Pennsylvania services affected by federal shutdown

A potential federal government shutdown could affect Pennsylvanians in a variety of ways, including:

• Food stamps: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, should continue for weeks at minimum, even in the event of a shutdown. However, a special program for mothers and young children known as WIC could be affected much sooner.

• Food inspections: Food and Drug Administration inspections and other work of the U.S. Department of Agriculture would continue amid a shutdown, but others would be halted. This could impact mandatory furloughs for rural development offices, county agencies, and other services related to rural America.

• Schools: School districts should be OK amid a potential government shutdown, as most of their funding comes from state government and local taxes.

• National parks: The prospective shutdown would have some degree of impact on parks and recreation in Pennsylvania. Some national parks may remain open without staff to maintain them, while others may temporarily close entirely.

The commonwealth's state-run parks will be unaffected by a potential shutdown. In addition to the 19 federally managed national park service sites in Pennsylvania, there are 124 state-run parks. They comprise more than 300,000 acres.

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