(The Center Square) – Front-facing customer service types of federal jobs are the engagements most likely to impact North Carolinians due to the shutdown of the federal government.
In some cases, it’s possible that many of the 11 million in the nation’s ninth-largest state will hardly notice beyond the rhetoric and blame of politicians and those mimicking them. Elsewhere, such as the major military installations that dot eastern North Carolina, furloughed civilian workers and nonessential services workers may have more free time, but local economies will absorb the lack of their pay.
Active-duty personnel and National Guardsmen deployed continue assigned duties without pay. All will be paid retroactively. Or, as happened in 2013, a congressional act could generate active-duty service members’ pay.
How it shakes out varies across the many ways government is intertwined in Americans’ lives.
For example, Social Security and Medicare have protections as mandatory programs. New applications and calls for service, however, could be impacted by staff furloughs.
Similarly, the nation’s air travel will continue. Yet, Transportation Security Administration workers at the security gates of airports and air traffic controllers may have staffing level concerns as those employees await retroactive pay. A longer line or canceled flight might happen.
In higher education, the processing of student aid applications could be impacted. Disbursement of Pell Grants and federal student loans could be disjointed.
On the Trump administration’s Small Business Administration website, there is a special announcement saying, “Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill …” The third graph has the meat of the message in more neutral terms, saying “many of our services supporting small businesses are currently unavailable.”
On the North Carolina page of the National Park Service website, the message says, “National parks remain as accessible as possible during the federal government shutdown. However, some services may be limited or unavailable.”
