SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and City Manager Erik Walsh said they do not expect any immediate effects on city services that rely on federal funding during the government shutdown.
In a news conference on Wednesday, Walsh said the city’s FY 2026 budget includes more than $150 million in federal funding for programs such as Head Start, airport grants, and police department grants. These federal grants operate on a reimbursement basis, meaning local programs can continue.
In the short term, the shutdown has no immediate financial impact on city operations or infrastructure programs, Walsh said.
The city can sustain these programs for now, Walsh said, but if the shutdown extends beyond two to three months, the city will have to “monitor” the situation.
“I think we’re just gonna have to monitor it. I can’t guess what may or may not happen over the next three months in Washington, D.C., and we’ll continue to monitor that and then keep the mayor and the council updated on any potential impacts as they develop,” he said. “I suspect it’ll be something that we’ll report on regularly to the mayor and council.”
Coordination efforts are ongoing at the airport, where city officials are working with TSA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the FAA to maintain uninterrupted operations.
Other programs that receive federal funding are Metro Health, child care, airport runways, police training, and fire department programs. They will continue to operate without disruption, Walsh and Jones said.
The federal government shut down on Wednesday after Congress failed to reach an agreement on funding.
Roughly 750,000 federal workers were expected to be furloughed, with some potentially fired, according to the Associated Press.
While work at some government offices will continue and furloughed federal workers will continue to get paid, many offices will be shuttered — perhaps permanently, the AP reported.
About 38,000 federal workers are located between the San Antonio and New Braunfels area.
Jones said many federal employees are veterans, and the shutdown’s impact on them is a particular concern given existing cuts to veteran services.
“Obviously, the severity of the impacts in our community will be directly related to how long this federal shutdown lasts,” Jones said. “Hopefully, this is something that our federal leaders and delegations can quickly come to resolution on, given the American people, and certainly San Antonio, is relying on them to make sure that people are safe, people are healthy, and people are well served."
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