Local effects of a government shutdown: More will stay open than you might think

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The nearly 1,300 employees of the federal government in Yakima County were due to get notices Thursday informing them whether they are "essential" and therefore spared a furlough, or nonessential and thus fated to limbo without pay in the event of a shutdown tonight.

Despite all the unpredictability over whether the government will indeed stop functioning, this much was certain: Most federal officials in Yakima followed strict orders from superiors not to talk to the media about the predicament.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, sent an email Wednesday to stations across the country asking them not to field their own media inquiries, instead directing them to Washington, D.C., public relations offices.

But a check with various agencies with a presence in Yakima shows that while some federal government functions would stop, many would not.

Here's a sampling:

Social Security payments wouldn't stop because it's a mandatory spending program. However, if Social Security Administration employees don't go to work, payments could be delayed and recipients would have nowhere to turn with their questions and complaints.

The agency kept a few thousand employees on during the mid-1990s shutdown though it furloughed tens of thousands and struggled to keep up with questions and requests.

Clients at the Social Security Administration office on Fruitvale Boulevard in Yakima had reactions ranging from shrugs to stress.

"I live check-to-check," said Yakima's Sarah O'Shea, 40, a former landscaping and construction employee who suffers from a variety of disabilities.

Richard Rowland, 65, of Yakima said Social Security makes up only part of his budget, which he supplements with investments. The former orchardist also suspects government won't truly shut down. "A huge scare tactic," he called it.

Rowland said, however, that entitlement spending will decrease in the future and people -- including him -- will have to pay more of their own way.

"It can't go on forever," he said.

Those expecting a tax refund might not be so obliging. While the Internal Revenue Service would continue electronic tax-return processing, work on paper returns would be suspended.

For the 2009 tax year, the last full year for which data are available, about 69 percent of individual income tax returns were filed electronically, according to the IRS.

Federal district courts, including branches in Yakima and the Tri-Cities, expect to maintain normal hours and services for two weeks after any shutdown. After that, judges would make criminal cases their priority, although discussion continues as to whether necessary staff members would be paid or unpaid, said James Larsen, the Spokane-based chief clerk for the Eastern Washington courts and president of the Federal Court Clerks Association.

"We're still formulating our policies as we speak," Larsen said Thursday. "Everybody's keeping our fingers crossed that we don't have to move into that shutdown mode."

For users of federal parks and recreation areas, the picture is less than clear.

Parks, roads, trails and public rest rooms in the Yakima River basin operated by the Bureau of Land Management -- namely the Yakima River Canyon -- would remain open for the most part, said BLM spokeswoman Molly Cobbs in Spokane.

"We don't have any intention of closing these (park) gates," she said.

Permitted activities such as river guiding would continue as long as BLM staff aren't required, she said. However, any park areas that depend on BLM staff, such as visitor centers, would be closed.

Similarly, National Forest recreation sites that require an employee would be closed.

For agriculture, a shutdown would be a mixed bag.

It would be business as usual for the operation of storage dams, power plants and delivery of irrigation water in the Yakima Irrigation Project, according to officials of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Venetia Gempler, public affairs officer for the Pacific Northwest Region in Boise, Idaho, said staffing to support those services also will remain on the job.

She said the federal agency plans to post a contingency plan on its website for operating during a shutdown.

The bureau operates the storage and delivery system that serves the 460,000-acre project. Some 200 people work in the Cascades-Columbia Area Office for the Bureau of Reclamation in Yakima.

Elsewhere, the bureau-operated Grand Coulee Dam will not be affected because its operations are funded by sale of power produced at the huge dam.

An official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an email that the following services would continue:

* meat, poultry and egg inspection;

* grain and other commodity inspection, weighing and grading funded by user fees;

* import and export inspections and forest service law enforcement and fire suppression;

* and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program through June and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through May.

The following USDA services would close:

* farm loans and payments, conservation technical and financial assistance;

* new rural development loans and grants, export credit and trade development and monitoring;

* packer and stockyard investigations into fraud and anti-competitive practices;

* plant and animal pest control assistance;

* research facilities except for care of animals and plants;

* and management and administration.

The Department has Agricultural Research Service laboratories in Prosser and Wapato. Employees at both declined to comment.

The Prosser facility, co-located with Washington State University's Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, has 37 employees listed on its website. Wapato's center has 45.

For some, the possible shutdown should underscores the value of self-sufficiency.

"People in the U.S. need to start depending on themselves," said Pete Ortega Sr., 61, of Sunnyside.

* Material from Bloomberg News was included in this report.