BY CLARA VAUGHN, Eastern Shore Post —
With less than two days to extend federal funding, U.S. lawmakers have yet to reach a deal that would prevent a federal government shutdown.
If Congress cannot pass a stopgap bill by midnight Saturday, Sept. 30, many federal government operations would come to a halt, though essential services would continue.
On Virginia’s Eastern Shore, the impacts of a government shutdown might range from closing the beach at Assateague Island National Seashore to grounding rocket launches at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility — but that remains unknown.
“I can’t really say anything at this point,” said Hugh Hawthorne, superintendent of Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia, Thursday afternoon.
“We do not really have any instructions about what we might be doing in the case of a government shutdown,” he said.
Chincoteague businesses are already feeling the impact of that uncertainly, said Evelyn Shotwell, executive director of the Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce.
“Eighty percent of our calls today and yesterday have been about that,” she said of the potential closure of Assateague’s public beach. The National Park Service manages the national seashore there, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff man the booths at the entrance to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.
“We have had people tell us that because of the uncertainty, that they are making alternate plans — that they will be going to Ocean City or somewhere else,” Shotwell said.
Most federal civil servants would be furloughed during a government shutdown, said Communications Chief at NASA Wallops Jeremy Eggers.
At Wallops Flight Facility, that would include around 285 federal employees, as well as about 600 more at the U.S. Navy Surface Combat Systems Center, NOAA Wallops Combat and Data Acquisition Station, and other tenant organizations at Wallops Island, he said.
An additional 850 NASA contractors could feel the effects of a federal government shutdown, he said.
“Contractors would be impacted, too, as the facility will be closed and only open to those performing functions to prevent harm to life or property, such as protective services, some facility functions, et cetera,” Eggers said.
The number of workers who continue to operate on base “would be extremely limited to those employees performing functions to prevent harm to life or property,” he said.
Pay stops during a government shutdown and civil servants would receive back pay only once the federal government reopens.
Unlike federal employees, federal contract employees are not guaranteed back pay to make up for the wages lost during a shutdown.
“At the end of the day, the greatest impact is to our people and the uncertainty created by a shutdown,” Eggers said.
In a statement Wednesday, Sept. 27, Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said the shutdown would have “real, tangible consequences for millions of people across Virginia and America and would be devastating for our economy.”
Programs such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, Head Start, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that receive monthly federal funding risk losing funding if the shutdown lasts through the first of the next month.
Essential functions, such as U.S. Coast Guard response to vessels in need should remain in place, said Senior Chief at U.S. Coast Guard Station Chincoteague Conor Bennett.
“As far as our coverage of anybody who might be in distress, there shouldn’t be any interruption,” he said.
He expects all 20 employees at that station to continue working in the case of a government shutdown.
Other federal agencies with offices on the Eastern Shore include the Coast Guard stations in Wachapreague and Cape Charles; the Social Security Administration office in Accomac; and USDA’s Farm Service Agency Center in Accomac.
