Wednesday’s federal government shutdown left workers to confront lost income, layoffs, and, for some, a complicated sense of relief that Democrats are challenging President Donald Trump. 

The shutdown began at midnight Tuesday after Congress failed to approve a funding bill that would have kept agencies operating until Nov. 21. Lawmakers remained deadlocked over Democratic demands to extend expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies, a fight that Republicans and the White House refuse to have until the government reopens.

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The Washington Examiner spoke to 10 federal employees working in agencies nationwide, all requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. 

“This is my third shutdown since I joined the federal workforce 13 years ago, and it’s definitely very demoralizing,” said a War Department IT specialist in Texas, who, as an essential employee, must continue working without pay. 

“We have zero control over what happens with keeping our jobs. But honestly, if Democrats are standing up to Trump over healthcare, then it’s a worthy cause. If it’s going to save millions of people’s lives … of course it’s a worthy cause,” the person added. 

The specialist recalled being furloughed without pay under both parties — two weeks during President Barack Obama’s term, and more than 30 days during Trump’s first term in office, in a fight over border wall funding. He said he eventually was deemed “critical,” meaning he had to report for duty even as paychecks stopped. “With Obama, I understood it; he wanted to pass the [Affordable Care Act] and give people healthcare. With Trump, it was just selfish, about trying to repeal it over and over,” he said. 

Another decadelong Pentagon employee, who described herself as a Republican and military spouse, said she was furloughed but saw value in the shutdown. “I’m a patriot. I’m tired. I welcome the shutdown to see if we can get some bipartisan efforts back on track,” she said. “I’m tired of the rhetoric, I’m tired of being a toy to play with. I’m a real person, with a real life, who believes in what I do, making a difference for this country in the long term.”

She said she voted for Trump in 2024, calling it the “lesser of two evils,” but described herself as a moderate frustrated by a system that ignores the political center. “Trump wasn’t a good option, but neither was Harris for me,” she said. “Our country is too divided. You only get participation at the extremes, but there is this huge middle ground that is being ignored.”

Those concerns are being expressed against in a political fight on Capitol Hill with no end in sight. Republicans note that their funding bill is a “clean” extension, meaning it contains no “poison pill” provisions, and have argued the patch is necessary to buy more time for a bipartisan appropriations process.

However, Democrats, locked out of power in Washington, see the funding bill as one of their only points of leverage and face pressure from their left flank after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) caved to Republicans in a March spending fight.

“The other party has a decision to make: Do they want to vote to reopen the government, or don’t they? These discussions, negotiations, all the things … they want to talk about, we’re willing to do, but not until they reopen the government and quit taking the American people hostage,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Wednesday on the Greta Van Susteren Show. “This is a very simple, straightforward issue.”

The shutdown is expected to result in roughly 750,000 federal workers being furloughed nationwide, with the Trump administration pushing to permanently lay off certain non-essential employees during the funding lapse.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told House Republicans in a closed-door call on Wednesday that layoffs of federal workers would be announced “in a day or two,” according to sources familiar with the discussion. The call came on the first day of the shutdown, as Democrats in Congress rejected a short-term Republican funding plan while pressing their demands on healthcare, including a rollback of the Medicaid reforms in Trump’s tax law.

At the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, part of the Commerce Department, employees were told that a 1% reduction-in-force would take effect, cutting about 140 of its 14,000 staff. Workers stressed, however, that the orders were first issued in July and were not triggered by the shutdown, but rather delayed implementation as the agency adjusted under a new director who took over last month.

“Our agency is unique in that it is self-funded, and we retain a reserve to keep our doors open even during shutdown,” one employee said. “But that doesn’t remove any anxiety and potential disruption to daily life and life plans.”

Despite the uncertainty, the employee said it was encouraging to see Democratic leaders such as Schumer take a harder line and “step up and stand for their policies,” even if the shutdown meant pain in the short term. She hoped employees would eventually receive back pay “for what I hope would be a short period of shutdown if policies actually get through.”

At the Food and Drug Administration, one employee said she had been designated “excepted,” required to keep working even as her paycheck is frozen. She said her family could manage for a few weeks on her spouse’s income, but worried what would happen if the shutdown dragged on. “The anxiety comes from the threats of [reduction in force], firings, knowing if the pay will really be there.”

Still, she admitted feeling a strange sense of relief. “Trump has controlled everything and Congress has rolled over,” she said. “Someone stood up to the bully. Honestly, I am an anxious mess … but this needs to happen. It’s a difficult place to be, you want to puke and cheer.”

The FDA, in particular, descended into a state of disarray as funding ran out on Wednesday. Workers had only four hours to shut down after receiving furlough notices, and many later discovered their notices were wrong. “It’s chaos,” she said.

Another FDA employee said her division is financed through a working capital fund, allowing her to stay on the job and receive pay during the shutdown. Still, she said the agency had issued stop-work orders to vendors, creating uncertainty for contractors and projects. “Shutdowns accomplish nothing and hurt so many people,” she said. “Trump will continue to lay off federal workers with or without a funding resolution.” 

Government contractors, who are not legally guaranteed back pay, expressed even deeper concern. A Department of Transportation contractor said his team had been ordered to stop work on Wednesday morning and told they would not be paid during the shutdown. “There’s no legislation mandating backpay for contractors after shutdowns, so those are just paychecks we’ll never see,” he said.

He described the morning as surreal: logging in only to set up out-of-office emails, pre-fill timesheets, and signing off, likely for the rest of the week. “It’s a strange situation because we can’t work and we aren’t getting paid, so you don’t really want to do any unnecessary spending while you’re out of work,” he said. “Everyone was pretty quiet this morning during the 30 minutes we were allotted for an orderly shutdown.”

“It’s honestly a really stressful situation, and it feels like we don’t matter as employees,” he added, noting that his healthcare coverage would lapse if the shutdown lasted more than 30 days.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), whose state is home to more than 300,000 federal employees, said the anger he is hearing from constituents mirrors what workers themselves are saying. “What I hear from federal workers is they’ve been on a slow shutdown firing since the beginning of this administration,” Warner said. “They want us to push back.”

Some essential services remain open. At the Veterans Crisis Line, a longtime employee said she expected no disruption but warned of a surge in calls. “We are expecting a major increase because there are veterans who are also government employees,” she said. More broadly, healthcare for veterans will continue uninterrupted, with the Department of Veterans Affairs contingency plan noting that about 97% of its workforce will remain on the job.

FEDERAL AGENCY DIRECTS FURLOUGHED WORKERS TO BLAME DEMOCRATS FOR SHUTDOWN IN OUT-OF-OFFICE REPLY

Across the government, the shutdown left workers caught between anxiety and resolve. 

“We’re accused of being lazy, told we don’t deserve our paychecks, our unions canceled, we’re demonized,” said the Pentagon IT specialist in Texas. “If furloughs are the price of protecting healthcare for millions, that’s a fight I can live with.”