Post date: Oct 07, 2013 8:22:32 PM
As the U.S. government enters its second week of a shutdown, civilian employees of the Department of Defense return to work at the Pentagon, but other federal workers and tourists are disappointed in the ongoing budget crisis.
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 7, 2013) (NBC) - Some 350,000 civilian employees of the U.S. Department of Defense began to return to work at the Pentagon on Monday (October 7) as the U.S. government enters its second week of a shutdown.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had recalled the defense workers over the weekend under the Pay Our Military Act.Conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have resisted funding the government for the current fiscal year until they extract concessions from President Barack Obama that would delay or defund his signature healthcare law, commonly referred to as Obamacare.
Civilian defense employees make up nearly half of the 800,000 federal workers that had been furloughed and their return to work will ease the impact of the government shutdown.
But scores of other U.S. government employees remain at home, unsure when they will be allowed to go back to work.
Among them was a furloughed federal worker taking a morning walk along theNational Mall on Monday morning who didn't want to give her name.
She said the shutdown was making her feel "drained" and frustrated with the government.
"I said I'm going to come down here just to see what was going on, if somebody was protesting, I was going to join right on in," the woman said.
Nearby, Arizona resident Daniel Gonzales was visiting the Mall with his wife. He said it was his first trip to the nation's capitol, a "once in a lifetime opportunity" he's been planning for months.
But now Gonzales might not get to use his tickets to tour the White House and he says he's going home "empty-handed".
"I feel like a put down. I'm a tax payer and I expect for the government to respond equally back to me for all my years of taxpaying," said Gonzales. "I'm just going home very disappointed."
The government shutdown seemed to baffle Copenhagen resident Line Nordbergwho said she was visiting Washington with her two sons from Denmark.
They've had to content themselves with the "exteriors" of museums and other sights during the shutdown and she's surprised by the quiet of the city on what should have been the start of a busy work week.
"If I will take a run in a Sunday morning in Copenhagen it will be just this empty," said Nordberg. "It's… a little sad."