After Wednesday night's vote in Congress, the federal government is on its way to reopening. And that means a return to work for hundreds of thousands of Virginia’s federal employees and federal contractors.
After more than 40 days, the federal government is set to reopen. And federal employment attorney Thom Spiggle says there are plenty of Virginia’s federal workers who are happy to go back.
“There are many married couples and they’re both federal employees, so you’ve got an entire household who’s without a paycheck for a month. It’s been rough, according to Spiggle. "And the uncertainty of the Trump administration threatening to fire a bunch of people, these reductions in force, it’s been stressful.”
Those reductions in force, or RIFs, where part of the reason Senator Tim Kaine broke with party leadership, and fellow Virginia Senator Mark Warner, and voted to support reopening. Kaine said it would make the RIFs stop, but he’s faced a flurry of negative online backlash for the vote.
It’s something Prince William County Delegate Rozia Henson, himself a federal contractor, has been hearing about from his constituents.
“A lot of people in my district, they’re split down the middle," Henson said. "Some agree with what Mark Warner is doing. Some agree with what Tim Kaine is doing.”
Henson, whose district includes Fort Belvoir, said he was one of the lucky contractors whose budget kept him working the last month, but he said his sister was less lucky, using saved up PTO to get by.
And while there may be some who are happy to return to work - or at least paid work - Northern Virginia’s newest congressman, James Walkinshaw, fears the deal may do more harm than good.
“I’m glad that the shutdown is over," Walkinshaw told Radio IQ. "But unfortunately, the agreement didn’t secure long term protections to prevent Trump from slashing federal programs and federal jobs.”
President Donald Trump signed the budget bill late Wednesday night. It ends the longest shutdown in US history but sets the next funding deadline to January 30th.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
