Government officials say that a shutdown would furlough around 800,000 government workers. The shutdown would effect operations in the District of Columbia, where trash collection and other services would be suspended. The shutdown would also affect agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, which would cease inspections, causing delays in large-scale projects. Other agencies would stop giving or guaranteeing loans, affecting millions of people. A legislator says that the wages lost by workers would be unlikely to be refunded retroactively. Most federal agencies say that they are creating plans and answering employees' questions about what is going to happen.
See "Administration: Shutdown would furlough 800,000 federal workers", Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post, April 5, 2011