Federal Shutdown Would Have Minimal Minn. Impact

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A temporary shutdown of the federal government would mean some closed federal offices and parks in Minnesota -- but the mail, jails and airports would be unaffected.

A shutdown could happen if Congress fails to reach agreement on a spending bill this week, although it's unclear how long that would last.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Peter Nowacki says the postal service is self-funded through postage and other operations, so thousands of postal workers in Minnesota would keep working.

But Raymond Morris with the Federal Executive Board of Minnesota says state's national parks and forests would close.

Morris says passport offices and offices of the Internal Revenue Service would likely be closed and scaled back to a skeleton crew of workers.

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