Shutdown: Illinois Impact

Shutdown: Illinois impact

Source: Office of Sen. Dick Durbin

Federal Employees

According to the latest statistics from the Office of Personnel Management, Illinois is home to more than 50,000 federal civilian employees.

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Small Business Administration.

For every day the government is shut down, approximately $2.4 million in small business lending in Illinois will not be made.

Department of Interior

The doors would shutter on historic Illinois sites like the Lincoln Home in Springfield and Reagan’s Boyhood Home in Dixon and residents interested in visiting the Shawnee National Forest would be turned away. Closure of the St. Louis Arch would likely impact nearby communities in Illinois.

IRS

Taxpayers submitting income tax returns through the mail would not immediately receive refunds, causing less disposable income to circulate in the economy.

Social Security Administration

Social Security checks would be sent to beneficiaries. However, field offices may be closed, so people could not sign up for new benefits or change their addresses.

Illinois National Guard

Units have cancelled out-of-state training events. They will drill Friday but will cancel training for Saturday and Sunday

In the event of a shutdown, state employees will report to work, federal technicians will not report to work, Soldiers in Active Guard Reserve or Active Duty Operational Support pay status will report to work.

Department of Education

The Department of Education works mainly through forward-funded grants, so there is unlikely to be a huge impact in Illinois from a short government shut-down.

Department of Energy

Federal employees working at regional DOE site offices would be furloughed.

Contractors were allowed to continue working, but no guarantee of payment is given.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors and emergency personnel would remain on the job for safety and security reasons.

Department of Health and Human Services

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): The Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) has enough funds to administer WIC through April 15th.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): DHS has funds to administer SNAP through end of April.

Department of Homeland Security

(Illinois Emergency) IEMA can continue critical emergency management functions for a 90 day period should there be a federal government shutdown.

Local emergency management personnel who receive their salary through the Emergency Management Performance Grant program will not be paid. The Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2011 funding for the EMPG has not been awarded to date so no local funding can be advanced.

Department of Transportation

Federal Transit Administration: Staff would be furloughed because they are paid from the General Fund. All activities and grants payments would be stopped. The shutdown could impact transit the hardest as “operating assistance” grants would stop.

Federal Railroad Administration: FRA employees would be furloughed, with the exception of safety inspectors who would continue to report to work.

Federal Aviation Administration: The FAA air traffic system would be in operation. However, because all Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants utilize the FTA system, AIP grants would be stopped.

Department of Veterans Affairs

The VA will continue to provide 100 percent of our health care services to enrolled Veterans through VA medical facilities across the country…. Veterans currently receiving VA benefits will continue to receive those payments on a timely basis and without interruption.

Environmental Protection Agency

Remediation activities at Superfund sites in Illinois would cease (unless the site poses an immediate danger to the surrounding environment). EPA would make efforts to secure the sites, but they would likely be unmanned.

Non-essential employees in EPA’s Region V office, located in Chicago, would be furloughed.