An avalanche of emails, backlogged permits, lapsed contracts and stalled payments to low-income Americans will face the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who return to work Monday.
For 35 days, they waited out the shutdown of nine Cabinet agencies and dozens of smaller ones. Now, they’ll face a massive bureaucratic reboot that could take weeks or even months.
The National Park Service will need to restore basic amenities at hundreds of parks and monuments, removing accumulated trash and plowing multiple feet of snow. The Bureau of Indian Affairs must quickly issue grants to head off food shortages and a health-care crisis for Native American tribal members whose funding was cut off.