While most U.S. Coast Guard members managed to get their final 2018 paycheck after some maneuvering by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, their first check of the New Year is in doubt in the shadow of the partial government shutdown that is impacting more than a quarter of the federal workforce.
Funding for the service, which has a heavy presence in South Florida and the Keys, expired Dec. 21 with no appropriations bill passed to keep boats afloat, planes and helicopters in the air and men and women on patrol through 2019.
Unlike the rest of the military branches, which fall under the Department of Defense and are not affected by the shutdown, the Coast Guard is under Homeland Security, which is among the agencies caught up in the fight over President Donald Trump’s proposed multi-billion dollar wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
