Shutdown’s Initial Impact Likely to Be Minor

Due to the weekend and federal holidays, the closing of government agencies and services won’t be fully felt until Wednesday. The partial government shutdown that began Saturday triggered furloughs for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, but was otherwise expected to have minimal initial impact as states plugged some funding gaps. The Trump administration is hopeful that the partial shutdown will be over by the time many of the affected employees return to work after Christmas, though it is preparing for it to last longer, a senior administration official said Saturday. Most federal government offices are closed on weekends, and Monday and Tuesday are federal holidays. Critical functions like border security, federal benefits and airport operations will continue, as will mail delivery.