Walled off

With each passing day since a partial shutdown of the federal government began on Dec. 22, Teresa Stewart has felt her stress level rising.

“I’m just trying to take one day at a time,” said the staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, who lives in Hood County and works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At the time the HCN went to press Friday morning, the shutdown ordered by Trump was still in effect. If it was still ongoing when Friday turned into Saturday, that means it is the longest shutdown of the federal government in history.

It all began after Trump refused to sign a bi-partisan spending bill unless $5.7 billion was added for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. He campaigned on a promise to build such a wall, but vowed that Mexico – not American taxpayers – would pay for it.

The $5.7 billion represents only a portion of the wall’s cost.

After Democrats balked at the president’s demands and the Senate failed to break the impasse, Trump ordered a partial shutdown of the federal government.

As someone who performs program audits in the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) division, Stewart is considered a “non-essential” employee.

She has endured previous shutdowns during her 30-year career.

In 2013, during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama, the third-longest federal government shutdown occurred during a fight over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The longest government shutdown – a record that may have been broken after the HCN went to press – occurred during the tenure of another Democratic president, Bill Clinton. The federal government was immobilized for 21 days – from Dec. 5, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996 – while Clinton and Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrangled over spending cuts.

Stewart said that when it looked on Friday, Dec. 21 as if a government shutdown was imminent she and other USDA employees were instructed to record voice messages and draft automatic-reply emails explaining that they were on furlough.

“So I did that not knowing if we would come back that following Monday or not,” Stewart said.

The shutdown became real just hours after Stewart left her office, affecting about 800,000 federal employees.

As the days turned into weeks, there were ripple effects. More and more Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who work airport checkpoints called in sick and inspections conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration dropped dramatically.

This shutdown, Stewart said, “has a different feel with Trump being the fly in the ointment, so to speak.”

If it sounds from that statement as if Stewart was criticizing the president, she wasn’t.

Trump’s “fly in the ointment” stubbornness is exactly why she and others voted for him.

While her financial future may be uncertain, one thing isn’t: her support of Trump.

WORKING WITHOUT PAY

Stewart wasn’t the only Hood County resident who responded to the HCN’s social media post asking to hear from any locals affected by the shutdown. James also emailed the newspaper.

He works at a federal prison in Fort Worth, as does his wife. Both are considered “essential” employees and, as such, are expected to report to work even though they aren’t being paid.

James asked that his last name not be used in this story.

He and his wife are faring better financially than Stewart. They have enough savings to weather what James predicts will be a lengthy shutdown.

“Nobody wants to miss a check, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “But we’re going to be able to pay our mortgage and our car payments. It’s not going to effect us financially.”

Like Stewart, James, too, is a strong supporter of Trump, and doesn’t blame him for the shutdown. His view of who is to blame is divided into three categories.

From Dec. 22, when the shutdown began, and going forward, he blames Democrats.

Between the start of the new fiscal year last Oct. 1 and the time the shutdown occurred, he blames then-Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. At that time, Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency, and James feels that Ryan should have pushed the president’s demand for $5.7 billion through at that time. The November midterm elections put Democrats back in control of the House.

James blames both parties, though, for not having reached agreement on a budget before the start of the new fiscal year.

“This is a dysfunctional government, and I don’t blame Trump for that,” James said.

He also doesn’t blame Trump for not making Mexico pay for the wall that he promised to his base of supporters.

“My interpretation was it would be through some sort of tax,” James said. “I never expected Mexico to write a check.”

Trump, however, stated on more than one occasion during the campaign that Mexico might write a check for the wall.

Like Stewart, James feels that members of Congress should not receive their salaries while federal employees are going without pay.

That, they both feel, would probably resolve any partisan standoffs quickly.

UNCERTAINTY

Stewart said that sometimes furloughed mailto:employ-kcruz@hcnews.com employees end up being paid for the time they were not allowed to work, but it is subject to congressional approval.

“I’m pretty worried – more so every day,” she said. “Not only has my mortgage gone up more than $300 (per month), now this has happened.”

Stewart was among some Hood County property owners whose mortgage companies incorrectly issued refunds.

The mistake happened because the mortgage companies had not been notified by Tax Assessor-Collector Teresa McCoy that she was taking over collection of the county’s portion of property taxes from the Hood Central Appraisal District. For more than 30 years the HCAD had handled property tax collections for every taxing entity in the county.

Some who

received the “refunds” spent the money, not realizing that they still owed county property taxes. Mortgage companies had to adjust monthly bills to get back what they had mistakenly refunded.

McCoy turned collection duties back over to the HCAD last spring.

Stewart expects her house payments to return to normal in March, but for now she’s still dealing with the higher payments.

As the shutdown has dragged on, she has tried to stay busy in hopes that the stress won’t make her sick.

“If push comes to shove, my dad will help me out if they don’t get something resolved,” she said. “But I hate to ask my dad for money.”

DIVIDED BORDER, COUNTRY

Stewart said she contributed money to a fund drive to help build the wall Trump wants.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the wall “an immorality.” She said that Democrats favor improved security at the border but will never support a wall, which party leaders view as ineffective and costly.

The issue has further split an already bitterly divided country, raising accusations of racism and a manufactured crisis bolstered by false or misleading statistics.

Several polls taken in the early days of the shutdown and again this week showed a rise in the number of Americans who blamed Trump for the shutdown. Even the Trump-friendly Fox News network this week challenged his administration’s claims about immigrants, crime and the southern border.

In Stewart’s view, though, fault for the shutdown lies on the side of the blue, not the red. She believes that Democrats fear that the wall will deprive them of additional Democratic voters.

“I’m going to try to weather it,” she said of the shutdown. “I’m trying to stay busy because it can really get you down if you think about it too much.”

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258

‘I’m pretty worried -more so every day.’
--Teresa Stewart