Anxiety and economic stress among federal employees as Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked on bill

More furloughs, more anxiety and more economic stress are bearing down on federal employees as the shutdown of the federal government continues into its fourth week with Republicans and Democrats at a standstill on negotiating a budget deal.

“There’s no sight of this ending and we’re starting to wonder if we’re going to be made whole and if this is going to continue into the next round of pay, which is what we’re headed into now. On Friday, we will be missing our first full paycheck,” Johnny Jones, council secretary treasurer for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) TSA Council 100, and a TSA employee in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, said.

“Now people are really starting to get nervous. They’re starting to make preparations for liquidations or they’re making preparations in their lives of how we’re going to survive.”

He cited cases of members crying and starting to get desperate, citing the previous shutdown in 2019 where he and other co-workers had to help a co-worker transport her children to Colorado to be with family because she could no longer afford childcare.

“I just can’t believe we’re not going to get paid,” Jones added. “ It’s unbelievable. If you worked at McDonald’s and they did this, they could sue you, shut your business down, but you’re working for the government, they cannot pay you, and it’s OK. And this is a problem. People are now going to have to take home debt. People are going to have to take on new things, maybe even work their full shift, pick up their kids and do GrubHub or something, looking for other means of income on the side.”

“I don’t have a strategy,” Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, told reporters on 21 October, as the House of Representatives’ calendar for October remains empty. House members have been on paid vacation since 19 September, when it went on recess.

The House speaker’s office said in a statement: “He has consistently said that the House will return to regular legislative session as soon as Chuck Schumer and the Democrats vote to end the shutdown and reopen the government.”

Democrats have held firm on a budget that includes extending healthcare subsidies that would prevent health insurance premiums from soaring for millions of Americans, resulting in loss of health insurance for about 15 million Americans due to the subsidy expirations and cuts to Medicaid.

Throughout and leading up to the shutdown, federal workers have been subjected to threats by the Trump administration, which have included threatening to withhold back pay to furloughed workers, conducting reductions in force (though a federal court has temporarily blocked the firings), and cutting federally funded infrastructure programs with threats to go after programs deemed priorities for Democrats.