About 200 federal workers and their supporters call for an end to the stalemate.
A boisterous group of approximately 200 federal workers and their supporters took to the streets of downtown Denver Thursday to call for an end to the stalemate in Washington, D.C., that has shut down parts of the federal government for nearly three weeks.
The group, holding signs that read “Hired to Work — Not to be Held Hostage” and “I love clean air, water, dirt,” gathered in front of the U.S. Custom House on 19th Street and called for an end to the shutdown that has forced about 800,000 government workers to either take furloughs or work without pay.
According to a fact sheet released this week by the Center for American Progress, 15,700 of those workers are in Colorado.
Friday will be the first payday on which federal employees affected by the shutdown — which began Dec. 22 — won’t receive a paycheck.
Irma Abalos said she has been an employee with the federal government in Denver for more than 33 years. Her husband recently had a heart attack and Abalos said things will start getting financially tight at her house if the situation drags on for much longer.
“I’ve put a screeching halt to all spending,” she said, as cars honked in support behind her. “A shutdown is not a method to resolve controversial political issues.”
President Donald Trump has refused to approve appropriations necessary to keep government open until Congress allocates $5.7 billion for a wall along the border. Democrats, who took control the House of Representatives last week, have so far refused.
Meanwhile, trash is piling up at national parks and some worry that overworked and unpaid TSA agents at U.S. airports could start failing to show up for work. Emily Williams, a spokeswoman for Denver International Airport, on Thursday said security wait times have been normal during the shutdown and that the airport was not anticipating any problems Friday.
The rally in Denver took place in front of the U.S. Custom House, where U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner has an office. Rally organizers delivered a thank-you letter to Gardner, noting that the state’s junior senator was one of the first Republicans in the U.S. Senate to call on his colleagues to end the shutdown.
Late Thursday, Gardner released a statement saying he strongly supports efforts to “take further action to increase funding for border security and begin to fix our broken immigration system.”
“That said, I don’t believe shutting down the government is the best course of action,” he said.
The rally was organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, and the union’s national vice president, Gerry Swanke, took to the bullhorn as the crowd cheered him on.
“We will not be held hostage for political gain,” he said. “Anybody that is locking out the work of the people is a threat to the Constitution.”
Paul Martin, a federal worker in Boulder, said one of the untold stories of the shutdown are the IT security specialists like him.
“With all this talk from the administration and elected officials about how important cybersecurity is, my colleagues and I were deemed nonessential. Wrap your head around that,” he said. “All I’m about is getting back to work and defending my data center.”
Like most federal workers The Denver Post spoke to Thursday, Amy Hensley wasn’t pointing fingers at one side or the other for the shutdown. But as the main breadwinner for her family of five, she said the missed paycheck on Friday will be felt. Almost worse, she said, is the lack of any certainty that the situation will end any time soon.
“Not knowing how long it will go adds a large degree of anxiety,” Hensley said.