TAMPA, Fla — The clock is ticking, and Congress has until 11:59 p.m. Thursday to take action to prevent a potential partial government shutdown.
If they don't, agencies get stripped to the bone — doing only what's necessary.
Some federal agencies won't even open Friday and thousands of federal employees would be sent home or asked to work for free.
So what's the potential impact on Florida?
Federal government employees aren’t just in Washington — they’re all over the U.S., including 85,636 here in Florida, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
In most full government shutdowns, all non-essential employees are sent home without pay.
It’s up to the individual agencies to determine who’s essential so the exact numbers of those impacted are still unclear.
Among Florida’s largest federal employers is NASA, totaling 2,122 workers mostly at Cape Canaveral.
There are also places like Tampa’s MacDill Air Force base where previous shutdowns resulted in more than 1,500 civilian employees being sent home.
Other agencies including the Small Business Administration, EPA, and IRS all have offices here and would likely furlough employees.
And then there’s the National Parks Service.
The shutdown would likely close or partially impact Florida’s five National Parks and Preserves, two National Seashores and four National Monuments and Memorials including De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton.
That would leave a large percentage of Florida’s more than 600 National Parks Service employees furloughed without pay.