Government Shutdown Scuppers Holiday Plans, Threatens to Delay Paychecks – Wall Street Journal

Alison Adams, a kindergarten teacher visiting Boston from Superior, Colo., said she is upset that the shutdown may affect the paycheck of her 18-year-old son, who is in the Coast Guard and is stationed in Massachusetts on his first assignment.

The Coast Guard said on its official blog that if the shutdown persisted beyond Dec. 28 paychecks could be delayed. The military branch’s funding is under the Department of Homeland Security, one of the agencies affected by the spending impasse.

“I’m very frustrated and disappointed—my beloved son is serving in the Coast Guard,” Ms. Adams said. “What does that say to the youth of our nation?”

The shutdown started early Saturday after Mr. Trump and House Republicans upended a bipartisan Senate agreement to fund the government until February. The president has indefinitely delayed his holiday trip to Florida as the White House negotiates with lawmakers over whether to allocate money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Capitol Hill, negotiations have essentially been at a standstill since Saturday, when both the House and Senate adjourned until Thursday.

About 380,000 employees would be forced to take unpaid leave, also known as furlough, while other workers, deemed essential employees, would work without pay. Departments affected by the shutdown include Justice, Homeland Security, State, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce and Interior.

The shutdown was expected to create inconvenience for visitors and put at potential risk cultural artifacts and other resources in the national parks, which have mostly remained open during the shutdown but with curtailed staffing and services.

In Massachusetts, the shutdown has closed some historic sites and frustrated tourists seeking the most basic of amenities, such as restrooms at a National Park Service visitors center at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” said JoJo Pitre, a dental-office manager from Gardner, Mass., who was visiting Boston with relatives who had traveled from Mississippi. “By now any politician on both sides of the line should be able to compromise.”

“We can’t even go to the friggin’ bathroom,” Ms. Pitre added, shaking her head. “My sister-in-law has to change her baby on a public bench.”

In St. Louis, tourists were turned away from the Gateway Arch as part of the shutdown of the National Park Service. In Springfield, Ill., tours of the home once owned by Abraham Lincoln have stopped. In Yosemite National Park, officials advised on a website that no restrooms or trash services would be available at campgrounds situated away from commercial concessions that remain open.

Hundreds of motorists in Colorado were forced to turn around over the weekend, after confronting road closures at road entrances to Rocky Mountain National Park despite the sanctuary’s official status as open.

During the first government shutdown of 2018 in January, problems included a pregnant elk being fatally shot by a poacher in Zion National Park, snowmobilers riding into restricted areas in Yellowstone National Park and infiltration of Gettysburg National Military Park by looters using metal detectors to seek Civil War relics, said nonprofit watchdog groups for the areas.

One of the groups criticized Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke—who this month announced his resignation effective Jan. 2 amid multiple ethics investigations—for again keeping the parks open during a shutdown. “Zinke should have learned from the last time he did this, when people were able to walk into our parks and break laws intended to protect our national treasures,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Denver-based Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement last week.

National Park Service officials said in a statement they have a contingency plan in place to protect important resources, such as by restricting access as needed around sensitive cultural areas. The plan calls for an area to be closed altogether if visitor access becomes too much of a threat.

“During the government shutdown, national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures,” park service spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in the statement. “Services that require staffing and maintenance will not be operating.”

Researchers at colleges and universities are bracing for disruption if the shutdown is protracted. Some government agencies fund academic research covered by appropriations bills that haven’t yet been signed into law.

These agencies, which include the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, won’t be able to cut checks for research grants. Funding for most research is dispersed over time.

“We know from past shutdowns that agencies won’t answer their phones or check their emails, and typically their websites go dark too,” Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, said in a statement on Friday. “That leaves agency-funded scientists, including many at public research universities, in a lurch.”

—Douglas Belkin in Chicago contributed to this article.

Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com and Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com