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| Visitors to Independence National Historical Park are reflected in the window of the closed building housing the Liberty Bell, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, in Philadelphia. Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800, 000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services. |
PHILADELPHIA
(AP) -- Visitors arrived to find "CLOSED" signs at the Statue of
Liberty, the Smithsonian and other parks and historic sites across the
country. Callers looking for help from the government reached only
voicemail. And federal employees were left to wonder when they would
return to work.
The first government shutdown in 17 years took hold Tuesday in ways large and small.
About
800,000 federal employees were sent home - a number greater than the
combined U.S. workforces of Target, General Motors, Exxon and Google.
"After
next week, if we're not working, I'm going to have to find a job," said
Robert Turner, a building mechanic at the Smithsonian's American
History museum in the nation's capital. He was called in for part of the
day to take out the trash, turn off the water and help close up the
place.
The effects played out in a variety of
ways, from scaled-back operations at federal prosecutors' offices and
the FBI to revoked permits for dozens of weddings at historic sites in
Washington.
Campers and hikers at the Grand
Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone and other national parks were given two
days to pack up and leave, and new visitors were being turned away. St.
Louis' landmark 630-foot-high Gateway Arch was off-limits as well.
In
Philadelphia, Paul Skilling of Northern Ireland wanted to see the
Liberty Bell up close but had to settle for looking at the symbol of
democracy through glass. And he wasn't optimistic about the chances of
visiting any landmarks in Washington, the next stop on a weeks-long
visit.
"Politics is fantastic, isn't it?" he said ruefully.
In New York, tourists who had hoped to see the Statue of Liberty were instead offered an hour harbor cruise.
"There
has to be better ways to run the government than to get to a standstill
like this," said Cheryl Strahl, a disappointed visitor from Atascadero,
Calif. "Why take it out on the national parks?"
The
government closings did not stop the launch on Tuesday of the
enrollment period for the online insurance marketplaces established
under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul - the program at the
very heart of the dispute that produced the shutdown.
The
two federal employees in orbit around the Earth - NASA astronauts Karen
Nyberg and Michael Hopkins - carried on as usual aboard the
International Space Station, with essential employees at Mission Control
in Houston supporting the lab and its six inhabitants.
There were no TV or web updates, however, as most of NASA's workforce was furloughed.
Anglers
headed to the highly anticipated first day of the fall fishing season
on North Carolina's Outer Banks found they could not drive onto the
beach at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Dozens
of goats were taken off ivy-eating duty at Fort Hancock, a recreation
area in Sandy Hook, N.J. A KKK rally planned for the Gettysburg
battlefield in Pennsylvania this weekend was canceled.
Out
West, Thora Johannson and her sister wanted to spend one more night at a
campground at the Grand Canyon. But they packed up their things and
headed home Tuesday, Johannson to San Francisco and her sister to
Vancouver, Canada.
"It's a terrible thing to
hold the national parks hostage to bickering parties," Johannson said.
"This is really sad. People have been saving to come here. It's a
once-in-a-lifetime experience."
In Utah,
rafting outfitters were not allowed on major rivers, and the state's
five national parks closed during what is normally a busy time of year.
"We're
dealing with a broken system, a broken Congress," said John Wood,
president of Holiday River Expeditions. "They couldn't be doing more to
run me out of business."
In the nation's
capital, fountains were being turned off on the National Mall and the
National Zoo closed. Its beloved panda-cam went dark.
But
more than 125 veterans from Iowa and Mississippi walked past barricades
at the National World War II Memorial after members of Congress cut the
police tape and moved barriers for them.
The
IRS suspended audits for the duration of the shutdown, and call centers
were left unmanned. In St. Paul, Minn., the voicemail warned callers
they "should file and pay their taxes as normal."
The
12 million people who got six-month extensions must still file their
returns by Oct. 15. But the agency will not issue tax refunds until the
government resumes normal operations.
