How The Government Shutdown Could Impact Charlotte Area

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – “We just don’t have much landing space before Monday,” says UNC Charlotte political science professor Eric Heberlig. He says government shutdown looks “very likely.” The impacts would be far ranging. Federal government employees will not get paid, and may still have to work. If you’re waiting for your passport, that may be delayed. If you want to visit a national park, you can’t.

Heberlig says a shutdown is a problem, but not one that’s likely to have a direct impact on most people in the Charlotte area. He says, “Our exposure is limited compared to other places, we don’t have a lot of defense bases or defense contractors for example.”

There are almost 43,000 federal civilian employees in North Carolina and about 21,000 in South Carolina, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. That represents 2.3 and 1.1 percent of each state’s population, respectively.

During the last shutdown, in 2018 over then-President Trump’s border wall funding, food pantries saw a new group of people in need. Dr. Melony Samuels is the CEO and founder of The Campaign Against Hunger in New York. She says, “All the government workers are going to come in; we had from the TSA, we had from the hospitals, we had so many families that were in need of food and 2018, 2019 that it just broke the safety net.”

The 2018 shutdown was the longest ever. TSA agents, air traffic controllers and other “essential workers” did their jobs without pay for 34 days. Alexis Maddox is a TSA Expert Transportation Security Officer. She says, “To not know when you’ll be able to feed your family or provide the next meal, or be able to provide education and childcare for your children if that is your situation is very frustrating.”

TSA employees in Charlotte, and elsewhere, will work during the shutdown. They’ll get paid when a spending bill eventually passes.