BATON ROUGE - A national government shutdown could have local consequences, and legal experts say there's something to learn from previous shutdowns.

On Wednesday, the federal government shut down when Congress ultimately couldn't agree on which government programs and services should continue to receive funding.

"There's no doubt there will be a ripple effect throughout the country, including here in Louisiana," Political analyst James Hartman said.

Del Wright, a law professor at LSU, said part of the reason the shutdown happened is that Democrats weren't willing to budge on health care issues.

Wright says the fight is coming from both sides of the aisle, not budging on spending.

"That's where the fight is," Wright said.

Louisiana leaders responded to the shutdown.

U.S. Representative Troy Carter posted a video on X, saying in part:

"We want to make sure that people have access to health care. We want to make sure that people are not dying because we're playing games with people's health care."

Senator Bill Cassidy posted on X, saying in part that Democratic demands would have added $1.5 trillion to the national debt and cut other services.

Professor Wright says many federal workers can expect to eventually return to work and be paid for the time they missed, but contract workers may face a different situation, and it could delay federally funded projects.

"Think about the highways here," Wright said. "It is contract workers who are hired by companies to do the work. When the shutdown happens, those workers are not paid. And there's no incentive for them to do the work because they know they're not going to get back pay, because it's not guaranteed by the government. That work just stops."