How would government shutdown affect NY? Here's what to know as federal deadline looms

The effects of a federal government shutdown could start to ripple across New York in numerous ways next week if no deal is reached in Congress by Saturday on a temporary budget extension.

Certain vital services and benefits would continue, such as Social Security checks for seniors, medical care for veterans and mail delivery. But other services would halt, tourist destinations may be shuttered, loans to farms and small businesses would stop, and tens of thousands of military service members and federal employees in New York could go without paychecks.

A shutdown appeared increasingly likely as of Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, the Democratic-led Senate advanced a measure with strong bipartisan support that would keep the government open and funded at current levels for six weeks while full-year spending bills are negotiated. The plan also includes additional funding for Ukraine's defense and disaster relief at home.

But the Republican-led House may snub the measure and has no similarly bipartisan alternative.

Some GOP hardliners demand steep cuts, flouting a budget deal their leaders reached with President Joe Biden and Congress passed in June. Some balk at further aid for Ukraine. Some refuse any stopgap solution at all. And many in the party want to add a border-security bill that Democrats oppose.

Here's how the impasse may affect New Yorkers if it continues past Saturday's deadline.

Closed tourist sites, furloughs, paychecks on hold

In the event of a shutdown, military service members stationed at West Point, Fort Drum and other sites around the state would continue working, but without paychecks. Civilian workers at those bases who are deemed essential also would work without pay, while the rest would be furloughed.

New York has nearly 42,000 active-duty and reserve military personnel, according to a state-by-state breakdown of a shutdown's impact by Democrats on the House Budget Committee. Almost 52,000 civilians work for the federal government in New York, the Congressional Research Service reported. That includes airport screeners who work for the Transportation Security Administration and would have to work without pay.

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The U.S. Military Academy at West Point said in a statement that it would continue its core mission while curtailing certain activities if its funding lapses, based on guidance from Washington.

"Our top priorities continue to be the preservation of classroom instruction, military training, and the overall safety and well-being of the Corps of Cadets," read the statement from West Point's public affairs office.

With no federal funding in place, tourists arriving at the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Franklin D. Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park and other national parks and historic sites would likely get turned away, and employees who staff those destinations would be furloughed.

During the last government shutdown, which began in December 2018 and last 34 days, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island remained open, but only because of a state-funded solution. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo arranged for New York to pay the federal employees of those two sites until the standoff in Washington ended.

A spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul didn't respond on Wednesday as to whether Hochul would try to do the same.

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Would student loan payments be suspended?

Student-loan repayments are set to resume in October after a three-year pause during the pandemic. But do borrowers get a reprieve in paying those debts if 90% of the Education Department's roughly 4,000 employees are furloughed?

No, they would not. But support services for borrowers could falter if the shutdown drags on, a White House spokeswoman said this week.

"We anticipate that key activities at Federal Student Aid will continue for a couple of weeks," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing on Monday. "But, however, if it is a prolonged shutdown lasting more than a few weeks, it could substantially disrupt the return-to-repayment effort and long-term servicing support for borrowers."

What about the WIC program?

Also in jeopardy, the White House warned this week, were regular payments that pregnant women and mothers use to buy milk, baby food and other healthy groceries, and that benefit roughly 418,000 women and children under age 5 in New York. Nationally, some 7 million people are enrolled in the Women, Infants, and Children program.

The New York Department of Health plans to continue issuing WIC payments in the event of a shutdown, but will reduce the amounts, department spokeswoman Danielle De Souza said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

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Breastfeeding mothers, for example, would receive $12 instead of $49. The payment for a child would drop from $25 to $10.

But those changes wouldn't happen immediately. The Department of Health already has added October's payments to the debit cards that WIC recipients use — "so there will be no delay in their ability to purchase the food items prescribed to them," De Souza said.

Pat Ryan: McCarthy caving to GOP extremists

Rep. Pat Ryan, the Ulster County Democrat representing part of the Hudson Valley, blames the predicament on extremists in the House Republican ranks and on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for repeatedly caving to their demands.

Appeasing them has been his only strategy, Ryan said in an interview on Wednesday.

"There's been nothing really on paper," Ryan said of the GOP budget plans. "It really is chaos, chaos, chaos."

He rebuked Republicans for spurning the bipartisan spending agreement in June that ended an earlier crisis, that time over raising the federal debt limit to avoid a catastrophic default.

"We dealt with this a few months ago," he said with exasperation. "The whole point was to prevent and avert the situation that we're in."

Ryan saw little hope in resolving the latest standoff as long as McCarthy continues "giving in to the chaos" — unless moderates in his party join with Democrats on a stopgap solution.

"We have to avert this," he said. "We have to call on folks to put the greater good first, to put the country first."

Mike Lawler: Only solution is compromise

Rep. Mike Lawler, the Rockland County Republican who represents a neighboring Hudson Valley district, said that with Democrats in control of the White House and Senate and his party leading the House, both parties must make concessions to avoid or end a shutdown.

"We're in a divided government, and I don't think there's any question that there has to be a bipartisan compromise," Lawler said in an interview on Wednesday.

His said his three priorities were avoiding a shutdown, reining in spending and dealing with the southern border crisis. But he was flexible on the path to short-term and long-term deals, saying that winning enough votes to pass legislation was what mattered.

"To me, ultimately, it's a question of what could get passed," he said.

Lawler supports additional funding for Ukraine's defense, though he agrees the U.S. should demand more accountability and transparency for how that aid is used. He had no firm position on whether to add that funding to a stopgap measure, as the Senate has proposed.

He said he worried about the economic damage of a shutdown and called it an "unnecessary predicament."

"I continue to push to avoid a shutdown," he said. "Nobody is going to benefit from this, least of all the American people."

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Government shutdown: Will NY see effects on services, workers?