Hello, hope you had a good week.

Maybe you’ve heard: The government is shut down, and the finger-pointing is taxpayer-funded. Hundreds of thousands of government employees are at risk of furlough, pay freezes or even firing. In today’s newsletter, we’ll look at how this impasse could affect you.

The Department of Homeland Security is mostly still working, so later we’ll look at how Los Angeles small businesses are preparing for more immigration raids. We’ve also got stories on the “slopification” of the workplace, and how economic data is impacted by a lapse in appropriations. 

Which government resources are still available?

You should still be able to catch a flight, since much of the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration are deemed essential. While these workers are guaranteed backpay when the government reopens, their pay is currently frozen. During the last government shutdown, hundreds of TSA agents called in sick, gumming up many airports.

National parks are mostly open, as is the Smithsonian Institute. The U.S. Postal Service will not be affected by a shutdown and offices will remain open since its operations are funded through its own products and services. You’re also still able to purchase savings bonds through the government’s TreasuryDirect website. The government needs cash, after all.

What about government benefits?

Medicare, Medicaid,Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income should still continue to pay out because they are not subject to yearly Congressional approval.  Veterans Affairs’ benefits will continue too. 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formally known as food stamps, should still pay out for October. After mid-October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could use reserve funds to pay for benefits, but it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will choose to. 

How will the economy be affected?

The last shutdown, which lasted five weeks between late 2018 and early 2019, cut gross domestic product by $3 billion. When a shutdown lasts that long, private sector firms are not able to recover the income they lost from a shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The shutdown will also impact the release of data that gives us insight into the economy

Six days a week, 39-year-old Fredis vacuums vehicles at the same Los Angeles car wash where she’s been working for 18 years.

But after all that time, it’s hardly business as usual.

“It’s very different, now. There’s a lot of fear… going to work, dropping the kids off at school, going out to shop,” she said in Spanish. (Marketplace isn’t publishing Fredis’ last name because of the risk of being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

Fredis said she’s leaving the house less because of immigration raids , but she can’t miss out on her paycheck. Her kids in LA and family back home in Honduras depend on the $16.50 she makes an hour.

“What can I do? I have to work,” she said.

But something has eased her mind: This summer, a group of organizers dropped by the carwash to help her and her coworkers prepare for what to do in the case of an immigration raid.

“We have to have a place where we plan to go… in case they (ICE) come,” she said.

“We know what to do, now,” said Omar, another carwash worker who attended the training and whose last name is not being published due to immigration concerns.

“They said if ICE comes,” he said in Spanish, “to not volunteer our names, to stay quiet and not run away.”

Omar and Fredis worked with Cynthia Ayala, an organizer with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. Ayala has watched raids hit local businesses in her community.

“Some folks, when it was really bad, didn't go to work,” she said. “A lot of folks, their business went down, of course.”

You’re a captive audience. Once you’re through security, there aren’t many options to buy food. Shops can charge more in part because travelers are willing to pay. It’s like being at an amusement park or a baseball stadium.  

It’s expensive to run an airport business.  These shops and restaurant often pay higher rent and wages than other businesses. Workers need background checks and security badges, and all the merchandise has to go through security too. Those costs all end up raising the price of your sandwich. 

The sky is not the limit. Most U.S. airports have to follow “street pricing plus” rules, which cap prices at about 10% to 15% above what you’d pay outside the airport. But sometimes shops get carried away, or base their prices on the most expensive stores they can find outside. 

So what can you do about it? Pack your own snacks. Bring an empty water bottle to refill after security. Bring a book and download movies or games on your device so you’re not tempted to splurge out of boredom. Sometimes a bit of prep is the best way to avoid spending $8 on Chex Mix.

For more answers to your kid’s travel questions, check out this week’s “Million Bazillion”!

Jake Longstreth is a Los Angeles-based fine artist who specializes in landscape paintings that showcase California’s natural beauty. And, true to life, those landscapes sometimes contain a Taco Bell, or a boarded-up Toys R Us. 

We had Longstreth on “Marketplace” to talk about where he finds inspiration, and how the feelings his paintings invoke have shifted as big box stores have declined. What about Amazon warehouses? “Too brutal,” Longstreth said.