Politics

Despite an averted shutdown, Maine still preparing for potential federal office closures next month

Maine Public | By Kevin Miller

Published October 5, 2023 at 5:34 PM EDT

This image from U.S. Senate video shows the vote total, 88-9, on a temporary funding bill in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. The threat of a federal government shutdown ended late Saturday, hours before a midnight deadline, as Congress approved a temporary funding bill to keep agencies open and sent the measure to President Joe Biden to sign.

A last-minute deal in Congress avoided a federal government shutdown over the weekend. But state officials are still preparing for the potential that federal offices could close next month.

Congress has walked to the edge of shutdown territory so many times in recent years that the state of Maine has developed a system for identifying potential impacts here. Kirsten Figueroa, commissioner of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, told lawmakers on Thursday that the state often doesn’t learn which federal offices, programs or grant-funded positions will be affected until right before a shutdown begins.

But Figueroa said they are already looking ahead to Nov. 17. That’s the deadline that Congress set last weekend when it kept government doors open for 45 more days in hopes of reaching a broader deal on spending.

“Although we still won’t know the final details until the last minute, we are continuing our review and analysis over the next 40 days,” Figueroa told members of the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. “It is true that each day that passes brings changes that we need to evaluate and consider so we will use this time, obviously, to review and analyze our options.”

The federal government has shut down twice in the past decade, first in 2013 and then again in 2018-19. In both cases, many federal offices closed and workers were sent home or forced to work without pay. While most federal employees were subsequently paid, that is not always the case with federally funded employees working in state agencies.

The ousting earlier this week of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has suspended all work in the House, raising concerns about whether Congress will be able to reach a new agreement before Nov. 17.

Figueroa told lawmakers that Maine could tap its strong cash reserves to temporarily cover the gap in federal funding for some programs without affecting state operations. And she said her office likely could manage a 30-day shutdown without requiring the Legislature to return to Augusta.