Federal workers worry about finances as shutdown extends: NPR

In some ways, Stephanie Rogers began preparing for the present moment a few months ago, when she and her two daughters moved in with her mother about a half-hour south of Denver. High prices for everything were certainly one of the reasons.

“When you add up the numbers from both of our family households, this was going to be something we couldn’t continue long term,” says Rogers, 44 and divorced without child support.

Rogers has been a microbiologist at the Food and Drug Administration for 16 years and is now one of hundreds of thousands of federal employees who are not working. She is also a chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

Another great motivation for living together? The uncertainty of a new administration focused on shrinking government, as well as Rogers’ memory of the last federal lockdown, in 2018.

“And we live in that reality now,” she says. “And so that’s our decision, to just make sure that we all survive this process.”

Her mother, Nina Chapman, says she loves having her granddaughters around. “I was grateful to have a basement. It was just a wonderful place to put everyone,” she says.

Planning your life without salary

When the previous shutdown lasted 35 days, from late 2018 to 2019, Rogers says she was “completely unprepared.” So she made sure to plan better this time.

In the weeks leading up to that shutdown, as the deadline for funding approached, she rushed to make medical appointments. She requested early refills of the children’s medications in case she couldn’t afford them without a salary.

Rogers has also made a painful decision that will come with its own financial cost. “I had to give up my pension, which has tax consequences for next year,” she says.

Rogers has asked for flexibility with her car payment and is thinking twice about extracurricular activities for her daughters, ages 10 and 12. They may need to avoid school trips that cost more or volleyball games that are a long drive away. And the plan has been to only buy essential food.

“Actually, our freezer just went off,” she said. “We lost our meat, and it’s just devastating for us because we relied on it.”

Rogers also filed for state unemployment. Furloughed federal workers are usually eligible for thisalthough they must repay the money at the end of the shutdown, and after receiving any retroactive wage deductions during this period.

“We don’t know what our future will look like”

But President Trump has floated the idea that some workers could be denied their back paydespite a law he signed making it mandatory in 2019. He also threatened mass layoffs during the shutdown, a process the administration said it began Friday. And Trump has talked about permanently eliminating “Democratic programs,” without saying precisely what that means. Rogers says all of this makes the current shutdown very different.

“It’s terrible,” she said. “I don’t even know if I’ll have a job when I leave this job, let alone if I’ll get paid. Do I have health insurance if we don’t get a paycheck back? It’s really hard to live when you have children who depend on you.”

Rogers believes she and other federal employees do essential work — like food inspection — that the general public won’t be able to appreciate until after they’re gone.

But within the federal government, things have been stressful all year. Mass layoffs and budget cuts have left fewer people working longer hours, she says, only to receive the message now that they’re not really wanted.

“My mom worries about it all the time. My daughter woke up and said, ‘Does mom have a job today?’ We don’t know what our future is going to look like,” she says.

So even though she’s in her dream job, Rogers says she’s started applying for other positions outside of the federal government.