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Amid the federal government shutdown, the city of San Antonio says it will not see any immediate impacts to services it provides, for at least two to three months.
While the federal government is closed, the City of San Antonio will continue business as usual. The city is receiving about 150 million dollars in federal grants for the 2026 budget which starts today. City Manager Erik Walsh said that funds a number of programs.
“Whether it's Head Start or airport grants, DOJ grants for police officers, all of our federal grants are reimbursements, it’s just how the federal government does it,” Walsh said.
In the city’s 2026 budget, there’s about $153 million worth of programs funded through those reimbursements. For example:
- Aviation: $32.4 million
- About $30 million to the new airport terminals and infrastructure program
- San Antonio Metro Health: $30.5 million
- About $8 million to Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
- About $1.4 million to STI/HIV prevention services
- About $8 million to Medicaid waivers
- Human Services: $43.6 million
- About $31 million to Head Start
- Neighborhood and Housing Services: $22 million
- San Antonio Police: $8.4 million
- San Antonio Fire: $4.4 million
The city can fund the upfront costs—but only for about 60 to 90 days before it needs those reimbursements. After that period, however, Walsh said those programs could see some disruption. The last government shutdown in 2018 lasted about 34 days.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said there are tens of thousands of federal employees across San Antonio that are affected or furloughed by the shutdown.
“Hopefully, this is something that our federal leaders and delegations can quickly come to a resolution, given the American people—and certainly San Antonio—is relying on them to make sure that people are safe, people are healthy, and people are well served,” she said.
The San Antonio international airport, which has federal TSA, FAA, and Customs and Border Protection employees, is not experiencing any disruption.
