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Fear not, seniors of America: The Social Security checks are still coming. (And the Postal Service will still deliver them.)
That’s because the Social Security Administration already received funding for the 2019 fiscal year, in September, according to Mark Hinkle, an agency spokesman.
Medicare and Medicaid are also unaffected.
Federal Aviation Administration
While air traffic control operations continue to run, other functions of the Federal Aviation Administration are restricted.
In Michigan, Sheriff Bill Federspiel of Saginaw County has complained that the shutdown is costing his department, which has had to guard the site of a fatal plane crash as it waits on the FAA to send an investigator.
Federal aviation safety inspectors haven’t been inspecting anything for the past two weeks. Deemed nonessential workers, the inspectors say they’re anything but, according to the Miami Herald.
Holding signs saying, “Was your airplane properly repaired and inspected today? The FAA does not know!” at Miami International Airport on Thursday, inspectors spoke with departing airline passengers about what they say is a heightened risk of aviation accidents because of their absence.
“My job is the safety of people,” said Charles Banks, 50, a veteran who has worked as an FAA safety inspector for 15 years. “I have family flying too and I can’t protect them from here on the curb.”
An FAA press release from Dec. 22 – the first day of the government shutdown – said “there is no impact to safety or FAA oversight for travelers.” Furloughed inspectors disagree. On Dec. 21, the day before the shutdown, a Korean Air cargo plane’s wing collided on the ground with a Tab cargo plane’s tail at Miami International Airport, damaging both planes.
Border Patrol and Transportation Security Administration agents are continuing to work without pay, but there have been reports nationwide of TSA agents calling in sick in large numbers.
A TSA spokesman tweeted that 5.5 percent of the TSA workforce at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport called out Friday, compared with 3.5 percent on a normal day. Hydrick Thomas, president of the national TSA employee union, told CNN that up to 170 TSA employees at New York’s JFK Airport have called out each day this week.
Boise Airport spokesperson Sean Briggs told the Statesman that services have not been affected by the shutdown here.
“We haven’t seen any issues in Boise. Our operations haven’t been impacted by the government shutdown at this point,” Briggs said. “TSA checkpoint is currently staffed, and we haven’t seen any FAA (issues).”
Veterans benefits
As the shutdown began to take hold before Christmas, Robert Wilkie, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement that his department would be unaffected because it was fully funded through the 2019 fiscal year.
Food aid and inspections
The 40 million or so people who receive food stamps will still get the benefit for January, according to the Agriculture Department, which administers the program. Other aid programs focused on child nutrition, including school lunch and breakfast programs, will also continue operating into February, the department said.
Food assistance programs for women, children and infants and for people on Native American reservations can continue to operate at the state and local levels, depending on what funding remains, but federal funds will not support those programs until the shutdown ends, the department said.
This story was originally published January 04, 2019 7:02 PM.