How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The federal government shut down overnight, a development leading to questions about the impact on Lake County directly.
Just after 9 p.m. Tuesday night — and shortly after midnight Wednesday — Congressman Mike Thompson, who represents Lake County in the House of Representatives, reported, “The government has shut down and Republicans are on vacation.”
The shutdown followed failed attempts to get new spending bills through Congress, with the two major parties deadlocked.
“After Democrats flew back to Washington, D.C. this week to negotiate a bipartisan deal that funds the government and lowers your health care costs, Republicans refused to come to the table. Every American, regardless of party stripe, should be angry at Congressional Republicans’ manufactured crisis,” said Thompson.
“After kicking 15 million people off of their health coverage this summer, Congressional Republicans now want to pass a spending bill that increases premiums by 97 percent for Californians enrolled in Covered California plans,” Thompson added. “Our health care system is already broken. We should be working to increase access to affordable care, not raising prices on working people. I’ll continue to work to ensure we fund the government without ripping away your health care.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Thompson was among the leaders of a bipartisan coalition of 70 members of Congress who urged House and Senate leadership to extend telehealth coverage benefits so that all Medicare beneficiaries retain access to these services.
Without that extension by Tuesday, Thompson said seniors on Medicare will lose access to critical telehealth services.
So far, it’s unclear how the shutdown will directly impact Lake County.
Impacts are expected for the Mendocino National Forest and other federal agencies at work in the community.
Meanwhile, the Governor's Office listed 10 ways Californians may be impacted by the shutdown, including the potential for non-essential federal government employees to be furloughed, which could have a significant impact in a state that is home to more than 150,000 federal workers.
The other potential impacts on the state include cuts to schools, including education programs like Head Start that are at-risk of not being funded; mass firings such as those the White House is threatening; delays at Social Security; economic harm, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics expected to stop collecting critical data on the nation’s economy; no new flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program as the wet season is beginning; depletion of federal food assistance programs; possible delays in payments to to victims of natural disasters; and flight delays.
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