The end of the 2023 fiscal year is rapidly approaching, and with it, the increasing possibility of a government shutdown as Congress remains at an impasse on a federal budget. If members of Congress cannot agree on the appropriation bills that fund federal agencies before 12:01 a.m. Sunday, many government operations will come to a halt.

If a deal isn’t approved before then, millions of federal employees will be furloughed until a budget agreement is reached and the shutdown ends. That number could include more than 7,500 civilian employees at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, and Schriever and Peterson Space Force bases.

Some of those workers would be deemed “essential” and will remain on the job, while others would be placed on leave for the duration of the shutdown. None would be paid during the impasse.

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The last federal budget freeze took place from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019 — the longest government shutdown in history.

The more than 37,000 active-duty service members at those installations will have received their semi-monthly paycheck before Sunday. But if a shutdown lasts longer than two weeks, those troops will be required to work without pay until the budget freeze ends.

In the event of a shutdown, federal employees will receive back pay after government operations resume. But if the suspension is prolonged, those retroactive payments might not come in time for the next rent or mortgage payment. Workers living paycheck to paycheck could have trouble feeding their families.

“There are families who are employed by the federal government who won’t have a financial cushion unless they planned for this event,” El Paso County spokeswoman Kristina Iodice said. “And who plans for a government shutdown?”

Bob McLaughlin, chief operating officer at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center, said his organization and others are prepared to help local families who are struggling.

“My sense is that the people who will be most affected by (a shutdown) would be the government employees,” said McLaughlin, whose organization specializes in assisting at-risk veterans. “If those people are in an immediate crisis, then the community will come together and say, ‘What can we do to help?’”

A government shutdown would temporarily suspend several federal assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP. This would affect about 74,600 El Paso County residents who were enrolled in SNAP as of August, according to Iodice.

“October food assistance will go out as it normally would during the month of October even if a shutdown happens,” Iodice said. “We don’t know what will happen beyond that.”

On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order to keep Colorado’s national parks and other federal lands open if a shutdown occurs.

“Colorado’s beautiful national parks belong to the American people and help support our local communities and economy,” the governor said in a statement. “The closure of the national parks and other federal lands would hurt state and local economies, small businesses, and park employees.”

Polis’ order directs the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to work on a plan to keep the state’s four national parks open, and to submit that plan to the governor’s office.

In the meantime, as the possibility of a shutdown grows more distinct with each passing day, Polis remains hopeful that calmer congressional heads will prevail before the budget deadline

“I urge the federal government to reach an agreement, and I am hopeful they will do so to avoid a shutdown,” Polis said.

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