The partial government shutdown that started just after midnight Wednesday means an estimated 750,000 federal workers will be furloughed and many federal offices closed.
Employees deemed essential, including law enforcement, the military, air traffic controllers, and airport screeners with the Transportation Security Administration, are exempt from the shutdown.
At Cape Cod Gateway Airport in Hyannis, Airport Manager Mike Nelson said flights are operating as usual, but he believes TSA employees are working without pay.
“To my knowledge, the TSA employees are still working, and continuity of service has not been disrupted due to the government shutdown,” he said. “As I understand it, they are unpaid at this time.”
The Cape airport has about half a dozen TSA workers, he said. Its air traffic controllers are employed by a private contractor.
The first day of the shutdown, Oct. 1, was a federal payday. If the shutdown continues past the end of a two-week pay period — Oct. 15 — it’s likely that workers will not be paid on time.
As for other federal services, Social Security and SSI payments will continue uninterrupted, the Social Security Administration said on social media.
Social Security offices are providing limited in-person services. Allowed services include: help applying for benefits, help requesting an appeal, changing your address or direct deposit information, accepting a report of a death, verifying or changing citizenship status, and replacing a lost or missing Social Security payment.
The two National Park Service sites local to the Cape, Coast, and Islands region — the Cape Cod National Seashore and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park — are expected to see a reduction in services and possible closing of visitors’ centers.
The Cape Cod Times reported that the doors were locked Wednesday morning at the Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham. The public restrooms were open.
Repeated telephone calls to the New Bedford visitors’ center went unanswered on Thursday.
In response to questions from CAI, the National Park Service service said in an email that it would keep parks as accessible as possible during the shutdown.
“Critical functions that protect life, property, and public health will remain in place, including visitor access in many locations, law enforcement, and emergency response,” the Park Service public affairs office said.
Nonprofit organizations that interact with federal agencies could experience delays in work that involves those agencies, even if their government grants are not immediately affected.
Suzanne Pelisson, director of public relations at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the nonprofit research institution has sufficient funds to continue operating in the near term.
“However, the shutdown will disrupt some WHOI activities that depend on federal agency activity — such as ongoing scientific collaborations and administrative and logistical support,” she said in an email. “WHOI is adjusting our day-to-day operations to accommodate these disruptions.”
Most WHOI funding comes from government grants and contracts.
Paying back wages to the estimated 750,000 furloughed federal employees will cost roughly $400 million a day, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“The number of furloughed employees could vary by the day because some agencies might furlough more employees the longer a shutdown persists and others might recall some initially furloughed employees,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel said in a letter to U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican.
The National Park Service published a contingency plan detailing categories of employees working during the shutdown. They fall into two groups: “excepted” (such as law enforcement, who always work during a shutdown) and “exempted” (employees whose work does not depend on the current budget, such as those funded by multi-year appropriations).
