Seward County residents may not feel a big impact from the shut down of federal offices as part of the budget stalemate in Washington, D.C.
But people are watching what may happen if it continues too long.
For Seward County Highway Superintendent Jon Regnier, the current shutdown related to the country’s budget is not as harmful as the cut in anticipated grants for road and infrastructure projects earlier this year.
In April, the U.S. Senate’s stopgap funding bill was passed to halt a federal shutdown at that time included the deletion of project “earmarks” under the Congressionally Directed Spending requests that included more than $8.5 million the county, city of Milford and villages of Staplehurst and Malcolm had been counting on for road and infrastructure projects.
But the current shutdown and budget actions have not had that kind of impact.
Yet.
Seward School Superintendent Josh Fields said federal funding for some school programs could be affected depending upon how long the shutdown lasts. The federal funding that comes to area schools is first appropriated to the state, which administers program funding to local districts.
School districts have heard that there is less funding for education, but have not yet seen how that will affect them in the future.
“That is the question,” Fields said.
Seward County District Court Clerk Sheila Lueders said she has not yet seen any changes due to the shutdown. Her office continues to process passport applications as normal.
Seward County Aging Services Program Manager Alison Rook also said she has not heard of people impacted by the federal shutdown.
”Unfortunately, this could change the longer the shutdown lasts,” she said.
