Federal Shutdown Begins Impacting San Angelo

 

SAN ANGELO, TX — Most federal government employees in San Angelo are still at work on day 21 of the partial federal government shutdown but some are missing paychecks Friday. 

For example, according to the Federal Court system in the Northern District of Texas which includes San Angelo, approximately 400 people are employed by the Northern District of Texas throughout its seven divisional offices.  These include persons employed in the:

  • chambers of the judges serving the district court and bankruptcy court, 
  • district clerk's offices and the bankruptcy clerk's offices; and
  • the probation and pretrial services offices.

Payments to local attorneys appointed to represent defendants under the Criminal Justice Act were suspended on December 24, and over 100 cases have been stayed pursuant to the government's requests for stay due to the lapse in appropriations.

If the shutdown continues beyond the day the fee income and no-year balances run out, courts could only operate normally through Jan. 11 which is today.  Some of the things that will negatively impact the communities in the Northern District include delayed payments to jurors and reduced services, such as substance abuse and mental health treatment, to people on probation or supervised release. Staff will be reporting to work next week as usual.

Friday is the first day approximately 800,000 federal employees nationwide will go without a paycheck.  

Some Internal Revenue Service federal employees in San Angelo have been furloughed as well as a few who work for the Food and Drug Administration. 

Some federal workers have had to apply for unemployment benefits and take out loans to make ends meet; while others have had to cancel trips and scale back spending in other ways.

Statistics provided by the Department of Labor showed that 4,760 federal employees filed for unemployment benefits in the last week of December, an increase of 3,831 from the 929 who applied the week before.

The partial shutdown of the federal government began on Dec. 22, after Trump requested $5.7 billion in funding for border security and construction of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico—a proposal Democrats vowed to block. House Democrats have moved bills that would fund government agencies but not Trump's border wall funding request.

According to the Office of Management and Budget there are approximately 4.2 million federal employees and only 800,000 or roughly 19 percent will not receive a paycheck Friday. 

Postal employees and members of the military will continue to be paid at this time.  The National Parks Service is the most visible department where the partial shutdown can be seen.  According to reports, Big Bend National Park remains open but there bathroom facilities are closed and trash is not being picked up.  There are no National Parks in the San Angelo area.  

The federal government has also deemed the Customs and Border Patrol as essential personnel so the local office is still functioning as is the National Weather Service office in San Angelo.  

The U.S. House passed a bill Friday that would reopen the government but the Senate adjourned without taking action.  Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has said they will not pass a bill President Trump will not sign.  

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Why are Democrat leaders putting everyone through this? There's a point when people have to stop bucking authority and listen for a change, and this is one of those times. Who cares about their reasons. People need money to live and to be safe. Just be reasonable so we can get back to normal and quit arguing with the President of the United States!

Why are Republican leaders putting everyone through this? There's a point when people have to stop bucking authority and listen for a change, and this is one of those times. Who cares about their reasons. People need money to live and to be safe. Just be reasonable so we can get back to normal and quit arguing with EVERYBODY!!

It wasn’t Reasonable when Democrats put so much money towards border protection 7 years ago? My comments have to be approved for some reason before posting. Not sure when it has to be screened for free speech?

The habit of shifting blame and completely disregarding accountability is becoming increasingly common among the Democrats these days. It's not that the Democrats as people are despicable, but the behavior certainly is. There's no excuse for Democrats shutting down the government because they would rather push an agenda rather than work with our President to rectify an imminent danger to the country.

The lack of maturity is so sad. If only they would listen to reason.

The habit of shifting blame and completely disregarding accountability is becoming increasingly common among the Republicans these days. It's not that the Republicans as people are despicable, but the behavior certainly is. There's no excuse for Republicans shutting down the government because they would rather push an agenda rather than work with our President to get his personal vanity project done.

The lack of maturity is so sad. If only they would listen to reason.

Jim, this is the kind of childish response to serious problems that got us into this mess in the first place. Fortunately, there's someone who can be the bigger person in this equation. That person is President Donald J Trump. No doubt the hand of a higher power is working through him. All darkness will be overcome.

Please take care, Jim.

I'm just pointing out the complete hypocrisy of politics. Both sides are playing a game of chicken to try and get what they want and will spin things in any way to make themselves seem "right".

Building a wall will not magically stop anyone from entering the US despite what is being touted and also even if they started building one TODAY how long do you think it would take? I can assure you whatever time frame anyone says you can at least quadruple it. How much money would be wasted/philandered/blatantly stolen before the entire project was scrapped before it was even remotely finished? Who really wins in this mess? All those contractors standing in line drooling over how much they can bleed out of the government.

My other issue with this whole wall mess is who shouted from every podium coast to coast every chance he got that MEXICO WOULD pay for the wall? This rhetoric was repeatedly spewed over and over and over. So why again is our government at a standstill because funds aren't being appropriated for this project?? I didn't think we had to worry about it, remember? Mexico was going to foot the bill....

And please don't try to bring religion into this because based on the number of blatant lies that come from Trump's lips daily (pretty easy to find out with a ten second fact checking Google search) that's fairly blasphemous.

You take care as well.

A wall will be highly effective at keeping out drugs and organized criminals from the south. This is the main reason that so many oppose Trump: they stand to lose a lot of money from questionable or outright illegal activities. Meanwhile, Mexico is overrun by cartels.

This is how it works, just as surely as the Earth goes around the sun rather than the reverse the being true.

That's how any wall will be breached by those with serious intent and resources. If you haven't heard, the cartels have become quite adept at tunneling.
In my opinion, the wall could provide a reasonable deterrent along the western border, from El Paso to CA, but logistical problems will prevent any continuous barrier from being built along the Rio Grande. If a non -permeable barrier prevents wildlife and livestock from access to the water, the mandatory environmental studies will put a screeching halt on construction until solutions are found for that problem.
I urge all "wall" proponents to spend some time on Google Earth looking at the course of the river and then imagine trying to build a structure that follows the entire serpentine length, a fantastical feat of engineering at least. If we try to straighten the wall in order to save money, we basically give Mexico access to the land we have isolated. Do any of you really think that Texas farmers and ranchers are going to stand silently by while the US government separated them and their livestock from family owned land? The lawsuits will drag on for generations.
And then there's the matter of common sense. Much of the Western Texas/Mexico river border is composed of vertical rock cliffs, some hundreds of feet high. Does it really make sense to build a 20' wall on top of a 1000' cliff?
Will a wall deny US citizens access to lakes like Falcon and Amistad? If not, gates, tended by people, will need to be built in order to allow that access.
The only logical and sustainable solution to border security in Texas, which I most certainly see as a necessity, is extensive electronic and aerial surveillance coupled with a much more robust border security force.

Three parties came to this dance, the Republicans, the Democrats and the President. The music has been played, and Trump refused the offer of over a billion dollars . Only about half the people want Trump's wall, maybe he should realize that it takes all 3 Branches to operate the goverment. Better a part of a wall this year, than nothing at all. My blame, is placed on the President, he apparently slept his civics classes.

Rita,

The reasons Democrats have shut down the government are fairly simple and obvious.

1. TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) - All Democrats suffer from an incurable case of the malady. They are deathly ill and will not accept a cure.
2. Democrats think illegal aliens add to their voting base - alas, it is true. Most illegal aliens gravitate to the left/right coasts and large cities. Hence the majority Democrat voting records in those locales. Look no further than Dallas or Houston for the stats. The majority of Texas is conservative, except for illegal alien big city hotbeds.
3. Democrats don't care about the safety of Americans - there is no question an open border leads to more crime and violent crime. Not only due to the influx of illegal aliens, but drugs from cartels. If Democrats cared about the safety of American citizens, they would support Mr. Trump's border wall. They do not, so they don't.

The rest is nothing more than political bull hockey from Democrats who haven't recovered from the Hildabeast being defeated in 2016.

Just another attempt by the GOP to deflect blame. If it was such an emergency, why not pass it at the same time the deficit busting tax reform was passed? Well because true conservatives don't want a wall either. It's wasteful and useless. Facts are facts and trump and his bootlickers haven't grasped them. Majority of drugs are driven in, and more folks overstay from legal entry.

3-4 generations of Americans will pay for this useless wall, and many more will see it crumble or rust to the ground. In 2013 then President Obama asked for $3 billion, not $50 to help fast track deportations. It was resisted, by both parties.

"The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, authorized about 700 miles of fencing along certain stretches of land between the border of the United States and Mexico.

The act also authorized the use of more vehicle barriers, checkpoints and lighting to curb illegal immigration, and the use of advanced technology such as satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles.

At the time the act was being considered, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer were all members of the Senate. (Schumer of New York is now the Senate majority leader.)

Obama, Clinton, Schumer and 23 other Democratic senators voted in favor of the act when it passed in the Senate by a vote of 80 to 19.

Originally, the act called on the Department of Homeland Security to install at least two layers of reinforced fencing along some stretches of the border. That was amended later, however, through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, which got rid of the double-layer requirement.

Currently, 702 miles of fencing separates the United States from Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

COMPROMISE!

I can see that I have disturbed the local tentacle of the liberal hivemind with my simple words. I understand that our Democrat Maoists would prefer an enhanced surveillance state—including the attendant costs—to a simple wall between ourselves and the cartel Alaric "Primos" to the south who, perhaps rightly, increasingly see our nation as a laughable target full of rewards ripe for the picking.

For those of us who have thus far enjoyed civic nationalism, rule of law, and the attendant peace and prosperity that these have earned this country, this is unfortunate, but it is, after all, the nature of all things to change. Apparently a wall is impossible because criminal organizations in Mexico learned to dig tunnels. Like bugs bunny.

Take that to heart, American Hispanos. Neither nukes nor armies nor satellite surveillance systems nor the ability to visit distant planets can stop a determined Mexican with a shovel and criminal intent. When they try to convict you, have your lawyer argue that you should be housed in an open field. Walls won't work. Just look at El Chapo...

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