KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the federal government reopened for business Thursday morning, thousands of federal workers returned to their jobs in downtown Kansas City.
As they were on their way back to work, some of the workers told FOX 4 News they’re worried they may have to go through all of this again in a few months.
The government may be back in business again and the nation may no longer be in the danger of defaulting on its debt. However, workers who spoke with FOX 4 see this only as a stop gap measure.
A steady stream of workers returned to the Richard Bolling Federal Building in downtown Kansas City Thursday. The government is the metro’s largest employer. For the past two weeks, some of the people FOX 4 has interviewed have been furloughted or worse yet — continued to work without being paid. They say it has been a struggle trying to make ends meet, especially since the last paycheck they received significantly shortchanged their pay.
“It’s kind of upsetting,” Monica Tisch, who works for the Social Security Administation told FOX 4 News.
“Those who are government workers, we come in, we get our job done. We have a job to do and we have to get it done. It just seems like the people in Congress, they are not doing their jobs. They are supposed to be there. They are supposed to be working. They are supposed to be working together. They’re not supposed to be playing a football game of my side versus your side. They’re supposed to be working together to get a job done,” she said.
But the deal worked out Wednesday, only continues to fund the government until Jan. 15 and the increased debt ceiling expires on Feb. 7. So workers who are used to being a political football in this game being played between Republicans and Democrats, fear they are going to experience turmoil in their lives again after the holiday season.
All of the workers FOX 4 News spoke with on Thursday agreed that the last two weeks have been frustrating and morale within some federal agencies is at an all-time low.They’re happy to be back at work, but dread what may be just around the corner for them in a few months.
