Becky Harlan / WAMU/DCist
The deadline for Congress to prevent a government shutdown is imminent; the fractious, divided House of Representatives has until the end of the month to approve the funding needed to keep the federal government open.
If negotiations fail and the government runs out of money, it’ll likely have dire consequences for the D.C. region, which is home to hundreds of thousands of federal workers, contractors, and military service members.
In the past, shutdowns have touched nearly all aspects of life locally. They’ve forced D.C.-area governments to allocate precious resources to help furloughed employees, strained food banks and other parts of the social safety net, added to mental health burdens on local workers, and tanked sales at retail businesses and restaurants.
Some members of the region’s congressional delegation are beginning to raise that alarm.
“Previous shutdowns have historically hurt the finances and the job security of families across the Commonwealth, especially in Northern Virginia,” said Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, at an event with local leaders and business owners in Prince William County on Tuesday.
Spanberger highlighted the 172,000 Virginians who work for the federal government, and 130,000 military service members are stationed in the commonwealth — as well as countless more government contractors (in the last shutdown, about 375,000 contractors were affected, according to the Northern Virginia Chamber of...
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