Federal Employees, Aid Recipients Brace For Shutdown

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The ripple effect of a partial federal shutdown could be devastating to thousands of people in the Chicago area.

Everything from paychecks to passports to loans to child care would be affected if congressional leaders don't reach agreement on stopgap spending, CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports.

Single mom Jennie Walker leaves for work every day after dropping off her 3-year-old daughter, Alex, at childcare. She can afford to do that because Childcare Network of Evanston and federal dollars pay 75 percent of her daycare costs. 

If the federal government shuts down, that will be a problem.

"It would mean having to rearrange our finances dramatically," Walker says. "It could affect our living situation. It could affect putting food on the table."

CNS's executive director, Martha Arntson, says Walker is one of hundreds of parents in the area who would suddenly find themselves with nowhere to take their kids. She says hundreds of Head Start programs would also come to a grinding halt.

"Over 51,000 kids would be affected by a government closure," Arntson said. "It would be over 8,000 staff people affected."

Federal workers are on edge, too. Hundreds of thousands of them still don't know if they'll have a forced furlough Monday -- a terrifying prospect for many.

"My mortgage payment would probably be late, my car note would probably be late," Mary Watkins, an employee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Thursday during a demonstration in Chicago.

And the trickle-down effects don't stop there. Passports wouldn't be issued.  Paper tax return refunds would be delayed. National parks would close. And government-backed small business loans and mortgages would be suspended.

Eight hundred thousand federal employees could be furloughed.