AUGUSTA — Maine Gov. Paul LePage says that a short-term federal government shutdown will not directly impact state government or public assistance programs.
The Republican governor said in a statement on Tuesday that while some state government positions and programs are federally funded, they’ll continue as normal this week.
He says the shutdown won’t affect school funding, state-run public assistance programs or agencies like the environmental department. But he says that an extended shutdown could hurt some agencies.
LePage called the shutdown a “failure of leadership in Washington, D.C.”
The shutdown has caused the closing of Maine’s Acadia National Park during a popular tourist season. The head of the biggest union at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has also said that an estimated 2,000 workers were furloughed Tuesday.
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