A recent report on the area’s economy says greater Washington’s unemployment rate increased more than eight times the national rate. Removing one of the pillars of the region’s economy, even temporarily, won’t help matters. Information about this pending shutdown is difficult to come by, and we’ll update this post as we learn more. Feds can apply for unemployment during the shutdown, but they’ll have to pay back anything they receive. Neither a National Park Service spokesperson nor a Smithsonian Institution spokesperson had any plans they could share when we asked Tuesday morning.