As the federal shutdown drags on, Republicans accuse Democrats of prolonging it for political reasons, pointing to stalled votes that could reopen the government and fully restore programs like SNAP. But Democrats say what they’re holding out for isn’t politics — it’s protection. Specifically, protection for millions of Americans who rely on Affordable Care Act subsidies that will soon expire. 

On Oct. 1, Republican-controlled Congress shut down the federal government, bringing a renewed round of confusion, finger-pointing and uncertainty to tourism-reliant Southern Appalachia — a region still paying the price for generational poverty, and still struggling with recovery from Hurricane Helene more than one year ago.  

As the federal government shutdown drags into its second week, Western North Carolina has so far escaped major impacts — but that could change quickly. Some federal agencies have curtailed operations, some public lands have opened and closed in cycles and some regional offices are bracing for deeper impacts if the impasse lingers. 

Last week, Mountain Projects’ Amanda Singletary was convinced she’d be calling all 250 Section 8 landlords with bad news: they wouldn’t be receiving October’s rental payment.  

Because Section 8 received funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but HUD hadn’t indicated what might become of its finances given a federal government shutdown, Singletary was “sweating bullets” as the Oct. 1 deadline to extend a continuing resolution to keep the federal government open loomed over the horizon.  

It was a time and a place, and now that place is gone.

Or is it?

I came across some version of that idiom about time and place a few months ago, just as we at The Smoky Mountain News were beginning to discuss how to cover the one-year anniversary of Helene’s historic and deadly impact on this place we call home.

It’s beginning to sound like a broken record — nearly a year after Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina, Haywood County government has received only 4% of the money it is owed from the federal government, leaving officials frustrated and taxpayers effectively footing the bill. 

To the Editor:

Michael Whatley was appointed by the President to lead WNC’s Helene recovery efforts, but as of Aug. 29 — as reported in an article in The Smoky Mountain News on Aug. 27 — he hasn’t been seen in WNC since January. He’s found time to attend just two meetings for his appointed role with FEMA.

Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden signed a $221 million federal block grant agreement that targets aid to North Carolina farmers who sustained losses and damages from Hurricane Helene in 2024. 

The National Park Service urges visitors to not feed or approach black bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park has seen an increase in incidents involving visitors feeding bears. Feeding wildlife is illegal and endangers you, other visitors and bears. 

To the Editor:

Many American servicemen feel duty-bound to oppose combat Marines being deployed in American cities. I’m one of them.

First of all, this President is in clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, a federal U.S. law that restricts the use of the military for law enforcement within the country.