A Washington, DC-area food bank serving federal workers impacted by the government shutdown ran out of items on Friday morning while people were still waiting in line — one day after House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) called suffering families a “leverage” to use against Republicans.
A “massive line” of government employees and contractors gathered at a Capital Area Food Bank drive in northern Virginia to get much-needed groceries before the organization ran out of food “just over an hour into distribution,” PBS News’ Lisa Desjardins reported:
Desjardins was in a car with a woman who “teared up after hearing this,” she noted.
Meanwhile in Prince George’s County, Maryland, NPR reported seeing “middle-class professionals lined up for boxes of pasta, protein and produce to feed their families” at another Capital Area Food Bank location.
That drive also ran out of food after passing out boxes to 150 government employees, before getting a second batch.
“After a two-hour wait, Wanda Bright had finally reached the front of the line — just as the first batch of supplies ran out,” the outlet reported.
“Fortunately, reinforcements had been called in, and cheers erupted as a second truck backed into the shopping center parking lot. Bright sighed with relief as volunteers handed over bread and other provisions to help get her family through the week.”
There are an estimated 700,000 federal workers across the U.S. who have been furloughed due to the shutdown, which is now on day 24. The Washington, DC area, including Virginia and Maryland, are home to about 20 percent of the federal workforce.
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“I’ve not been in this predicament ever. I served 21 years in the military. I’ve been a federal government employee for the past two years,” one furloughed worker told NBC News at the food drive in Prince George’s County. “The reason I wanted to become a federal government employee was stability. That stability, that rug, if you will, has been snatched away from us.”
Clark, who blamed House Republicans and lamented how government workers would be furloughed when a government shutdown nearly took place in September 2023, showed how little she actually cares about federal employees in a recent interview with Fox News.
“I mean, shutdowns are terrible and, of course, there will be, you know, families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage times we have,” the Democrat whip said.
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“It is an inflection point in this budget process where we have tried to get the Republicans to meet with us and prioritize the American people, and it’s been an absolute refusal, and they were willing to let government shut down when they control the House, the Senate and the White House rather than come and talk about an issue as important to the American people is if they can afford healthcare,” she argued.
Despite Clark’s claims, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other powerful Democrats have continued to reject negotiations from the GOP on passing a clean continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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