Federal shutdown: NY expects little impact; Cuomo calls it "a failure of government"

ALBANY - New York doesn't expect a major impact on services if the federal government shuts down at midnight, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday afternoon.

Congressional leaders and President Donald Trump were trying to avert a shutdown and keep the government running at least through Feb. 16.

But without a last-minute deal, federal services could grind to a halt and federal parks, including the Statue of Liberty, could be closed.

"The federal facilities are affected. The federal/state interchange is affected," Cuomo said on NY1.

"But I don’t believe it’s going to have a dramatic effect in this state — more on the federal parks, monuments, etc."

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In the past, states have sometimes stepped in to keep some federal facilities and parks open during government shutdowns, but New York hasn't indicated plans to do that.

And the federal government suggested it may still find a way to keep federal parks open if a shutdown happens.

Cuomo said a shutdown is a "hardship on the federal employees, and even more than that, it’s just a violation of the public trust with the voters of this country — not just New York."

The Democratic governor, who is seeking a third term in the fall and is a potential presidential candidate in 2020, said the stalemate in Washington was a "failure of government."

Cuomo has prided himself on working with Democrats who control the state Assembly and the Republican-led Senate to have timely state budget deals for the fiscal year that starts April 1.

The state budget deadline has been missed by a few days in the past, including last year, but the era of state budget negotiations carrying on for months has ended. New York had a stretch of 20 years of late budget deals prior to the early 2000s.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, was in the middle of talks over a government shutdown, including meeting with the Republican president Friday afternoon.

The Senate was poised to reject a Republican spending bill to keep the government operating amid disagreement over protections for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children.

The Republican-controlled House passed the bill Thursday.

“While a continuing resolution is not the way we should fund the federal government, shutting down the government would have put our men and women in uniform at risk, jeopardized our national security and threatened our readiness capabilities," Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, Oneida County, said in a statement.

"It is despicable that Democrats lead by Senator Schumer are using children’s health care and our military personnel as political hostages."

Schumer said Thursday on the Senate floor that a permanent budget deal is attainable.

"We can’t keep kicking the can down the road and shuffling our feet after it," he said.

"In another month, we’ll be right back here, at this moment, with the same web of problems at our feet, in no better position to solve them."

JSpector@Gannett.com

Joseph Spector is chief of USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau.