W.Va. Federal Workers Among First Affected By Government Shutdown

The federal government shutdown that went into effect Wednesday has already affected thousands of people in West Virginia. 

A large portion of the state relies on Medicaid, Social Security, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. 

Those programs are expected to continue for now, along with postal services and Transportation Security Administration jobs like security screeners and air traffic controllers.  

Most federal workers, though, are furloughed without pay.     

There’s also a concentration of federal employees in the northern panhandle, where research labs and a large FBI facility are located. 

Sam Workman, director of WVU’s Institute for Policy Research, says personal spending cuts could impact those communities first. 

“Without subsidies and more outlays for health care, for food, for shelter, for these sorts of things, you’ll see a massive sort of redistribution in terms of how people spend their money,” Workman said. “It will definitely impact local spending.”

At the heart of the shutdown is a dispute between Republicans who campaigned on a promise to trim spending and Democrats, who want to extend federal healthcare subsidies.