ANOKA, Minn. (Oct. 4, 2013) – The federal government officially shut down on Oct. 1. As Congress failed to pass a budget bill before entering the new fiscal year, all non-essential government services that cost money were forced to stop. Although a similar situation happened in Minnesota just a few years ago, this is the first time the federal government has been shut down since 1996.
The shutdown is having impacts across the country. More than 800,000 federal government employees have been furloughed and will remain off the job until a new budget bill is passed. Non-essential government services like national parks, new small business loans some food safety operations and the issuing of passports and social security cards will cease until the shutdown is resolved.
On a local level, Anoka County does not anticipate any immediate impacts from the shutdown, expressing that things will remain status-quo until informed otherwise. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more likely it becomes for the effects to grow and for programs like Head Start and WIC to run out of funding.
