Anxiety lingers among US federal employees as govt temporarily reopens

The end of the 35-day partial government shutdown certainly was a soothing message for the 800,000 federal employees, but anxiety and stress persist as they still struggle to make ends meet, fearing another shutdown might come soon.

The record-long shutdown temporarily ended on Friday after US President Donald Trump signed a bill to fund the government until Feb 15, leaving more time for debate on his long-demanded US-Mexico border wall.

Trump promised he will make sure that all federal employees receive their back pay "very quickly, or as soon as possible," but it could take a couple of days before everything goes back to normal.

A federal employee from the Homeland Security Department, who declined to be named, told Xinhua that he expects to get his paycheck in the next two or three weeks. "Usually there's a lag between you work and you receive your payment," he said.

He was among the dozens of federal employees and contractors who showed up at a free grocery distribution at Alexandria, Virginia over the weekend. He and his wife were able to get fresh produce including grapes, carrots, apples and onions, canned goods and frozen meals from the Capital Area Food Bank, which has operated six such pop-up markets in response to the government shutdown.

The employee said he came to the market for help because he was running out of money. "Usually I try to save one or two months of salary for emergencies, but with high rent and other expenses in the capital area, I lose it very quickly."

He said he has experienced a roller coaster of emotions during the 35 days after the shutdown. "We were following the news every day, trying to figure out basically what is going to happen, when can we return to work, trying to get help so I can keep my family safe." He said the shutdown has been very "stressful."

Dan McCabe, senior director of institutional partnerships at the Capital Area Food Bank, told Xinhua his team was "relieved" that the turnout has been lower following the end of the shutdown, "but we will be out here until workers get their next paycheck and that hasn't happened yet."

As of Saturday, the six markets in the capital region had served over 4,500 federal employees and contractors over the past few weeks, McCabe said.

Another federal employee who also preferred to remain anonymous told Xinhua that she still needs free food because her family couldn't make their monthly payment. "We were putting everything on credit cards. We have no cash to pay for anything," she said.

She said she found it difficult to explain the situation to her 14-year-old son when he asked her "Are we poor now? Do we not have any money?" "And I just tell him we're temporarily poor."

She said it's hard to say who should be blamed for the impasse. "They're all crazy. They (politicians) all want their own agendas, and then we have to be at the expense of them."

Having been working for the federal government for 10 years, she said she has experienced a few government shutdowns before, but "they've been small." This time, she is not sure whether the government will stay open. "Anxiety, uncertainty. So we'll just have to wait and see," she said.

She said frequent shutdowns could also discourage people from working for the government, since many of her colleagues have chosen not to go into the private sector with the assumption that government is more stable.

"If it happens once every few years, it isn't going to change a person's mind. But if this happens every year, yeah, absolutely," she said.

The employee from the Homeland Security Department said he is also concerned that the shutdown will happen again. "If they (Congress) don't give President Trump the money he demanded to build a border wall in the three weeks period, we might be in the same position again," he said.

Besides fearing another shutdown, federal employees are worried that failing to pay bills in time could undermine their credit.

"Even when the pay checks start coming again, that doesn't change the fact that your mortgages are due, your car payments are due, your bills are due. So then you have late fees and it's impacting your credit," Elizabeth Gilkey said.

She further said that she would rather federal employees come to the food bank for help than use up their savings or run up their credit card. "We are just trying to do a little something to take away that stress, just helping to create more of a buffer," she said.