Government shutdown could hit Fargo’s VA and transportation agencies
By Isak Dinesen, Forum Communications/WDAY TV
FARGO — With the threat of another government shutdown looming, experts say its impacts could reach local services in the Fargo-Moorhead area, including those for veterans and transportation agencies.
The last shutdown occurred in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first administration and lasted more than a month, the longest in U.S. history. That shutdown was triggered by a dispute over border wall funding.
While the circumstances are different this time, Concordia College political science professor Nicholas Howard said the central issue is more complex.
“Health care is a lot more complex to communicate. There’s a lot more moving parts,” Howard said. “Funding for health care, especially rural hospitals, is a big question, and all of that is underneath for this shutdown fight that we’re seeing now, so in a lot of ways, it’s a more complex fight than the ones we’ve seen recently.”
Historically, the most direct impacts have come through furloughs of federal employees. Howard said the longer a shutdown drags on, the more furloughs occur.
“If we start seeing it go through the weekend, we’re going to start seeing more and more furloughs for employees of government agencies, and there are several of them in the Fargo-Moorhead area,” he said.
Howard noted that constituent-facing services such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists at Department of Veteran Affairs' hospitals are often prioritized, while administrative staff are more likely to be furloughed.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 59% of its employees would be furloughed under a shutdown, compared with less than 1% of the Transportation Security Administration’s workforce.
Howard said the best indication of whether a resolution may be near is to watch how often congressional leaders meet to negotiate.
“Even if the meetings don’t go well, that type of communication tends to be what resolves these and what gets us to the new budget, the new continuing resolution,” he said.