Governing shuts down amid rancor

NEW YORK — From New York’s Liberty Island to Alaska’s Denali National Park, the U.S. government closed its doors as a bitter budget fight idled hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halted all but the most critical government services for the first time in nearly two decades.

A midnight deadline to avert a shutdown passed amid Congressional bickering, casting in doubt Americans’ ability to get government services ranging from federally backed home loans to supplemental food assistance for children and pregnant women.

For many employees of the federal government, the shutdown that began Tuesday meant no more paychecks as they were forced onto unpaid furloughs. For those still working, it meant delays in getting paid.

Park Ranger and father-to-be Darquez Smith said he already lives paycheck-to-paycheck while putting himself through college.

“I’ve got a lot on my plate right now — tuition, my daughter, bills,” said Smith, 23, a ranger at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Ohio. “I’m just confused and waiting just like everyone else.”

The impact of the shutdown was mixed — immediate and far-reaching for some, annoying but minimal for others.

In Colorado, where flooding killed eight people earlier this month, emergency funds to help rebuild homes and businesses continued to flow — but federal worker furloughs were expected to slow it down.

National Guard soldiers rebuilding washed-out roads would apparently be paid on time — along with the rest of the country’s active-duty personnel — under a bill passed hours before the shutdown. Existing Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans’ services and mail delivery were also unaffected.

Other agencies were harder hit — nearly 3,000 Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors were furloughed along with most of the National Transportation Safety Board’s employees, including accident investigators who respond to air crashes, train collisions, pipeline explosions and other accidents.

Almost all of NASA shut down, except for Mission Control in Houston, and national parks closed along with the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo. Even the zoo’s popular panda cam went dark, shut off for the first time since a cub was born there Aug. 23.

The shutdown was strangely captivating to Marlena Knight, an Australian native visiting Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. She was confounded that the impasse focused on the nation’s health care system — an indispensable service in her home country.

“We can’t imagine not having a national health system,” she said. “I just can’t believe that this country can shut down over something like a national health system.”