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Government shutdown day 1; Wisconsin workers see furloughs, frustration
About 18,000 civilian federal workers in Wisconsin are affected by the government shutdown, many of them VA employees.
MILWAUKEE - Day one of the government shutdown brought another round of failed Senate votes to reopen federal operations, leaving thousands of workers nationwide and in Wisconsin facing uncertainty.
What we know:
The Congressional Budget Office estimated before the shutdown that about 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed. Because federal law requires they eventually receive backpay, the CBO said the shutdown could cost about $400 million every day.
Mary Oppliger says the consequences touch her. She is an officer of the American Federation of Government Employees local union. She spoke as a union leader and not on behalf of the government.
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"We live paycheck to paycheck. We're not rich, we're government employees," Oppliger said. "We want to work. But we're not allowed to."
Oppliger said she was furloughed and not allowed to work – but was allowed into the office for a few hours.
Government shutdown begins: Live updates as shutdown takes effect
The U.S. government is under its first federal government shutdown in almost seven years as Senate Democrats have voted down a Republican bill to keep funding the government.
"We put messages on our email to let everybody know, contact anybody that we needed to cancel appointments, but we weren't allowed to do any work, we were just allowed to do shutdown procedures," she said.
The only federal workers who continue to work are those deemed "excepted." They must remain on the job without pay, at least for now.
"It's up to somebody to say you're essential, and non-essential," said Michele Malone, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 0003, which represents VA workers in eastern Wisconsin.
Local perspective:
Despite the shutdown, FEMA staff were still seen helping flood victims at the Waukesha County Disaster Recovery Center in Brookfield. At the same time, the Social Security Administration’s parking lot on Capitol Drive in Milwaukee was packed.
Federal law passed in 2019 ensures that both furloughed employees and those working without pay will eventually receive backpay.
Still, Malone said the financial burden is real.
"We are wasting federal dollars. This is our money that's just going to waste in these furloughs. We're wasting America's money, and we work hard for our money, and I think that we should not be wasting it," she said.
"Eventually people are going to be like, 'Okay, well, I don't have a job, I can't pay my mortgage,' or, 'Hey, my kids have to go to day care. I can't pay the day care.'"
Oppliger said some employees are weighing whether to apply for unemployment.
"A lot of us were talking about, do we file for unemployment or not? Because we're eligible for unemployment as a furloughed employee, but then we have to pay it back. It could help for the meantime, especially if this lasts a long time," she said.
Dig deeper:
Federal data show about 18,000 civilian federal workers are employed in Wisconsin.
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"It seems like that we're being used as pawns around here," Malone said.
Clement J. Zablocki Milwaukee VA Medical Center
The largest number of federal employees in Wisconsin work at Veterans Affairs, or the VA.
The last federal government shutdown lasted five weeks, ending in January 2019.
At that time, unions helped provide food to impacted workers.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.