Federal employees start to feel pain of US government shutdown
Financial pressures build with few alternatives available and no end in sight to impasse
Since the US government shutdown hit on December 21, Joanna Mccleland has been stuck in a dilemma of Kafkaesque proportions.
A programme analyst at the Department of Homeland Security, who is detailed to Customs and Border Patrol, Ms Mccleland is one of the roughly 380,000 federal employees who has been furloughed — placed on temporary leave — because of the shutdown, and one of the many who lives from pay cheque to pay cheque.
She had tried to apply for unemployment insurance, but struggled to complete the application as many of the forms she needs are on the DHS computer network, something she is not allowed to access during the shutdown.
To apply for a second job, she would need to get permission to do so from DHS — something she is unable to do — also because of the shutdown.
“If it [the shutdown] goes into February, I don’t have money to pay my rent,” she said.
Her mid-month cheque took care of her car payment, student loan and utilities. While friends had agreed to help her out and cover the difference, the uncertainty is still troubling. She is her household’s main breadwinner.
Ms Mccleland said fellow federal employees who had survived other extended shutdowns told her this one felt different. “This one feels like: what is the endgame? Is it going to be months? Is it going to be years?”
For many of the 800,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown, reality hit on Friday — the first day that many did not receive their payslip as a result of the continuing government impasse and stalemate between the White House and Congress.
As of Friday at midnight, the shutdown will be the longest in history, surpassing the 21-day closure during the second presidential term of Bill Clinton. Movement towards a near-term resolution seems less and less likely following a breakdown in talks this week between President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders.
Steve Fuller, an economist at George Mason University, said overall 145,000 workers had been furloughed in the Washington region. An estimated 25 per cent of federal contractors in the area were also affected by the shutdown.
Together, those federal workers and contractors made a daily contribution of more than $119m to the regional economy, he said, without taking into account workers indirectly affected by the shutdown: the retailers in federal buildings and the food truck operators outside them, as well as those providing cleaning services and building security.
While some evidence of the shutdown’s economic impact could begin to appear in January employment data and mortgage and credit delinquencies, it was more likely that the shutdown could be felt sooner in more visible ways, Mr Fuller suggested.
Some US news outlets have reported that Transportation Security Administration officials are absent from work in higher-than-normal numbers, opening up the possibility that the shutdown could cause a backlog at major US airports. The Washington Post reported that the Food and Drug Administration had sharply curtailed the number of inspections it performed.
On Thursday outside the AFLCIO union headquarters — a block from the White House — hundreds of federal workers and their supporters gathered, demanding that Mr Trump reopen the government, shouting slogans such as “We want to work!”.
Some were parents who said the shutdown was taking a toll on family finances.
“My husband is also a federal employee and we have a 12-yearold who is painfully aware that both of his parents are furloughed and he’s really stressed about this,” said Jana Mccabe, a National Park Service employee. “As a parent that hits you in the gut.”
Elaine Suriano, a furloughed scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, said she had been angered by Mr Trump’s assertion that federal workers backed his decision to keep the government closed until Democrats agreed to support his wall.
“I’m a registered independent . . . There may be workers that do support it, but there are a lot of people who don’t,” she said.