Roughly one million federal employees are estimated to be going without pay. About half have been furloughed, while the other half are considered essential workers, so they’re still showing up to work, even as their paychecks are frozen.
Earlier this week, lawmakers voted down a measure that would have allowed essential workers to continue receiving pay during the shutdown.
“I would have never thought in a million years that I would’ve been in this position, that I would have to go to a food bank,” Denise Blake, a Department of Defense employee, told Scripps News.
Blake joined hundreds of other federal employees at a food bank in the Washington, D.C. area this week, a growing trend as workers go weeks without income.
“It's like reality is really hitting now because [this shutdown] has gone past like the ten days or the two weeks,” Blake said.
At one D.C. food bank, organizers say they’re seeing record demand.
“I think we’re going to see 310 clients -- federal workers -- today. The demand is incredibly, incredibly high.”
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture will not use any of the more than $5 billion in emergency funding it maintains to provide food assistance to needy families during the government shutdown, nor will it reimburse states that try to provide such benefits themselves, according to an agency memo obtained by Scripps News on Friday.
According to a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis, more than 700,000 civilian employees at the Department of Defense, in addition to tens of thousands more at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Justice, have now missed at least one paycheck.
“Missing a paycheck is a difficult thing for anyone,” said Jonathan Burks, the Executive Vice President for Economic and Health Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “And there's a variety of income levels that federal workers are at; some will have some savings and be able to weather a missed paycheck or two, but others are living paycheck to paycheck.”
Burks said the longer the shutdown drags on, the greater the financial strain will be.
To help bridge the gap, federal credit unions are stepping in. Some of them, like Veridian Credit Union in Iowa and Westerra Credit Union in Denver, are approving short-term, interest-free loans for members struggling to cover bills and groceries until pay resumes.
Meanwhile, though air traffic controllers are still working — deemed essential roles — if the shutdown continues, they’ll miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
“I don't want my air traffic controllers to take a second job. I want them to do one job,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. “I want them coming to their facilities and controlling the airspace.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has already warned that travel disruptions could worsen. More than half of a recent week’s flight delays were linked to staffing shortages, according to the agency.
