Fed Workers Line Up For Food Drive Amid Government Shutdown
Federal Workers Line Up For Food Drive Amid Government Shutdown
The government shutdown has entered its third week, and federal workers are feeling the strain more and more. On Tuesday, a food drive intended to help furloughed federal workers had lines wrapped around the building as they go nearly a month without pay.
According to CNN, Capital Area Food Bank partnered with No Limits Outreach Ministries to host the food drive in Landover, Maryland. The event was exclusively for federal workers and required participants to show their work ID to receive food. Capital Area Food Bank said they helped 370 households, which was double the number of federal workers they were expecting.
“I’m overwhelmed by the line,” Oliver Carter, the pastor at No Limits Outreach Ministries and organizer of the event, told CNN. “I didn’t think we were going to have this many federal employees.” The timing was less than ideal for the food bank, as some of their federal funding has been slashed this year. “It’s a perfect storm of increased need in our community and throughout the country,” the food bank CEO, Radha Muthiah, told WAMU. “At the very same time, we’ve got reduced sources of food supply.”
“I can’t believe I’m here,” Rolanda Williams, who works in the Social Security Administration, told CNN while standing in line at the food drive. “You always thought that getting a government job or you know, a federal job, that that’s security, and it’s not,” Williams added.
The government shutdown began at the beginning of October as a result of Senate Democrats refusing to vote in favor of a short-term spending bill unless Republicans extended insurance subsidies provided through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While Republicans currently hold the majority in the House and Senate, spending bills need 60 votes to pass. With Republicans only controlling 53 seats in the Senate, Democrats have rare leverage to negotiate with the ruling party.
Republicans have refused to even negotiate extending the subsidies. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has only offered a potential vote on extending the subsidies after the shutdown ends. Considering the fact that Republicans let the subsidies expire and that repealing the ACA has long been one of their goals, the offer isn’t really a compromise when the outcome is likely to be a no. Without the subsidies in place, monthly premiums for ACA insurance are projected to go up by 75%. As a result, millions of Americans are projected to become uninsured next year as a result of being unable to afford the monthly payments.
As of Wednesday, this has officially become the second-longest government shutdown. With no clear end in sight, the situation has only grown more stressful for the affected federal workers, many of whom are expected to work without pay through the government shutdown.
“I’ve not been in this predicament ever. I served 21 years in the military. I’ve been a federal government employee for the past two years. The reason I wanted to become a federal government employee was stability. That stability, that rug, if you will, has been snatched away from us,” a federal employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job told NBC News.
“With my rent due next week, I can take anything I can get,” Summer Kerksick, a federal contractor and market research analyst with the Rural Export Center in the U.S. Department of Commerce, told CNN. “I haven’t gotten a paycheck this month, so the free groceries is very important, very helpful,” she added. “I’ve got to save every dime at this point.”
So we’ve got federal workers being unable to feed their families as a result of the GOP being unwilling to make health care affordable for millions of Americans. But America first, right?
SEE ALSO:
Here’s Where We Are In The Current Government Shutdown
Federal Workforce Layoffs Begin Amid Government Shutdown
Mike Johnson Says Government Shutdown Could Be Longest Ever
Food Stamps At Risk As Government Shutdown Continues
When The Government Starves Us: How SNAP Cuts Target Black Survival
Federal Workers Line Up For Food Drive Amid Government Shutdown was originally published on newsone.com
