The federal government shutdown will cut deep in Connecticut, where eighteen thousand federal workers will be impacted. Essential employees will be asked to stay on the job without pay, while others will be furloughed or even laid off.
National representative Tim McLaughlin of the American Federation of Government Employees District 2 has been hearing from dozens of those workers:
“A lot of the calls we’re getting are from young people, single mothers, things of that nature. Terrified. Concerned about their ability to pay their bills. How are they going to explain to their landlords, the power company, the water company that they’re still working, but they’re not getting paid?”
“They’re feeling terrible about the whole thing. They’re feeling like they’re being used as pawns in a political game.”
Senate Democrats, who gave Republicans enough votes to pass a federal spending plan back in March, say they’re not buckling this time. They’re demanding that Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies which are set to expire at the end of the year, saying that insurance premiums will otherwise skyrocket for millions.
“Republicans are refusing to address the healthcare crisis that they have created,” explains Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT3). “The premiums are going to go up exponentially without the (ACA) subsidies.”
22 million Americans depend on the ACA subsidies, including about 150 thousand Connecticut residents.
But Republicans, led by President Trump, have refused to negotiate that point, with DeLauro realizing that this week’s limited talks are not like negotiating with prior Republican administrations:
“We’re fighting for the bipartisan solution, and I’ve negotiated appropriations bills in the past with my Republican colleagues, we’ve been able to do it. Why? Because the interest was being able to provide services to the American people.”
McLaughlin has a big-picture concern about the continued quality of those government services, given that the Trump Administration has thinned out the federal workforce even before the shutdown. Vital agencies have been diminished, including those covering food inspections and nuclear safety.
“A lot of good, qualified people are leaving the government, or they’re not coming at all,” says McLaughlin. “At some point, something’s going to break somewhere, and I just hope that nobody gets hurt.”
The personnel depletion at federal agencies could soon speed up dramatically. Reaching beyond expected shutdown furloughs, President Trump has threatened mass layoffs from an administration that has, from its inception, threatened to inflict trauma on the federal workforce.
On Tuesday, Trump threatened retribution, saying a shutdown could include “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”
“Shutdowns are one thing. We’ve had multiple shutdowns over the course of the last couple of decades,” adds McLaughlin. “But just to add to that pain, now you have the current administration saying we’re going to ‘take it out’ on federal workers. I don’t care what kind of business you’re in… it’s completely unacceptable. You don’t use federal employees as pawns in your political games. That’s not in the best interest of the country.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.