With federal government shutdown looming, what would happen to Maryland's park sites?

Editor's note: This article has been updated at 2:50 pm on Sept. 29, 2023 to reflect the afternoon virtual press conference held by Maryland's U.S. Senators.

Nowhere in Maryland could the contrast between the federal and state governments be more stark than on the Eastern Shore. Assateague Island has a large area run by the National Parks Service, which is preparing for government shutdown, and the 2 miles of state-run beaches that are scheduled to remain open.

“We’ll be open like normal,” said an Assateague State Park employee, reached by phone Friday morning.

Earlier Friday, the National Park Service, which oversees 48,000 acres of Assateague Island National Seashore, released a contingency plan in the event that federal government funding lapses at 11:59 pm on Saturday.

“In the event of a lapse in annual government appropriations, National Park Service (NPS) sites will be closed,” said a Sept. 29 news release from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the agency. The release said at sites across the country, gates “will be locked” and “visitor centers will be closed,” noting also that “thousands of park rangers will be furloughed.”

Maryland has 18 National Parks visited by nearly six million people annually, according to the National Park Service website. The sites range from Baltimore’s Fort McHenry (the defense of which led to the national anthem) to Washington County’s Antietam National Battlefield (a Civil War site of the “Bloodiest Day in American History”) and Frederick County’s Catoctin Mountain Park (in which the presidential retreat at Camp David is located).

Four of top 10 employers in Maryland last year were federal entities

The closure of parks may be the least of many Marylanders worries, however, were the federal government not to reach an agreement to fund operations.

In a virtual news conference Friday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, cited the hardships on federal government contractors who would not receive funds during a shutdown.

The state’s junior U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, also a Democrat, cited those who provide janitorial and cafeteria services to federal agencies as individuals who may have the most to lose during a shutdown.

“Our federal government employees will be, ultimately, reimbursed,” said Van Hollen, during the afternoon press conference held on Zoom.

However, the contract service employees, he said, would not “have the comfort of knowing that at the end of the day, there will be back pay for them.”

(Both Cardin and Van Hollen are sponsors of legislation, introduced this week, to provide back pay for federal contract workers.)

According to a release from the office of the state comptroller, one in nine individual income tax filers in Tax Year 2021 were either federal workers or retirees. These individuals accounted for more than 10% of all income earned in Maryland, the release said.

“Maryland is so heavily dependent on federal jobs,” said state Del. Chris Adams, R-Wicomico, during a Sept. 27 interview at the annual J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake in Crisfield. Four of the state’s top 10 largest employers in 2022 were federal government entities.

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What impact will the shutdown have on the state's economy?

Adams, a member of the House Economic Matters Committee, noted the “negative effect” a federal government shutdown could have on the state’s economy.

The state’s governor, Democrat Wes Moore, also in attendance at the Eastern Shore event Wednesday, said to a group of reporters that the state’s cabinet secretaries have been meeting for the last three weeks to prepare in the event that funding lapses at the federal level.

“We hope that this can be avoided,” he said. “To the people of Maryland, I would just simply say that your government is prepared.”

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Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: How would federal government shutdown affect Maryland’s parks?