Crow Wing County Services Continue Through Federal Government Shutdown

As of Saturday, the United States Federal Government has partially shut down due to failed negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders over the funding of President Trump’s border wall.

Though roughly 800,000 federal employees are affected by the shutdown, local governments and agencies have seen less of an impact. In Crow Wing County, many programs are funded by the federal government but do not close when the government shuts down. If the shutdown continues for a longer period of time, the county could be forced to shut down some programs and services.

“Essentially what we’re doing is we’re loaning the federal government the money until they pay us back for the services that we provide, and so we try very hard to insulate the people we serve. I think it’s kind of one thing if you’re sitting in Washington D.C. and you have a government shutdown and it impacts people far flung across the nation. For us, that is really eyeball to eyeball,” explained Tim Houle, Crow Wing County Administrator. “These are our friends, our neighbors, our relatives, and we try our darndest not to let them down.”

As of today, no agreement has been reached in Washington D.C., and it is feared that the shutdown could continue into 2019.