On Wednesday morning, the federal government shutdown became the longest stoppage in U.S. history, at 36 days. More than 600,000 federal workers were sent home on Oct. 1. Another 700,000, deemed essential workers, are working without pay, according to the New York Times. The current disruption comes on the heels of more than 182,000 layoffs and buyouts of federal workers led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency; the Trump Administration has used the shutdown to lay off more.

The Bay Area is home to several thousand federal workers, including 12,500 in the Oakland-Berkeley-Fremont metropolitan area. Thousands have been without even a partial paycheck since Oct. 10. 

CJ Rudolph is one of them — an Oakland-based employee of the Internal Revenue Service who’s been out on furlough since Oct. 1. As a union rep with the National Treasury Employees Union, Rudolph is simultaneously struggling to make ends meet for himself while trying to support and advocate for his colleagues. The Oaklandside spoke with Rudolph on Wednesday, the day after Democrats swept races across the country, about how he’s spending his days, what he did to prepare for the shutdown, and what gives him hope.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What kind of work do you do for the IRS? And what kind of work isn’t getting done right now thanks to the shutdown?

Right now my job is to do face-to-face taxpayer assistance. When people come in with their issues, they take a number, and then we help them face-to-face. Although it’s busier in the spring, there are still a lot of things that need to be done, especially this year, due to all of the chaos.

They basically broke the IRS through the deferred resignation program. [That was the buyout program initiated by DOGE in February; by March the IRS had lost at least 11% of its workforce this way, including nearly a third of its tax auditors. Additional layoffs followed.] They let you not work and then you could leave Sept. 30. A lot of people who took that buyout were also people who processed tax returns, and so we have had a lot of people coming in saying “Where’s my tax refund?” 

We’re like, “It’s not been processed yet, we’re backlogged.” A lot of people lost out on their issues being dealt with. All the people who would be assigned to work on those issues in the processing centers aren’t there anymore because they decided to get rid of 26,000 people.

Have you experienced a shutdown before? 

I started in 2019 and the last one was in 2018. I got in right after the last one. I was like alright, that’s just a fact of life. Every budget cycle it’s a thing, there may be a shutdown or there may not be. It’s always in the back of my mind to always be prepared for one. Especially when we almost had one last year and we almost had one in March. In the federal employee sector, it’s just a fact of life. Especially this year because of all the chaos.

What did you do to prepare this time?

One thing I was doing was looking for credit unions that give you low-interest loans. I found PenFed — the Pentagon Federal Credit Union — and I was able to switch my direct deposit to them. If you have your direct deposit sent to them, and you’re a furloughed federal worker, they give you a 0% interest advance until you get your backpay. Currently I’m waiting for that to hit. I’ll use that loan for my expenses, groceries, rent, things like that.

At the start of the shutdown, the union also gave out a bunch of resources to our members, including credit unions and food banks. 

How are you spending your days?

I’m doing a couple things. One, I’m using this time to knock out a few doctor’s appointments. Also doing some union stuff and doing some house maintenance. And then also doing some focus groups to make some extra money. I’m not stretched as thin as I would be if I wasn’t prepared. As of right now I’m good, but if it goes on for another month …

How do you hope this gets resolved?

Hopefully there will be some negotiations. Right now, the main issue is Republicans have been telling Democrats to just take it or leave it. On the healthcare thing, I fully support the Democrats. [Congressional Democrats have been holding out for an extension of Affordable Health Act subsidies as part of any deal to reopen the government.] I’m happy the Democrats decided to finally take a stand, because it’s been us, the union, us employees and basically some of the judiciary pushing back against the Trump Administration. The politicians have not really been doing anything.

Finally they’re taking a stand. 

There needs to be negotiations where Democrats and Republicans need to talk, and Republicans are basically stonewalling. We just need them to negotiate — give a little, take a little. That’s how negotiations are supposed to work. We need them to figure out some type of middle ground and then, Boom!

It should happen eventually. As employees, we’re thinking it’ll probably be around Thanksgiving. That’s a big travel time. That’s probably when the air traffic control situation will become too untenable — when everything’s going to become really bad. [The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it would be cutting air traffic by 10% starting Friday.]

The Republicans still don’t look like they’re willing to negotiate at all. The House is not in session. The expiration date for the continuing resolution is Nov. 21. The only way for that to be changed is for the house to come back into session and [House Speaker] Mike Johnson doesn’t seem to want that to happen. Once Thanksgiving comes, that’s when everything is going to go sideways. 

Is there anything giving you hope right now?

Democrats won the elections yesterday so that was great. That’s good for the pro-labor coalition that we’re trying to build. Hopefully that will make the Republicans actually compromise — stop them from doing the layoffs and reopen the government with a deal that actually makes sense.

The Democrats seem to be stronger, the pro-labor coalition seems to be a little bit stronger, too. That’s definitely giving me hope.

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