The Washington Post’s Kimberly Kindy, Lisa Rein and Joel Achenbach: “As the partial government shutdown enters Day 14, its effects are starting to cascade far beyond the hulking agency buildings in Washington. Private companies with federal contracts are coping with chaos, confusion and uncertainty, while businesses large and small that rely on the operations of the vast federal bureaucracy are starting to feel sand in their gears.”
Economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics tells the Post that the shutdown could have significant effects on the housing market and other areas of the economy if it drags on for months. “If it extends into the spring, it’ll start to do real damage and have real impact, because it probably signifies other things are going off the rails — the acrimony in Washington is run amok,” he said.
Axios’s Mike Allen rounded up this list of ways the shutdown will get worse the longer it goes on:
- Federal immigration courts, which will have to pick and choose which cases to handle, pushing some years down the road. [NYT]
- The Interior Department, which can't pay out treaty rights obligations to Native American tribes.
- The IRS, which won't pay out refunds or answer questions on taxes, even as tax season begins. [CNN]
- The Securities and Exchange Commission, which is shut down while unicorn startups like Uber and Lyft prepare IPOs. [WashPost]
Housing and Urban Development: "Public housing officials say they don’t know how long rental assistance payments will keep coming ... a suspension could put millions of tenants at risk if the shutdown drags on into February." [NBC]
