Area affected by federal shutdown

Thousands of federal employees were furloughed last week due to the government shutdown, including nearly 12,000 workers in Montana.

Lake County is not shielded from the effects of the shutdown. Employees of the National Bison Range Complex have been furloughed. The Bison Range is a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), a federally funded department.

A message tells callers that no one is available to answer calls or emails and states the refuge is closed for the duration of the shutdown. The annual bison round up is postponed until further notice.

Nationally, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has 2,528 employees subject to furlough. Law enforcement, wildfire management, irrigation, safety of dams, and child protective services are exempted from the BIA’s shutdown contingency plans.

CSKT spokesperson Rob McDonald said it wasn’t made clear which employees had to be sent home.

“A number of federally funded employees were to be furloughed last week,” McDonald said, “but there was some discrepancy internally about who could be furloughed.”

McDonald said tribal officials made the decision to pay everyone.

“Everyone was given a full paycheck,” he said. “Everyone was told to report to work this week.”

However, he said there is no guarantee that tribal accounts will be reimbursed for continuing payment to federally-funded employees. McDonald said CSKT officials are taking things “week-to-week” and adopting a “wait and see” approach. In the meantime, he said the Tribes will try to avoid major expenditures and be smart with their finances.

“The deeper we get into October, the greater the risk becomes. Congress put us in this fire - we’re hoping they can make some progress and get us out.”