WASHINGTON — If snow keeps 230,000 government employees home for the better part of a week, will anyone notice? With at least another foot of snow headed for Washington, Philadelphia and New York, we’re about to find out. The federal government in the nation’s capital has largely been shut down since Friday afternoon, when a storm began dumping up to 3 feet of snow in some parts of the region. Offices were remaining closed at least through today.
So far, the effects have been negligible. Many essential government services are performed at offices across the country, and about 85 percent of federal employees work outside the Washington region anyway. Others were working from home despite the snow. An IRS spokeswoman said tax returns should not be affected.
“Anything that is critical is going to get done,” said Linda Springer, a former director of the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce of nearly 2 million workers.
David Fiore, who works for the federal government’s Export-Import Bank of the U.S., stocked up on groceries Tuesday in Washington and said he planned to do some work from home, including a 2 p.m. conference call.
“They’re open in Turkey. I’m getting e-mails from Morocco,” he said. “The work goes on.”
Philadelphia and Washington needed just 9 more inches of snow each to log the snowiest winters since at least 1884, the first year records were kept.
Even before the latest storm arrived in the District of Columbia, the House announced it was scrapping the rest of its workweek. Several hearings and meetings were postponed, including one planned for today on Toyota’s recalls.
The snow started in the Midwest before moving into the mid-Atlantic region, where utility workers struggled to restore power already knocked out by a weekend blizzard.
Schools were closed, and commuters found slick, slushy roads from Minneapolis and Chicago to Louisville, Ky. Hundreds of flights were canceled in Chicago. Powerful winds and snow were expected to hit mid-Atlantic states by Tuesday afternoon, potentially dropping as much as 20 more inches on Washington and 18 inches near Philadelphia by tonight.
New York City announced schools would have a rare snow day today, only the third in six years. Most flights were being canceled at Philadelphia’s airport after 8 p.m. Tuesday, and Washington’s airports expected flights to stop about 5 p.m.
