US Rep. Glenn Thompson.

If Congress doesn’t act by the time the clock strikes midnight Saturday, the government will shut down.

And that prospect looks increasingly likely.

When government shutdowns have occurred most recently in 2013 and 2018, the impact varied depending on how long the shutdown lasts.

The most visible impact was the closure of recreation sites on the Allegheny National Forest. It’s unclear, however, whether that will be in play should a shutdown occur.

“At this time we are waiting for guidance from our Agency and Department,” Bradford District Ranger Rich Hatfield told the Times Observer. “It is business as usual until we hear otherwise.”

He said there’s no “plan at this time” to close any recreation sites. “If there is a lapse in funding, we will get more specific directions as to how we will continue to manage the Forest during a government shutdown,” Hatfield said.

According to an Associated Press report, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has pushed Republicans to embrace a short-term funding plan that would include a border proposal but “a small group of hard-line conservatives has defied the speaker in a quest to get rid of stopgap funding plans, known as continuing resolutions, even if opposing them means forcing a government shutdown.”

Congressman Glenn Thompson’s communications director, Maddison Stone, provided a statement to the Times Observer in response to a series of questions about the potential shutdown.

“Congressman Thompson is dedicated to working up to the deadline in order to find a resolution that will keep the government operational until a longer-term solution that can receive a majority of votes in the House is achieved,” Stone said.