Politics & Government
Federal Workers In Denver Protest Government Shutdown
'Do your job so that we can do ours,' was the motto of the march Thursday outside of the U.S. Custom House in Denver.
DENVER, CO – By Lena Novins Montague for The Colorado Independent.
Nathan Wiser, who monitors water quality for the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver, has been unable to go to work for 20 days due to the partial government shutdown. So on Thursday afternoon, he joined roughly 150 other federal workers in a rally outside of the U.S. Custom House in Denver.
Their message to the government: “Do your job so that we can do ours.”
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Organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, the rally was part of a nationwide protest over the shutdown, which entered its 20th day Thursday. The shutdown impacts or could impact some 800,000 federal workers, including 53,200 in Colorado.
“I’m here because I am a furloughed federal employee,” Wiser said. “I am not being paid. I am being shut out of the office. I am not allowed to go to work.” Wiser said his frustration with the shutdown is twofold: one, he said his work is important for public safety, and two, on a more personal level, he hates burning through his savings.
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“My mortgage company still has to be paid. My auto loans still have to be paid. My family still needs food. My kids are in school.”
Wiser regulates injection wells, which store wastewater and chemicals from mines and oil wells deep underground. When an injection well has a problem and shuts down, the EPA must approve the well before operations can resume. But if EPA inspectors aren’t working, “They [the oil and gas industry] are then faced with the choice of illegally operating the well, which is not a good thing to do, or not being able to use it. I also need to make sure that the way they have fixed it is protective of drinking water resources. My job is to protect aquifers,” Wiser explained.
Friday will be the first federal payday since the start of the shutdown, and unless Congress and the president can reach an agreement to reopen the government before then, many federal employees will not receive a check.
READ MORE in The Colorado Independent
Image: Furloughed federal workers rallied Thursday afternoon outside the U.S. Custom building in Denver. (Photo by Lena Novins Montague)
