‘My pay is being held hostage’: Federal workers on US government shutdown

US federal workers have described their state of uncertainty, with many now on unpaid leave due to a government shutdown and one remarking that their salary was being “held hostage”.

Workers deemed to be essential may still be on duty or at their desks, but they too may not be paid while the shutdown lasts.

A government shutdown is a familiar situation in the US, and can happen whenever Congress fails to vote through an annual budget. This one began on Wednesday, and this deadlock is characterised by partisan disputes over federal spending and Democratic demands to extend healthcare tax credits.

What makes this shutdown different is the fact that President Donald Trump hopes to use the opportunity to make permanent cuts to government staffing and spending.

BBC News has been speaking to federal workers about their views and how the shutdown has affected them.

Although most of the comments below are anonymous, we have verified that the speakers are federal workers. US government staff are generally forbidden from speaking to the media, and we have protected the speakers’ identities because they could face disciplinary action if they are named.

“The last shutdown was brutal”, said one federal worker, who highlighted that the impasse in 2018-19 lasted more than a month.

He added: “It forced me to withdraw money from my retirement plan just to cover my bills. Now, they’ve made it more difficult to withdraw from our retirement accounts, so if this goes as long as the last shutdown, I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills.”

The same worker said: “I voted for Trump, but I did not vote for his abuses against us.”

Another worker, for the Department of Homeland Security, based in New Jersey, took a slightly different view: “Despite working without timely pay, I support the shutdown.”

He explained: “The president’s circumvention of Congress’ power of the purse has been left unchecked by the Supreme Court. Checks and balances must be maintained.”

Meanwhile, a worker for Army Corps of Engineers said she was “rather conflicted” and did not mind a break from the “gruelling end of fiscal year – a year full of constantly shifting guidance and the ever-present threat” of a mass firing.

She said she would “support a shutdown if anything productive comes of it, but I’m unsure anything will”.

Randall from Kansas City, who works with the Aviation Weather Center, said: “I don’t like my pay being held hostage while the government fights over separate issues.”

He said he believed that keeping the National Weather Service funded was something both parties typically agreed, so asked why he was “facing sudden loss of funds because Congress is fighting over healthcare or whatever”. He emphasised that these were his personal views, and not those of his agency.

An anonymous US Air Force employee told us that if the situation was not resolved, he would have nothing to live on. He expressed his dilemma as follows: “I must still show up to work but won’t get paid, because if I don’t it’s considered AWOL”.

A worker at the Department of the Treasury had a message to the party holding out against the spending plans of Trump’s Republican party.

“I strongly implore Democrats to stand firm and not cave to the continued assault on healthcare and affordability for everyday Americans,” she said. She added that no amount of threats to her job would cause her to waver in her views.