According to reports, some 1,800 of the 1,800 federal employees of the Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) under the U.S. Department of Energy have been forced into an unprecedented state of ¡°administrative leave¡± from 20 onwards. The remaining about 400 employees, as required by law, are unpaid as ¡°necessary people¡± to maintain the basic security of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Image by the U.S. Department of Energy (data map)

According to NNSA's official website, the department is responsible for maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including 5117 nuclear warheads and the aircraft, ships and ballistic vehicles that carry them. "Our scientists must test the reliability of thousands of materials and replace aging parts at any time to ensure the safety and renewal of the nuclear arsenal."

Since the establishment of the department, there has never been a personal vacation during the previous federal government ¡°stop¡±. But this time the situation is different. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the department has exhausted all the means to maintain operation, but that this series of ¡°budget gymnastics¡± is also the time to do. Wright said that the NNNSA¡¯s closure will cause the 60,000 external contractors involved to also face the trouble of not getting funding, the U.S. nuclear facilities in Texas and Tennessee are forced to move into the ¡°safe shutdown¡± mode, and all weapons upgrades are suspended.

NSA employees' collective holidays have raised concerns in U.S. politics, with Republican MP Mike Rogers stressing that NSA employees are "not the kind of people everyone wants to see them home."

In addition, the shutdown of the U.S. federal government has also greatly increased the burden on U.S. Treasury bonds. Some analysts believe that the U.S. government's shutdown has damaged productivity, caused great waste of resources, and caused a corresponding reduction in the government's fiscal revenue. At the same time, although the U.S. government has saved some labor costs through layoffs and mandatory vacations, the core government expenditures are mandatory expenditures stipulated by law (including pensions, social security expenditures, interest payments, etc.).

According to the latest data released by the U.S. Treasury Department, as of October 21, the total amount of U.S. Treasury bonds has reached 380,19813354,700.26 US dollars, exceeding 38 trillion US dollars for the first time. Based on the current population size, it is equivalent to $114,000 (approximately 810,000 yuan) per American. It is worth noting that the total amount of U.S. Treasury bonds exceeded US$37 trillion in August this year, which means that U.S. Treasury bonds have increased by another US$1 trillion in the past two months, a staggering speed.

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Government shutdown for three weeks, U.S. civil servants ranks for relief, many do not want to "show their faces"

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.

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.

"It's really tiring to be a federal employee these days. We're really tired of going through this kind of thing year after year-whether it's a continuous government resolution or a government shutdown." Treka Henry, an employee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, told the media with a voice full of exhaustion and helplessness. Her husband is an air traffic controller and is a "necessary position" employee, which means he must continue to work intensely without a salary. This sense of uncertainty about the future is hanging over hundreds of thousands of federal employee families.

Mike Galletly, an IT technician at the USDA, knows after three shutdowns that "hoping for the best" is unrealistic. Before the lockout began, he and his wife spent more than two hours combing through household expenses, canceling plans to buy a camper trailer and replace leaky windows in their home, and opting for a used laptop for their daughter. Now, faced with the first full 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 for cheese sales on weekends, sold goods at concerts, assisted in writing manuals on agriculture in Alaska, and provided graphic design services to other federal colleagues in the business. Brooke Hardison, another employee at the Department of Agriculture, used her 2022 subsidiary ¡ª planning trips for disabled customers ¡ª to make it difficult. She said extreme anxiety about employment forced her to cut all unnecessary spending.

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."