We planned to send a celebratory email today, marking one year of publishing The 51st newsletter and announcing our goal to bring on 551 new members in October. But bringing you the news comes first.
With the federal government shutdown now in effect, we scrapped that plan and are sending you an explainer from 51st Senior Reporter Martin Austermuhle about how the shutdown impacts us locally.
For all of their quirks and faults, this morning the D.C. government and its 35,000 employees got to work teaching the city’s kids, picking up trash and recycling, patching potholes, and policing the streets.
The much larger federal government we share a city with, though, is a different story. Due to Congress’ inability to agree on an annual budget or any temporary fix, funding for the government’s agencies and employees dried up as of midnight, resulting in the first federal shutdown since 2018. That means offices are closed and most federal workers are staying home and not getting paid.
If you’ve lived through any of these, you know there’s nothing academic about them. Shutdowns have local impacts, from mere annoyances like popular museums closing to more profound pains for federal workers and contractors who suddenly face financial uncertainty. And those are only going to be compounded this year, when the federal workforce – and the Washington region as a whole – has already taken big hits from the Trump administration’s government-slashing plans.
Politico and NBC have great rundowns of the broader impacts to federal services, but we've answered questions about the D.C.-specific impacts of the federal shutdown.
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