Tens of thousands of Colorado workers are in limbo as the latest partial shutdown of the federal government plays out in Washington, D.C., resulting in furloughs across the country.
About 54,300 federal employees work in Colorado, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. That doesn’t include nearly 38,000 active-duty military service members who are based in the state, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, and must continue serving without pay.
It’s not immediately clear how the tens of thousands of civilian workers are spread across the different federal agencies with presences in Colorado, including at the Federal Center in Lakewood, government labs and other sites. And not all the workers are furloughed, with significant exemptions in some agencies. Excepted employees, or those whose work includes protecting life and property, are expected to continue working, though they won’t be paid until the shutdown ends.
Other agencies, such as the U.S. Postal Service, have separate funding mechanisms that keep their work — and public services — operating apace.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, continues to provide veteran medical care and other critical services, according to its public contingency plan for the shutdown. That includes suicide prevention programs, homelessness programs, the veterans crisis line, and caregiver support, according to its website.
But other services to the public may be curtailed or halted during the shutdown.
The state’s labor department said Wednesday that many furloughed federal workers may be eligible for unemployment benefits, though they would have to pay back any money received once the shutdown ends and the government pays them retroactively.
Federal lands are open to public
Rocky Mountain National Park, a gem of the state and perhaps the most visible federal function in Colorado, remained open Wednesday despite the shutdown.
Nationwide guidance to the National Park Service indicated the nation’s beloved parks should remain as accessible as possible, despite concerns from conservationists that unsupervised access could result in damage to fragile ecosystems and park infrastructure, as happened at many sites during a 2018-2019 shutdown that lasted 35 days.
Rocky Mountain National Park remains open despite government shutdown
The millions of acres of public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will also remain open.
Thousands of employees from the three land management agencies will be furloughed, except those who work as law enforcement or emergency responders and in other roles necessary for the safety of human life or the protection of property, including firefighting. The NPS expected to furlough about two-thirds of employees nationally.
Forest Service employees working to implement the Trump administration’s expansion of logging, as well as BLM workers tasked with expanding oil and gas production under the administration’s guidance, can also be exempted from furloughs, according to the agencies’ shutdown contingency plans.
How Colorado’s senators voted
The latest shutdown stems from a fight in which most Democrats have refused to sign onto Republicans’ short-term continuing resolution as they take a stand over health care funding. Democrats are demanding that Congress reverse cuts made to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s signature tax and funding bill passed over the summer, as well as extend soon-to-expire tax credits for people who buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s marketplace, estimates 112,000 Coloradans would lose health care coverage if the federal subsidy isn’t renewed.
Federal Republicans have called Democrats’ proposals a nonstarter because of their more than $1 trillion price tag, leading to the impasse on federal spending as Republicans have sought to pass a short-term measure to fund the government through Nov. 21. Democrats, who are the minority in both chambers of Congress and out of power in the White House, largely united against it and blocked passage in the Senate, where there’s a 60-vote threshold.
Colorado’s delegation has voted on the funding measures along party lines, including nays lodged again Wednesday by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Democrats.
“Millions are about to lose their health care, and now President Trump wants to shut down the government too,” Hickenlooper said in a statement. “Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to lower costs and restore health care for millions of Americans.”
Republicans have criticized Democrats for trying to negotiate rather than passing a clean funding measure. U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans said in a statement Wednesday that Democrats “abandoned the American people, played political games and forced a shutdown.”
Trump has meanwhile promised to wield the shutdown like a cudgel.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them,” Trump said of Democrats. “Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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