Shutdown hits millions

As closure drags on, more and more feel effects

Mike Yohannes has run a food stand in downtown Washington, D.C., for the past 20 years, surviving economic downturns while selling hot dogs, candy bars and an assortment of other edible items. ❚ But the latest government shutdown could be the death knell for his business.

Foot traffic is markedly down at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 11th Street where he operates, and Yohannes said sales have fallen about 60 percent during the closure, which has affected nearby federal offices, museums and other tourist spots.

“Business is very, very bad,” said Johannes, adding that he pays about $525 in license and other fees every three months, besides food costs. “If it continues like this another two, three months, I’m looking at another job.”

While President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders haggle over his demand for $5.7 billion to fund the construction of a southern border wall – both sides

“January is normally a slow month, but with the shutdown it’s double. We’re struggling to hold onto our employees.” Mary Alvarez Nordstrom Rack manager

went on national TV to argue their case Tuesday night – millions of Americans increasingly feel the impact of the impasse.

The effects are especially detrimental to the folks in the area around Yohannes’ stand, where merchants have been hammered by the partial shutdown.

Within a few blocks are the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service and the Commerce and Justice Departments, which have furloughed tens of thousands of federal employees or required many to work without pay.

At Nordstrom Rack on E Street, 10 or more customers are typically lined up at the checkout register around midday as federal workers stop in during their lunch hour. There was no line Tuesday, and manager Mary Alvarez said a drop in sales of roughly 25 percent during the closure forced the layoff of five or six workers.

“January is normally a slow month, but with the shutdown, it’s double,” Alvarez said. “We’re struggling to hold onto our employees.”

Outside the nation’s capital, the shutdown’s most obvious impact has come in the form of trash pileups and overflowing toilets at national parks, where bathrooms have been closed and garbage is not getting picked up.

Tuesday, Joshua Tree National Park in California said it would close down Thursday morning to address maintenance issues.

Security lines are getting longer at airports hampered by record numbers of Transportation Security Administration employees calling in sick.

Averting a massive outcry, the Trump administration announced Monday that the IRS would issue tax refunds even if the shutdown lasts into the filing season, which begins Jan. 28 this year.

Federal employees are scheduled to begin missing paychecks this week. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said of the closure, “In another context, we would call that an act of kidnapping or terrorism. … This is devastating to morale and devastating to efficiency.”

Other residents throughout the country are also feeling the impact in a number of ways, with the departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Transportation, Justice, Interior, State, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development temporarily closing their doors.

❚ Accidents such as last week’s horrific crash in Florida that killed seven people – five of them children on the way to Disney World – are not being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, whose employees are mostly on furlough.

❚ The U.S. Department of Agriculture will delay the release of crucial crop reports that investors and farmers rely on to get a sense for how the agricultural market will look in the coming season.

The USDA runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and there was concern the benefit commonly known as food stamps would be affected by the shutdown, but the agency announced Tuesday that the 44 million recipients could count on them at least through February.

❚ The courts that review the cases of undocumented immigrants will see their backlog increase because more than 300 judges have been furloughed. Current cases of detained immigrants will continue as scheduled, but future ones will be delayed, possibly for years.

❚ While access to national parks is curtailed, dozens of weddings planned for those sites had to be relocated or rescheduled.

MATT ROURKE/AP Jenn Hallam demonstrates against the partial government shutdown Tuesday on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

ERIK S. LESSER/EPA-EFE Asa Hazelwood, 3, pauses at the gates to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, which is closed by the shutdown.

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES The White House is seen in the background as people bike past trash on the National Mall. President Donald Trump says it “could be a long time” before the impasse ends.