City Services Unaffected by Government Shutdown

The United States' first federal government shut down in 17 years has been in effect since after midnight Monday, after Congress failed to agree on a budget for the 2013 fiscal year.

As federal workers are being forced off the job, some concerned San Angelo citizens have begun asking how the shutdown is going to affect the services of the city.

According to City Information Officer Anthony Wilson, no city operations are currently being impacted, however should that change, public notice will be given.

Wilson stated per email that the majority of citizen’s calls pertained to the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and reassured that the WIC offices are operating as usual on their 7 a.m. – noon, and 1 p.m. – 6 p.m. schedule, Monday through Thursday.

Other city operations, such as San Angelo Regional Airport and federally funded programs such as the Neighborhood and Family Services Department are also currently fully operational.

So far, circa 800,000 federal employees have been impacted by the government's partial shutdown. Currently, estimates of the shutdown's duration extend from a couple of days to several weeks.

The shutdown follows a round of bickering about the budget between the Republican-dominated House and the Democrat-dominated Senate, in which Obamacare was used as a bargaining chip. 

While the House would like to see Obamacare defunded or otherwise disembowled, the Senate is basically unwilling to negotiate (the health care law isn't related to the government's budget), and thus a standstill has occurred.

The outcome will be dependent on both parties cooperating, and in the meantime, the economic impact of the shutdown is racking up millions of dollars.