Phones go straight to voicemail. Messages on federal government websites apologetically confirm their dormant state, if they are even accessible. Amid the 800,000 furloughed government employees, some are public information officers in charge of communicating with the media and providing essential information. Those who are not furloughed are often overburdened and short-staffed. There is never a good time for Congress to slip into a political coma, but last week was an especially bad time to do so with Affordable Care Act Health Care Exchanges opening, the federal government shutting down and a car crash ending in tragedy in Washington D.C.
Not only are these employees being kept out of their offices, but have been told they, at discretion of their specific agency, may be terminated if they use work email or make calls outside of work.
As someone who was in charge of covering several of these events, the usually simple task of contacting government employees became a job all within itself. When the government fails to pass even a temporary budget, causing our federal system to shut down, the government has failed the very public it serves.
The feds promised only “non-essential” workers would be furloughed, but these so-called “non-essential” employees are many of my go-to sources. Despite this misleading and condescending term, these employees are absolutely essential to the function of any system that refers to itself as an open democracy. Without honest and open government, there can be no freedom. When our congress, paralyzed by party politics, fails to pass a budget, our robust tradition of open government should not be trimmed as if it were simply fat in the system.
Oh, you may have heard many members of Congress may be refusing their salaries or donating to charity the money they collected for the time the government was shut down. That’s nice, but you know what’s really nice? When our elected officials do their job. Because when the agencies they oversee can’t be reached, I can’t do mine.
What a shame, because I — and I think many of The Post’s readers — would love to know just how many Wayne National Forest employees have been furloughed; I would love to know if any of the area’s working federal government employees will be furloughed if the shutdown continues, as I have heard may happen.
But we’re just going to have to wait for those answers. I have a laundry list of story ideas, but few sources. The public ought to demand Congress to reopen the government because in this country the government answers to the people, not vice-versa. I am in no way blaming one party, all I am asking is what the public has been crying for. Congress, do your job and re-open the government, so I too can get back to work.
Lucas Daprile is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. He is a staff writer for The Post where he covers State government and public policy. Email him at ld311710@ohiou.edu
