As the government shuts down, here’s how Californians will see the impact
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal workers could face furloughs or work without pay amid shutdown delays.
- Key services like Social Security support and VA assistance may be disrupted.
- Programs like CalFresh risk funding issues if shutdown exceeds 30-day threshold.
Thousands of federal workers could get laid off, and those staying on the job could do so without being paid until a shutdown ends.
Trying to get help with taxes, Social Security benefits and other government services could be difficult if not impossible. Visitors could be ushered out of national parks quickly.
Get ready to experience the partial federal government shutdown, which began Wednesday. It promises to be unlike any other.
Shutdowns have become almost routine since they became part of Washington’s political process in the late 1970s. But traditionally the federal budget office put out detailed plans for how things would work.
Not this time. White House officials are threatening mass layoffs and largely being vague about their plans. Go to the budget office’s website and you’ll be referred to specific agencies, where some detail their plans and some don’t.
The bigger impact comes if the shutdown lingers. During past closings, workers sometimes protested working without pay by calling in sick or using slowdown tactics. They are due back pay under a 2019 law.
About 14,200 federal employees work in the Sacramento, Roseville and Folsom area, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Also uncertain is whether some programs will run out of the money that can sustain them during a shutdown’s early days. During the first Trump administration, the shutdown lasted 35 days.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is called CalFresh in California, can generally continue providing food aid for 30 days after a shutdown.
“A prolonged government shutdown would bring uncertainty for over 5 million California families receiving CalFresh benefits. Our team is actively monitoring, given the potential impact on California families in need,” said Kellie Longo Flores, vice president, policy and advocacy, California Association of Food Banks.
Here’s a look at the potential impact on different programs:
Social Security and Medicare
While Social Security payments will continue to California’s 6.4 million beneficiaries, getting someone to help with an application or a problem may be difficult. Ditto Medicare and Medi-Cal.
“Customer service at the Social Security Administration may be disrupted, including benefit verifications, earnings record corrections and updates, overpayments processing, and replacing Medicare cards,” said Max Richter, president and CEO of the nonpartisan National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare.
The level of disruption, he said, “will depend on how many SSA employees the Trump administration deems essential and nonessential.”
Veterans
While benefits will continue to be paid, the Department of Veterans Affairs will curtail several services.
Benefits regional offices will be closed. Call centers on the VA’s GI Bill and National Cemetery Applicant Assistance hotlines will be closed.
At VA cemeteries, no grounds maintenance or placement of permanent headstones will take place, and applications for pre-needs burial at those cemeteries will not be processed.
All communication via social media, VetResources emails and the media will stop.
Education
Student aid programs will continue, including Pell Grants, which are awarded to undergraduate students with financial needs, and Title I, which provides aid to schools, usually where there are concentrations of lower-income families.
Most department grants were made during the summer, and the department said “the impacts on schools and students should be minimal.”
However, the department said its civil rights office “would pause its review and investigations of civil rights complaints.”
And, it said, the agency’s “ development and implementation of guidance, technical assistance, and regulatory actions would also pause during a lapse, unless required for otherwise funded activities.”
About 10% of the Sacramento City Unified School District’s funding comes from the federal government, said spokesperson Brian Heap, “so the potential government shutdown is a concern and something we are monitoring closely. However, right now there are too many variables to know just how impactful it will be.”
Liz Sanders, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education, said in a statement that the agency did “not anticipate any immediate disruption to state-level operations. We continue to encourage all students, educators, and school staff to remain focused on the important work of educating our young people, despite the continually disruptive and distracting actions of the Trump administration.”
National Parks
No new contingency plan has been announced, but last year the Park Service said that generally its sites would be closed during a shutdown.
It planned to implement the closures in two phases taking four days. First would involve notifying the public and winding down operations “to essential activities only.”
The second phase would take a day and a half. This would include “the complete shutdown of all concession facilities and commercial visitor services.”
Overnight visitors would be given two days to make other arrangements and leave the park.
California is home to several national parks, including Lassen Volcanic near Redding.
Environmental Protection Agency
It remains unclear which parts of the agency will be affected by the government shutdown.
“By all accounts, people inside EPA have no idea what is going on and are getting no information from leadership” ahead of the government shutdown, Stan Meiburg, a former acting deputy administrator who served at the EPA for 39 years, told The Sacramento Bee.
Meiburg noted the possibility that Superfund operations could continue during a shutdown, while describing the situation as “uncharted territory,” saying it is “hard to tell how many of the threats to RIF (reduction in force) employees of the government are just political speech and how many are real.”
Established under the Carter administration in 1980 and now largely funded through dedicated taxes reinstated by the Biden administration’s infrastructure law, the Superfund program is used for clearing up polluted land and handling environmental crises such as oil spills and natural disasters.
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, noted that, based on past shutdowns, the EPA will suspend inspections at the “most hazardous waste sites, as well as drinking water and chemical facilities.”
She also warned that efforts to address PFAS — often referred to as “forever chemicals” that are linked to potential health risks, including cancer — could face delays during the shutdown.
The federal Office of Management and Budget did not respond to The Bee’s request for clarification on which operations would be halted. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not comment on whether it had internal plans in place ahead of the potential shutdown.
Sacramento International Airport
When asked what the airport was doing to prepare for the potential shutdown, a spokesperson for the Sacramento International Airport in an email directed questions to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees air traffic controllers, and the Transportation Security Administration, which staffs security checkpoints.
The effects of the shutdown would be felt by those agencies. TSA and air controllers are expected to continue working through a shutdown, though without pay.
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 3:19 PM with the headline "As the government shuts down, here’s how Californians will see the impact."
.jpg)
