Local federal employees say returning to jobs will be welcome, but shutdown accomplished nothing
- Mark Sabbatini
- Nov 10, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 11, 2025
U.S. Senate approves deal Monday that doesn’t include Democrats’ main demand of health insurance subsidy extension; House vote expected later this week
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Jenny McBride says she’s hopeful about returning to her federal job soon, but isn’t happy about the way the 40-plus days of the government shutdown may be coming to an end.
McBride, at a free lunch for federal workers on Monday hosted by a group of supporters, said a tentative deal being voted on in the U.S. Senate during the day does little to resolve issues that caused the shutdown.
"You’ve really got to ask what was accomplished — did we accomplish anything with that?" she said. "My feeling is this looks really bad now because it was 40 days and we didn't get anywhere."
The Senate voted 60-40, with eight Democrats joining a Republican majority, for the deal that is now expected to be taken up by the House no sooner than Wednesday, according to The New York Times. The deal will reverse some actions such as firing inactive federal workers and ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are paid out.
However, the Democrats’ main demand of extending Affordable Care Act subsidies past the end of this year is not included — a key reason McBride said she is disappointed.
"I want people to go back to work, I want people to get their paychecks," she said. "I want people to get their SNAP benefits. But it was like, what, we just threw away 40 days instead of trying to actually get something for the health care subsidies. They basically gave up and I'm disappointed."
Chad Millen, a co-worker of McBride’s at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said during Monday’s lunch that the outcome resulted in no winners other than the politicians who are claiming victory for their side.
"I use this analogy all the time: the two parties drove their cars towards each other and yelled demands that the other party yields, and they crash the cars," he said. "We're all passengers in the cars. It’s kind of not really about us, but we're in the middle of what's going on. So I say this is just more than the federal employees. I think it's also the American people. Everybody — SNAP, the airports and everything — and it's a crazy way to run the government."
McBride, a former state government employee who joined NOAA four years ago, said she has made it through the shutdown that began Oct. 1 without suffering economic hardship, but that’s not the case for many of her colleagues.
"I'm old enough to have some savings. I was not in financial distress, but I know it's been really hard on people with families," she said.
The lunches are being provided twice a week by organizers that include current and former federal employees, who are using union hall space near Juneau’s federal building provided by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547.
Daniel Dune Rothman, one of the organizers, said the gatherings are meant to offer networking and practical interactions as well as food. He said there’s been ample discussion about whether federal jobs are worth holding on to, given the mass layoffs and other shakeups that have occurred since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.
"The quality of that job has gotten some significant dents over the last nine months," Rothman said.
Furloughed workers at Monday’s lunch said they expect to be able to return to work the day after a deal to end the shutdown is signed by Trump. But there won’t be an immediate end to the struggles since there will be work to catch up on — including payroll and other data processing — and Rothman said organizers of the lunch gatherings aren’t making plans yet to start winding them down.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
