The owners of Alementary Brewing Co. in Hackensack were eyeing a January opening for a brand-new, 13,000-square-foot production facility. New fermenters and high-speed canning and packaging lines were to quadruple the company’s brewing capacity, enabling it to distribute its popular lager and other seasonal beers beyond New Jersey’s borders.

But with the start of a partial government shutdown last month, workers at the federal agency that licenses such facilities were deemed “non-essential” and furloughed, forcing Alementary to delay the opening indefinitely. Now, roughly $1 million in new equipment sits idle even while rent and loan obligations continue to accrue.

“The term 'non-essential' is funny, because it’s only non-essential if your business doesn’t depend completely on them working,” Blake Crawford, the brewery’s co-owner, said Monday.

Alementary is among the thousands of businesses, workers and others statewide feeling a deepening impact from the shutdown of nine federal departments and several smaller agencies, which stretched into its 18th day on Tuesday. Barring a resolution of the impasse between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over funding for a border wall with Mexico, roughly 5,000 federal employees in New Jersey — and 800,000 nationwide — will miss their first full paychecks starting around Friday.

And if the shutdown continues into February, which would make it by far the longest in history, residents enrolled in several state-administered programs that rely on federal funding, such as nutrition assistance, cash assistance for families with children and child care subsidies, could see critical benefits dry up.

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the child care subsidy program "have funding allocated through January, so recipients are at risk of losing benefits should the shutdown continue into February,” Tom Hester, a spokesman for the state Department of Human Services, said in an email Monday. New Jersey has about 730,000 SNAP recipients, 12,600 TANF recipients and 60,000 children in the child care subsidy program, Hester said.

For now, the heaviest impacts of the shutdown remain the areas of pay for federal employees, shuttered national parks and museums, and some federal services. The federal agencies affected include Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, State, Transportation and Treasury.

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Some states have stepped in to limit disruptions for residents and visitors. New York, for example, has provided funding to keep the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island open. In New Jersey, the visitor centers at parks like Paterson Great Falls and Sandy Hook are closed, although the grounds remain open to the public.

Meanwhile, certain federal agencies with “essential” employees say they are operating largely as normal despite their employees' being forced to work without pay.

The Transportation Security Administration, which screens passengers and luggage at America’s airports, said any delays experienced by travelers over the weekend were due to the busy holiday season, not an uptick in workers calling out sick in response to the shutdown, a dynamic dubbed a “sick out.”

“Historically ‘call outs’ are high around this time of year,” Michael Bilello, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement. “And there has been an increase, but it’s for any number of reasons to include the current environment of uncertainty.”

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TSA screened about 2.22 million passengers across the country on Sunday, Bilello said, with 99.8 percent of passengers waiting less than 30 minutes and 90.1 percent waiting less than 15 minutes.

For its part, the Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for the airports’ air traffic controllers and technicians, said it is running with no lapses in safety and security systems.

“The traveling public can be assured that our nation’s airspace system is fully safe and operational, including New York and New Jersey airports,” said FAA spokesman Gregory Martin. “The responsibility of the FAA is to ensure that everyone who is responsible for the safety of the national airspace is at work.”

The Internal Revenue Service announced Monday that it would issue refunds to taxpayers even if the shutdown extends into the filing season.

And certain regional industries, such as the commercial seafood trade, remain largely unaffected. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the Department of Commerce, has continued to monitor fishing activities, and commercial seasons for fluke, monkfish and scallop remain open, according to commercial fishermen interviewed Monday.

But as the shutdown continues, it could grow only more disruptive for many businesses, families and government agencies.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-Wyckoff, appearing at Alementary with the brewery’s owners on Monday, rattled off a list of the shutdown's negative consequences, including no money to train new air traffic controllers; no staff to process small-business loans; and reduced inspections by Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration workers, increasing the risk for food-borne illnesses.

“This is obviously no way to govern,” Gottheimer said. “We should sit down, like everyone else does, and work things out, and stay at the table until we get there, like people do every day, not shut the government down and walk away.”

Staff Writers Rodrigo Torrejon, Dan Radel and Melanie Anzidei contributed to this article.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com