Partial government shutdown looms. Here’s how it could affect SC | The State

Thousands of South Carolina federal workers would not be affected under a partial shutdown of the federal government looming Thursday after President Donald Trump refused to sign a short-term bill to pay for parts of the government to operate.

But a shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Saturday could affect some of the state’s national parks and forests, including Congaree National Park.

Trump rejected a short-term funding bill Thursday that the U.S. Senate had passed that — with passage by the U.S. House — would have paid to operate parts of the government through Feb. 8. The Republican president rejected the Senate proposal because it did not include $5 billion for materials for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The president informed us that he will not sign the bill that came over from the Senate last (Wednesday) evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security,” said U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border.”

Unlike previous shutdowns, about 75 percent of the federal government already is funded under a spending bill that took effect Oct. 1.

That includes money for Fort Jackson in Columbia and Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter.

It also includes money for the S.C. National Guard, which could have been forced to send home 700 of its full-time technicians and about 350 civilian employees by a shutdown threatened earlier this year.

“If there is a government shutdown on Friday, our state and federal mission in the South Carolina Military Department would not be affected,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston Jr., the S.C. adjutant general. “Our employees, along with soldiers and airmen in the S.C. National Guard, would report to work or take leave as originally scheduled.”

Under a shutdown, mail also still would be delivered, and benefit payments — for Social Security and Medicare — would continue.

But a partial shutdown could hit dozens of agencies, including Homeland Security, and national parks and monuments. Other agencies affected would be the departments of Agriculture, State, Transportation and Justice.

Some workers at those agencies would be required to continue to work, including Transportation Security Administration workers screening fliers on their Christmas trips home and air-traffic controllers at airports. They would be paid when the shutdown ended.

What would happen at other federal agencies was less clear Thursday.

Congaree National Park, in Lower Richland, referred questions on a shutdown’s impact to the National Park Service, which said Thursday it would not “speculate on any possible changes in government operations.”

The U.S. House’s conservative Freedom Caucus said Thursday it is willing to shut down the government until money for a wall on the Mexico border is added to Congress’ spending bill.

“We need to sit up here as long as it takes,” U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-York, said Thursday. “Now is the time for us to have a backbone, finally.”