While the federal government is up and running, at least for a few weeks, many Greenbelters felt the stress of preparing for a shutdown. While Greenbelt is not a federally-owned city anymore, many residents work, intern or otherwise interact with the federal government.
For example, several dozen students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) who intern at federal sites spent the weekend “worry[ing] about not being able to go back to continue their projects soon – especially because science fair will still happen on February 14,” said intern coordinator and physics teacher Yau-Jong Twu.
The ERHS students do not go to their internship on Mondays so they did not miss a day on their jobs.
But many federal employees were confused over the weekend about what their status would be on Monday. And even on Monday, they weren’t sure. After multiple emails and meetings, some federal workers took hikes in the nice weather or ran errands.
Carol Griffith, a human resources manager at the Department of Agriculture, explained some of the confusion. She said on Sunday that she knew she would be furloughed but that others, like scientists conducting ongoing experiments, might not. Contract employees might keep working, depending on funding sources. Or not.
Read more of this story in the January 25 News Review.