The federal government shut down Wednesday after Congress failed to authorize spending. Until lawmakers hash out a compromise, departments and agencies around the country are closed, including on the Kenai Peninsula.
Services the federal government deems essential can continue operating. Post offices and the Soldotna Veterans Affairs Clinic are running as normal.
But that isn’t the case for all of the peninsula’s federal workers. Calls to local federal offices went unanswered Thursday.
“Due to the lapse in appropriations, we are out of the office and not authorized to work during this time. We will respond to your message when we return to the office,” said the automated message for the Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office in Kenai and the U.S. Forest Service’s Seward Ranger District had similar phone messages.
Also closed are the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters in Soldotna, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife permitting office on Kalifornsky Beach Road and the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and Visitor Center in Homer.
During the shutdown, the National Park Service says parks will remain “as accessible as possible.” Access to trails at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge headquarters was unfettered on Wednesday aside from notices about ongoing trail work.
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development estimates Alaska is home to more than 15,000 federal employees. Of those, about 800 live in the Gulf Coast region, which includes the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and the Chugach and Copper River census areas.
Non-essential federal workers whose agencies are funded by congressional appropriations are furloughed until the shutdown ends. Essential workers are still required to report for work, but will not be paid. After past shutdowns, federal workers have received backpay for the duration of the shutdown. Though this time, President Donald Trump is threatening to use the shutdown to conduct mass layoffs.
The shutdown does not impact Social Security payments or federal retirement checks. The shutdown also does not impact nutrition programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC.
The longest-ever federal government shutdown lasted 34 days. Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Alaska Public Media the current shutdown could go on for a while due to a lack of incentives for resolution.
More information about how the federal shutdown may impact Alaskans is available from Alaska Public Media.
