While the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is now over, like an earthquake, millions of people are still feeling the aftershocks.
For hundreds of thousands of federal workers, those furloughed along with others, including TSA workers and air traffic controllers who remained on the job as ‘essential workers,’ pay became a memory. Photos of paychecks showing “$0.00” instead of actual pay became viral images.
The 42-day shutdown caused more than inconvenience to hundreds of thousands of workers and recipients of federal government assistance. It put inordinate pressure on places like the Pueblo Community Soup Kitchen, an organization that normally feeds a number of the city’s unhoused along with a steady population of low-income elderly and families.
Figures shared by the Soup Kitchen with The Pueblo Chieftain showed the number of meals served on certain days during the shutdown jumped by as much as 20 percent.
Had the shutdown continued, outgoing Pueblo City Councilman Dennis Flores said he was prepared to ask the city to step in and lend a hand to the Soup Kitchen.
“During Covid,” said Flores who is term-limited and will leave office at the end of the year, “we helped 603 businesses to use our half-cent sales tax.” The Pueblo native said he “felt it was an obligation on the part of the city.”
But the spike in meals along with the lingering uncertainty of knowing when normalcy, especially for SNAP recipients (who utilized the Soup Kitchen more regularly during the shutdown) returns, is still unclear.
While federal paychecks and SNAP payments—at least partial SNAP payments—will begin going out, it’s unknown exactly when SNAP recipients will be receiving them because of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld a White House decision to delay them.
Also uncertain is which federal workers are entitled to full backpay. Some federal workers considered AWOL or absent without leave for taking ‘unapproved time off’ during the shutdown, including TSA workers, will not receive back pay for that time.
Also, pay for work during the shutdown will not come at the same time for all impacted workers. Paycheck arrival will depend on which federal agency you worked for.
Workers at Veterans Affairs, Energy and HHS, along with civilian Department of Defense workers were scheduled to get paid over the weekend. Agriculture, Commerce, Treasury, Labor and Justice workers along with those at the National Finance Center were set to get paid by mid-week.
The federal shutdown caused havoc in nearly every federal agency, though members of Congress (but not their staffs) did not have pay interruptions.
President Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform, intimated a $10,000 bonus check for air traffic controllers who reported for each shift during the shutdown. Also, Homeland Security Secretary Noem held a photo-op to hand out $10,000 bonus checks to TSA workers at Houston’s airport.
“We are giving a $10,000 bonus to TSA officers across the country,” she said, for their patriotism in working everyday through the shutdown. Still, shutdown aftershocks across the country continue.
Serving three meals a day, including one hot meal, is normal for Pueblo’s Soup Kitchen. But, Kathy Cline, director at the facility, said because of the higher demand for food during the six-week shutdown, kitchen staff also added food boxes to their mission.
“I have probably made more food boxes in the last week,” Cline told The Pueblo Chieftain, “than I’ve ever made in two years.” Many of those were given away to “families with children.”
