Carol Smith, from Upper Marlboro, Md., climbs out of a snow fort on the National Mall in Washington on Tuesday as Sarah Naranch looks on. The Capitol can be seen at right.

Washington ? If snow keeps 230,000 government employees home for the better part of a week, will anyone notice?

With at least another foot of snow headed for Washington, Philadelphia and New York, we’re about to find out. The federal government in the nation’s capital has largely been shut down since Friday afternoon, when a storm began dumping up to 3 feet of snow in some parts of the region. Offices were remaining closed at least through today.

So far, the effects have been negligible. Many essential government services are performed at offices around the country, and about 85 percent of federal employees work outside the Washington region anyway. Others were working from home despite the snow. An IRS spokeswoman said tax returns should not be affected.

“Anything that is critical is going to get done,” said Linda Springer, a former director of the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal work force of nearly 2 million workers.

David Fiore, who works for the federal government’s Export-Import Bank of the U.S., stocked up on groceries Tuesday in Washington and said he planned to do some work from home, including a 2 p.m. conference call.

“They’re open in Turkey. I’m getting e-mails from Morocco,” he said. “The work goes on.”

That was the case for Robert Kronin, who made it to his office at a nonprofit organization in Washington that has contracts with the government. He said that with federal workers off, he had fewer meetings and got caught up with a lot of paperwork.

Still, “it’s always hard to swallow when the government has the day off and we don’t,” he said as he walked home.

Philadelphia and Washington needed just 9 more inches of snow each to log the snowiest winters since at least 1884, the first year records were kept. By Tuesday night, snow was falling from the nation’s capital north to New Jersey.

Even before the storm arrived in the District of Columbia, the House announced it was scrapping the rest of its workweek. Several hearings and meetings were postponed, including one planned for today on Toyota’s massive recalls.

Agencies from the Federal Communications Commission to the Federal Trade Commission canceled hearings. Shuttering the agencies for a day costs the government an estimated $100 million in lost productivity and related costs.

Down Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House decided to move up by a day a Black History Month concert featuring Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson and Natalie Cole. It had been slated for today, but was instead moved to Tuesday night.

President Barack Obama held a bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders ahead of the storm Tuesday and joked that it went so well that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had gone out to play in the snow.

“In fact, I understand that McConnell and Reid are out doing snow angels on the South Lawn together,” Obama joked as he made an unannounced stop in the White House briefing room.

Others poked fun at the government.

“It’s embarrassing that the world’s largest superpower closes from a few feet of snow,” said Alex Krause, 23, of Los Angeles, who was stranded in Washington and visiting the National Mall. “The Kremlin must be laughing.”