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What Is and Isn’t Affected by the Government Shutdown

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Here’s a look at what’s running and what’s not while Congress and President Trump negotiate over government funding.
This story is being updated throughout the shutdown. Updated Jan. 7.
If it continues through Saturday, the partial shutdown of the federal government will have lasted three full weeks, making it the longest such shutdown on record .
While some essential work, such as mail delivery and law enforcement, is still being performed, the shutdown has affected operations at nine departments, including Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, and several agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA.
Much work has ground to a halt and about 800,000 government workers are living without pay. Slightly more than half are still working, while the rest have been furloughed. Those who work will most likely be compensated later, but the workers who were sent home have no such expectation.
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Here’s a brief look at some of the government functions that have been affected by the shutdown, and some that haven’t.
Since the shutdown began, Transportation Security Administration workers, many of them responsible for screening passengers and baggage, have been calling out sick in increased numbers at airports across the country.
Last week, a federal official who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity said that the call-outs seemed to be a coordinated protest, but union officials said that many workers were most likely just looking for work elsewhere to cover for missed wages. A T. S. A. spokesman downplayed the disruption.
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Many national parks are closed to visitors. And while some remain open with limited staffing or are open thanks to help from states, the National Park Service has warned that “access may change without notice.”
Joshua Tree National Park, for example, remained open after the shutdown, but closed last week because officials could not clean bathrooms fast enough and visitors were damaging the park.
Limited staffing has also raised concerns about visitor safety. In Yosemite National Park, a man died on Christmas Day after falling into a river, but his death went unreported for days because of shutdown-related delays, according to Outside Magazine.
Museums have been affected, too. The National Gallery of Art, all 19 Smithsonian museums, and the National Zoo were closed last week because of the shutdown. (“Essential personnel” remain on hand at the zoo to care for the animals.

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