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The government shutdown is affecting federal workers and the cities they live in far beyond Washington, D.C. In Ogden, Utah, the Treasury Department is the biggest employer, with more than 7,000 employees there, mostly at a big IRS service center. That agency has furloughed almost half its employees across the country and laid off just under 1,500. Macy Lipkin of member station KUER reports.
MACY LIPKIN, BYLINE: October is in full swing on 25th Street in Ogden, about 45 minutes north of Salt Lake City. Decorative gravestones are planted in the window of a pizza shop. Banners on a street lamp advertise the Harvest Moon Festival and Day of the Dead event. Susie Zenger runs a bakery and sandwich shop near the IRS offices with her husband. Walking in feels like entering a nice warm oven. The counter is covered in cinnamon rolls and pumpkin muffins.
SUSIE ZENGER: We're not used to being this slow. We're sending employees home early 'cause they get their everything done, and so they're losing hours.
LIPKIN: The Treasury, including the IRS, is Ogden's largest employer. Zenger says they get a lot of federal workers as customers. They've gotten to know some regulars. And for the past few weeks, she's been wondering where some of them went.
ZENGER: Well, something was in the air, and people were hesitant to come and spend or, you know, treat themselves to lunch.
LIPKIN: Dan Martinez is an 18-year veteran at the IRS. He spoke as the legislative coordinator for the local chapter of the Treasury workers union. We met after the CrossFit class he coaches on the side.
DAN MARTINEZ: There are not millionaires and - you know, that are making money off of the government. These are folks that have taken a duty to serve the American people, have taken that oath of office.
LIPKIN: He says the talk of DOGE cuts around the beginning of the year put a lot of his co-workers on edge. The union chapter's president says about a thousand took deferred resignation at that time. And another four or five hundred probationary employees were dismissed before a court reversed that move. All that uncertainty, Martinez says, has made remaining employees more careful with their spending.
MARTINEZ: All the rhetoric that federal employees were bad, we've been through that now, and there's definitely a hold-it-close-to-the vest kind of thing where we have to worry about our savings.
LIPKIN: Now that he and others have been furloughed, he's heard of co-workers offering advice on how to apply for unemployment or borrow from a 401(k). Some are inviting others over for dinner.
MARTINEZ: And that's one of the things that's hopeful from, you know, that - this shutdown is seeing the way people rally around each other.
LIPKIN: Martinez says IRS jobs come with a sense of pride and duty. It's not uncommon for multiple family members to work there. He says it's not OK for federal workers to be used as political pawns.
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LIPKIN: At No Frills Diner, Ron Yeates serves homemade comfort food. The booths are red. Photos of 1950s movie stars line the walls. He says nearby construction has made it hard for customers to find parking lately.
RON YEATES: Everybody's worried. It's not just the government shutdown. The economy is just horrible. People couldn't afford to live anyway.
LIPKIN: Yeates says his diner is his life. He's here every hour it's open - he has been for 17 years. And he feels stuck because he doesn't want to raise prices and wind up turning people away.
YEATES: I sometimes feel like everything I've worked for is just going to disappear.
LIPKIN: He was looking forward to the holiday season.
YEATES: But now, with all this shutdown and furlough and - now I don't know what's going to happen to the holidays, so...
LIPKIN: And that, he says, is really concerning. For NPR News, I'm Macy Lipkin in Ogden, Utah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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