Federal workers struggle without pay as long shutdown begins to affect more Americans

John Yang:

Good evening. I'm John Yang. Tonight, day 33 of the government shutdown is drawing to a close with no end in sight. And Americans are beginning to feel the effects. Payments for federal food programs are in doubt despite court orders, delays are likely for federal payments to help low income Americans heat and cool their homes. And the air traffic control system is beginning to show signs of strain as the holiday travel season approaches.

Meanwhile, this weekend, the approximately 650,000 furloughed federal workers are getting fresh notices telling them to stay home without working and without pay. Many are beginning to feel the pinch.

Man:

This is my first time visiting a food bank in my entire life. I've never had the need to do so in the past, but times change.

John Yang (voice-over):

Anthony's fate is just one of the hundreds of thousands of federal employees nationwide who've been furloughed for more than four weeks.

In Washington, D.C. and elsewhere, federal workers both furloughed and fired are lining up at food banks for assistance.

Amy Uccello, Former USAID Employee:

I have a master's degree. I have 25 years of experience in my own job. I didn't see this ever coming. It never should have.

John Yang:

Amy Uccello was one of tens of thousands of USAID workers fired earlier this year when the administration eliminated the agency.

Amy Uccello:

It's finding ways to make ends meet. Grateful for any sort of assistance programs, I'm showing up to food banks when I can. We're applying to jobs constantly. Our unemployment just ran out, so now we have no income coming in.

John Yang (voice-over):

Furloughed, IRS lawyer Isaac Stein turned a side hustle selling hot dogs into a temporary full time gig.

Isaac Stein, Furloughed federal employee: It was a happy coincidence in the sense that I have something to do while I'm furloughed. But I really do want to emphasize that I and every co-worker I know, we just want to go back to work. So I'm very much looking forward to when the shutdown is over, just resuming my job and having this be a fun weekend thing like it was intended to be.

John Yang (voice-over):

World Central Kitchen is known for providing food aid in the aftermath of disasters around the world.

Woman:

You're welcome.

John Yang (voice-over):

One of their latest distribution sites downtown Washington, DC.

Tori Collins, Furloughed Federal Employee:

I just don't like to know that SNAP benefits are being cut off, other programs are being cut off, the work is being delayed. Our country can't kind of run the way that it should effectively and efficiently because we have a lapse in appropriation and Congress is not coming to the table like they should.

John Yang (voice-over):

And as the government shutdown closes in on becoming the longest ever, federal workers want Congress to hear their pleas.

Anthony Spade, Furloughed Federal Employee:

I still have bills that are due. I have a family that I have to take care of. So it's a lot of uncertainty that comes along with this. I'm grateful for these opportunities to receive assistance, but there is a lot of uncertainty that comes along with it and it causes a lot of stress as well.

All I can do is just continue to pray and hope that something is done to resolve the issue with the federal government shutdown.

JOHY YANG (voice-over):

Barring some dramatic, unforeseen development, it appears likely that this week the shutdown will become the longest on record. Jeremy Mayer is the director of the Political Science Master's program at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government.

Jeremy, this shutdown is about to have a distinction of being the longest on record. Are there other things distinctive about this shutdown compared with others from the recent past?

Jeremy Mayer, George Mason University:

Yes, the biggest difference is the lack of negotiations. Every other shutdown, the focus has been on what is the president's negotiating position, what is his opposition in Congress, what is their position?

And there were shifting sands and here it's just been nothing. The Democrats set their line in the sand and the Republicans have their position. No negotiation until the government opens. And we're still where were at the start.

John Yang:

Why do you think that is?

Jeremy Mayer:

Well, it's a symbol of how polarized we are. The Republicans are answerable to a MAGA base and Donald Trump, and they are not interested in compromising because they increasingly see the Democrats as evil. And the Democrats are moving towards that polarization as well. There's not a lot of moderates in the Democratic Party pressuring Schumer to make a deal. At the base of the Democratic Party doesn't want a deal.

John Yang:

We're also seeing this administration picking and choosing, making winners and losers over what programs they're going to fix favor and what programs they're going to pay people to work. Is that unusual?

Jeremy Mayer:

It is very unusual, and it's of questionable legality. But, you know, this administration has been doing that since they were inaugurated. They shut down, as your package had, USAID. They've effectively shut down the Department of Education. No prior president in the history of the Republic has ever asserted the ability to shut down entire agencies.

John Yang:

The president is continuing to his push to get rid of the Senate legislative filibuster. He says that's the way to reopen the government. On Truth Social this weekend, he urged Republicans, don't be weak and stupid. Fight, fight. Win, win, win.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says that he wants to keep the filibuster. He says that it's a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening with the country. Explain what he means by that or why he would say that.

Jeremy Mayer:

So there has been this debate. Traditionalists in the Senate of both parties have been against ending the filibuster. They treasure the filibuster at what? One of the things that makes the Senate different from the House. And it's old, it's not in the Constitution, but it's since 1802.

But on both sides, the more radical members of the Democratic and Republican caucus have wanted to get rid of the filibuster because it's the only thing that allows you to get big change through the Congress.

John Yang:

The Democrats say they won't vote to reopen the government until the Republicans agree to restore some cuts to Medicaid and also agree to extend the subsidies for ACA insurance premiums. In the recent past of these shutdowns, has anyone ever won a policy change by using the government shutdown as leverage?

Jeremy Mayer:

Well, somewhat. You know, Clinton's big victory was in the politics of the '95 shutdown. He just showed himself to be the adult and made Gingrich look small. But the Republicans did win action on work fair and on a balanced budget.

So the '95 is kind of the shutdown that everybody looks to, but the more common Outcome is the 2018 shutdown with Trump. He said, I won't open the government till you build me a border wall. And after 35 days, he crumbled like a cheap suit in the rain. And then there was no border wall.

John Yang:

Are shutdowns becoming a common tactic or tool in these negotiations or disagreements between the two parties?

Jeremy Mayer:

Unfortunately, they are, and they are terrible for government. It's the suffering of the workers. But think about the morale of the agencies even when we do reopen. I tell my students that a government shutdown is like an induced coma for a medical patient. It's the only thing worse is actual death. And it'll still be hurting our government's efficiency six months and nine months from now because all the things that they wanted to do, their budgets are truncated, their planning is truncated, and their workers are going to be dispirited.

And even if they do get their back pay, they're going to have had this awful experience of being told your work isn't essential.

John Yang:

Given all that, given all you said, what do you think it's going to take to sort of break this stalemate?

Jeremy Mayer:

Well, I think President Trump is going to win this stalemate. I think he can easily get the end of the shutdown simply by saying, my Justice Department has reinterpreted the 100-year old law and now I can declare an end to the shutdown. This is what happened when the Congress failed to pass bills on time from 1884 to 1980. We just had a continuing resolution automatically in effect.

But in 1980, Carter's attorney general reinterpreted a law, and that's where modern shutdowns come from, and they have been terrible. Trump will look like a hero. He's the one that reopened the government all by himself. He didn't have to negotiate with the weak Democrats. And so he's likely to achieve at least a short term political victory very soon.

John Yang:

Jeremy Mayer of George Mason University, thank you very much.

Jeremy Mayer:

My pleasure.