5 lingering effects of the longest government shutdown in US history

National parks across the country suffered vandalism and increased contamination during the shutdown.

Most notably, people cut down some of the namesake trees at Joshua Tree National Park to carve new paths in parts of the park that were previously inaccessible to the public.

Because of the shutdown, there weren't enough staff members around to stop vandals from tearing down the trees.

According to a report by the Transactional Records Access Clearing House, at least 40,000 immigration court hearings were delayed due to the shutdown, adding to already-long backlogs that have often stalled immigration cases across the country.

In a recent report by the FBI Agents Association, a number of members of the FBI said their investigations were getting cut short or delayed because of a gap in funding.

Many warned that the shutdown could hurt national security, and though it is now over, it could be hard to gauge its ultimate impact on FBI activity.

Food experts said the shutdown was taking a toll on safety inspection check ups done by the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture, which led to a delay in the introduction of new products (for example, wine and beer) and the revision of agricultural products, causing millions of dollars in losses to farmers nationally.

Routine checks on low-risk food facilities had also stopped, which could cause issues for consumers.