What a Federal Government Shutdown Could Mean for Coloradans
By Vanessa Martinez
Created 2011-04-07 11:00

By: Vanessa Martinez [1]

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What a Federal Government Shutdown Could Mean for Coloradans

While there may be a few indications that the federal government doesn't truly want to stop serving the American public (Politico [2]), the nation's agencies are nevertheless making "contingency plans"--just in case (New York Times [3]).

Locally, anyone with an itinerary that includes national parks, monuments, historic sites, recreation areas, and the like might want to prepare a Plan B (The Spot [4]). Although the Crystal Fire is anticipated to be fully contained by Friday [5], the U.S. Forest Service is wondering how a shutdown could impact its role in fighting the blaze outside Fort Collins (Coloradoan [6]), and employees of the Public Documents Distribution Center are bracing for furloughs (Pueblo Chieftain [7]).

In all, more than 53,000 Colorado federal workers could be affected, and the state's elected officials in Washington are getting an earful (Denver Post [8]). Among them, freshman Republican Congressman Scott Tipton, who represents the state's 3rd District, faces especially tough decisions given his "diverse constituency" (Post [9]). And fellow Republican Doug Lamborn wants to guarantee active-duty troops are paid if a shutdown does indeed occur (Gazette [10]).

Source URL: http://www.5280.com/blogs/2011/04/07/what-federal-government-shutdown-could-mean-coloradans

Links:
[1] http://www.5280.com/tag/authors/vanessa-martinez
[2] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52706.html
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/us/politics/07shutdown.html?ref=us#
[4] http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2011/04/06/beltway-blog-colorado-national-parks-brace-to-turn-thousands-of-people-away-in-event-of-government-shutdown/27093/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-opinion-blogs-notes+%28Denver+Post%3A+Politics%3A+Blogs%3A+The+Spot%29
[5] http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110406/UPDATES01/110406025/1002/rss
[6] http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110406/UPDATES01/110406016/1002/rss
[7] http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/document-center-workers-would-face-furloughs/article_259d8ef0-60d0-11e0-a650-001cc4c002e0.html
[8] http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_17789435?source=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-politics+%28Denver+Post%3A+Politics%3A+All+Political+News%29
[9] http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_17789245?source=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-politics+%28Denver+Post%3A+Politics%3A+All+Political+News%29
[10] http://coloradopolitics.freedomblogging.com/2011/04/06/colorado-republicans-push-for-continued-military-pay/