By FATIMA HUSSEIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JESSE BEDAYN and SAFIYAH RIDDLE, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — With each passing day of the federal government shutdown, a whole lot of 1000’s of federal workers furloughed or working with out pay face mounting monetary pressure. And now they’re confronting new uncertainty with the Trump administration’s promised layoffs.
Little progress has been made to finish the shutdown because it enters its third week, with Republicans and Democrats digging in and satisfied their messaging is resonating with voters. The destiny of the federal staff is amongst a number of strain factors that might finally push the edges to comply with resolve the stalemate.
The Capitol is seen underneath grey skies on the thirteenth day of the federal government shutdown, in Washington, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (AP Photograph/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Luckily I was able to pay rent this month,” stated Peter Farruggia, a furloughed federal employee. “But for sure I am going to have bills that are going to go unpaid this month, and I really don’t have many options.”
The shutdown has a well-recognized really feel for a lot of federal workers who endured previous stalemates — together with throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period — however this time, the stakes are increased. The Republican White Home is leveraging federal staff’ jobs to strain Democrats to melt their calls for.
The shutdown started on Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding repair and demanded that the invoice embody an extension of federal subsidies for medical health insurance underneath the Reasonably priced Care Act. Trump and different Republican leaders have stated the federal government should reopen earlier than they’ll negotiate with Democrats on the well being subsidies.
Trump administration launches wave of layoffs
Farruggia is the pinnacle of the American Federation of Authorities Staff native representing workers on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, an company that confronted a wave of layoffs over the weekend. Like 8,000 different CDC workers who’ve been furloughed from the company, he was already residing paycheck to paycheck, and the partial pay that arrived Friday was his final till the federal government comes again on-line.
With the company’s management in turmoil and nonetheless rattled from a capturing, the shutdown and new firings imply “people are scared, nervous, anxious, but also really just exasperated,” Farruggia stated.
After Russ Vought, the director of the Workplace of Administration and Finances, stated final week on social media that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans geared toward lowering the scale of the federal authorities, Vice President JD Vance doubled down on the risk Sunday, saying “the longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be.”
The layoffs have begun throughout federal businesses. Labor unions have already filed a lawsuit to cease the transfer by Trump’s finances workplace.
In a court docket submitting on Friday, the Workplace of Administration and Finances stated nicely over 4,000 federal workers from eight departments and businesses can be fired together with the shutdown.
Jessica Candy, an Albany, New York, Social Safety claims specialist who’s a union steward of AFGE Native 3343 in New York, stated, “I, myself, have a backup plan” in case she is fired in the course of the shutdown, “but I know most people don’t.”
She says the Social Safety Administration is already so short-staffed from layoffs earlier this yr introduced on by the Division of Authorities Effectivity, she doesn’t worry a large layoff in the course of the shutdown.
“The one thing this administration has taught me is that nothing is ever for certain, even if it’s codified into law,” she stated.
Having acquired a partial cost in her final paycheck, Candy has begun reaching out to her native energy firms to request that she not get charged late charges, since “my bills won’t wait for me to eventually get paid.”
Shutdown drags on, and frustration grows
For some federal staff, this isn’t their first shutdown — the final one, throughout Trump’s first time period in 2019, stretched a report 34 days. However this time, federal workers are getting used extra instantly as leverage within the political battle over authorities funding.
A Transportation Safety Administration employee heads into the east safety checkpoint in Denver Worldwide Airport Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photograph/David Zalubowski)
The Republican administration final week warned that there can be no assured again pay for federal staff throughout a shutdown — a reversal of long-standing coverage affecting roughly 750,000 furloughed workers, in line with a White Home memo. The transfer, which Trump later backtracked on, was extensively seen as a strong-arm tactic.
Adam Pelletier, a Nationwide Labor Relations Board area examiner whose company furloughed almost all of its workforce on Oct. 1, going from roughly 1,100 staff to fewer than a dozen folks, stated he wouldn’t thoughts if the shutdown continued if it meant significant progress towards gaining well being care protections for People throughout the nation — a key demand by Democrats for ending the stalemate.
Pelletier, a union chief for NLRB native 3, stated “right now, nothing is being investigated at the NLRB. There’s no elections for unions or elections for decertifications. Basically nothing is happening.”
As for the monetary pressure on staff, he stated staff can’t even discover alternate employment to climate the shutdown as a result of “the ethics office that would approve of those requests is not staffed now.”
Employees used as ‘political pawns’
Nationwide Treasury Staff Union President Doreen Greenwald, which represents staff throughout dozens of federal businesses, stated a number of of the union’s members had been laid off as of Friday. The Treasury Division would lose 1,446 staff, in line with the submitting.
Greenwald stated it was unlucky that the Trump administration was utilizing “federal employees as political pawns by furloughing and proposing to fire them all to try to cause pressure in a political game of chicken.”
“This isn’t about one party or the other. It’s about real people,” stated Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Authorities Staff.
From left, Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise, R-La., and Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., discuss to reporters as a authorities shutdown begins its tenth day, in Washington, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (AP Photograph/J. Scott Applewhite)
“The correction officer worrying about his next paycheck. The TSA officer who still shows up to work because he or she loves their country, even though they’re not getting paid. No American should ever have to choose between serving their country and feeding their family,” Kelley stated.
Kelley and different main federal employee union leaders gathered blocks from the Capitol final week, urging congressional leaders to discover a answer and put “people over politics.” The occasion grew emotional at instances, with union heads outlining the difficulties dealing with their members and the stakes rising every day.
Randy Erwin, president of the Nationwide Federation of Federal Staff, which represents 110,000 staff nationwide, known as on each side of Congress to discover a decision. He stated Trump appeared to purpose to “degrade, frighten, antagonize hardworking federal employees.”
Chris Bartley, political program coordinator for the Worldwide Affiliation of Hearth Fighters, stated 1000’s of firefighters had been exhibiting up for work with out pay out of a way of devotion however careworn that might have broader penalties.
“Families go without income,” Bartley stated. “Morale and retention suffer. Public safety is compromised.”
Bedayn reported from Denver, and Riddle reported from Montgomery, Ala.
Initially Printed: October 15, 2025 at 9:29 AM EDT
