About 670,000 workers are on furlough and 730,000 employees deemed essential are working without pay across the country, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) on Monday issued a statement calling for Congress to pass a clean resolution opening back up the government.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, said in the statement.
Some TSA agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are married to other agents; they’ve been going without paychecks because their odd schedules make gig work especially difficult. Other employees are leaning on family members to take extra shifts to cover bills.
If Congress ”thought that we were important, they would be doing their jobs and passing bills to make sure the government was funded correctly,” Gosman said. “That’s why they were elected, to do their jobs prior to a shutdown period. It’s just not right.”
Some TSA agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are taking gig jobs. Others are trying to juggle bills during the government shutdown. They are required to show up and work but are not getting paid. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Making plans for the long haul
Furloughed U.S. Fish & Wildlife worker Brandon Jutz just canceled hotel reservations for the surprise Christmas trip to Disneyland in California that he and his wife planned for their 7-year-old twins.
This month, the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), another federal union, sued the federal government over attempts to fire furloughed workers.
“What began as a political standoff has become a full-blown crisis for working families across the nation,” NAGE’s national leadership said in a statement. “Federal employees are being forced to shoulder an unbearable burden.”
Anxiety builds for workers
The threats about no back pay are just the latest worry for furloughed Park Ranger Kate Severson and her husband, Parker. They both have worked at Voyageurs National Park in International Falls since moving to Minnesota from Colorado in August 2024.
In February, Severson was fired in one of the DOGE rounds. She was considered a probationary worker. She was rehired after a judge deemed the firings illegal.
Kate Severson, a federal park ranger at Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, and her husband, who also works there, are spending down their savings while furloughed during the shutdown. She estimates they have enough to make it to January. (Provided by Kate Severson)
Now, with the shutdown, the couple is spending their savings. She predicts they have enough until January.
Early on, the nearly 20 staffers at Voyageurs bet on just how long the government shutdown would last. They all lost.
Wandag said her union membership, seniority and current federal law interpretation should protect her job.
Even so, “I’m worried for my colleagues and for the work that we do,” she said.
Megan Wandag, who is currently furloughed from her job as a conservation planner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because of the federal government shutdown, will start substitute teaching to make it through the shutdown. She has worked through four federal shutdowns. (Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
In a usual year, she hires and trains 15 interns and new workers. That pipeline has dried up in the past nine months, she said.
Her agency has lost roughly 2,000 workers nationwide in the permanent reductions, she said.
In the 1990s, when Fish & Wildlife staff was cut, she said the reductions seemed carefully planned and carried out with a scalpel.
At this point, she said, “it feels very much like this RIF is just [about] ‘You need to cut out X number of positions, so hack away with a big ax.’”
Furloughed workers sweat lack of paycheck
