On October 21st, the U.S. federal government "shut down" for three full weeks. About 700,000 to 750,000 federal employees have been forced to leave. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of "essential" employees, including air traffic controllers and personnel of the Transportation Safety Administration, must work without pay.

At noon that day, Xinhua News Agency reporters saw at a relief point in the eastern suburbs of Washington, DC, that federal employees who were owed wages lined up for tens of meters to receive free food to solve their "urgent needs". The event was hosted by the Capital Region Food Relief Center, a nonprofit organization. After checking each person's certificate, the staff distributed chicken, pasta, milk and other foods to them. During the distribution process, a truck loaded with relief food arrived, and the crowd cheered and applauded enthusiastically, breaking the originally dull atmosphere for a while.

On October 21, in the city of Heightsville, Maryland, a federal employee received free food.

Several media outlets gathered at the scene, and staff advised the media not to photograph the faces of federal employees unless they were agreed, because many of them did not want to ¡°show their faces.¡±

U.S. civil servants seek rescue

¡°The money in your hands can only last for a month.¡±

With the government¡¯s ¡°stop-down¡± ongoing, the capital¡¯s regional food centers have announced that they will provide free food for federal employees and contractors starting this week, the first relief campaign on 21st. The organization will also launch relief campaigns later this week in Washington, D.C. and several locations in neighboring Maryland and Virginia. In addition, many restaurants and bars in the capital area have also started offering discounts for federal employees.

On October 21, in the city of Heightsville, Maryland, the United States, federal employees received free food.

Pamelia Carter, an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture and a volunteer of the cooperative agency of the relief activities that day, told reporters that the 24th was originally the day of monthly salary payment, but from the current situation, "there will be no salary". She has a family of five, and an 18-year-old daughter is in college. The tuition fee is "not cheap", and her loss of income will bring "absolute difficulties" to the family's finances. She told reporters that although there is a little emergency funds at home, she doesn't know how long the emergency will last. "The money in my hand can last for a month, but what about the second month?"

Theodore Popov, a civil worker at the Ministry of Defence, told reporters that his monthly salary was divided into two times at the beginning and at the end of the month. Due to the government's "stop", he was forced to leave from October 1st, and currently only receives that portion of the salary at the beginning of the month, fearing that the other portion will not be received at the end of the month.

"Being a federal employee these days is really tiring. We're really tired of going through this kind of thing year after year-whether it's an ongoing government resolution or a government shutdown." When Treka Henry, an employee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was interviewed by the media, her voice was full of exhaustion and helplessness. Her husband is an air traffic controller and is in a "necessary position", which means he must continue to work intensively without salary. That sense of uncertainty about the future is lingering over hundreds of thousands of federal employee families.

Mike Galletly, an IT technician at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, knew that it was unrealistic to ¡°hop for the best¡± after experiencing three shutdowns. He and his wife spent more than two hours before the start of the shutdowns cleaning up family expenses, canceling plans to buy a camping trailer and replace the leaked windows at home, and choosing a second-hand laptop for their daughter. Today, faced with the first complete paycheck that is about to be missed, He had to apply to the bank to delay the repayment of his mortgage and car loan, and applied for unemployment insurance.

For employees who have been forced off to compensate for an income interruption, many have begun to look for side jobs. In Washington, D.C., a federal employee wrote in the profile of a pet care website that he was ¡°in shutdown¡± and could ¡°care for your pet while the government shut down¡±. There was also an employee who accepted the ¡°delayed resignation plan¡± to leave the Department of Energy, who worked on turns in front of the gym in exchange for a discounted gym membership fee.

Sharon Perrone, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has also worked in four subsidiaries. She went to the agricultural market to sell cheese on weekends, sold goods at concerts, assisted in writing manuals on agriculture in Alaska, and provided graphic design services to other federal colleagues who were engaged in the business. Brooke Hardison, another employee at the Department of Agriculture, used her 2022 subsidiary, planning trips for disabled customers, to make it difficult.

There are no signs of end.

¡°Prices are high, people live hard, and the situation is worrisome.¡±

At a time of increasing economic pressure on federal employees, the government's "stopping" has not yet shown signs of ending. On 20th, the 11th U.S. Senate attempt to pass the federal provisional allowance bill failed. Democrats insisted that any agreement must respond to their demands for health care benefits; Republicans insisted that the government should continue to operate at the current level through the provisional allowance bill.

The mutual accusations and "blaming" between the two parties continue. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on social media platform X on the 21st that the Democratic Party's "radical left" demanded a "shutdown" of the government, and Democratic leaders complied with this request. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on X that Republican leaders continue to claim that Democrats are making "extreme left" demands in the Senate, but reducing medical insurance premiums and saving tens of millions of Americans from financial bankruptcy has nothing to do with extreme left, extreme right or middle ground. Schumer also said Republicans claim they are ready to get to work, but Johnson and House Republicans are still on vacation.

The U.S. federal government has been "stop" for three weeks, the White House (data map)

At a time when the two parties are deadlocked, the impact of the "shutdown" on all aspects of society is further emerging. According to the data of the American flight tracking website, from the 18th to the 20th, there were nearly 20,000 flights delayed in and out of the United States, of which the delayed flights reached the peak on the 19th, reaching nearly 8,000. Thirteen thousand air traffic controllers and 50,000 employees of the Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for U.S. airport security, continued to work without income this month, according to the daily The Hill.

On the 20th, more than 70% of the employees of the National Nuclear Safety Administration of the United States began to take unpaid vacation, leaving only about 400 people to continue working. Although Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that there is no risk to U.S. nuclear safety at present, people from all walks of life are still worried.

During the protests held last weekend, the American people expressed dissatisfaction with the government's "stop". Special education teacher Chelsea Rivas told reporters that he had recently planned to take students to visit outside the school, but failed to do so because the museum closed.

"The last government shutdown lasted for 35 days. The political environment was milder than now. Now everything is highly tense. This time the government shutdown may last longer and have a greater impact." Bolden said,"Prices are already high, the economic situation is not good, people's lives are difficult, and now more people will not be able to receive wages, and the situation is worrying."

Poff expressed the hope that Congress will fulfill its duties. "We just chose these people for the normal operation of the government. Now, however, we can't keep our jobs, political struggles continue, and they seem to use the American people as bargaining chips, hurting ordinary people."

Edited | The Duodenum Mount.

proofreading| He Xiaotao

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