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DeGette Meeting With Furloughed Workers Ends With News Of Shutdown's End

January 25, 2019 / 6:07 PM MST / CBS Colorado

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DENVER (CBS4) - Rep. Diana DeGette was holding a town hall meeting with workers who have been impacted by the federal government shutdown Friday morning when news broke Friday that President Donald Trump was set to announce a deal to end to the impasse. CBS4's Rick Sallinger was there for that the meeting.

Diana DeGette (credit: CBS)

"I just got word that President Trump is expected to back the plan to reopen the government and will make an announcement this afternoon," he said.

"I hope that's true," DeGette said.

"Okay, good. Well, that must be because we had (this) roundtable here," she joked.

Just after noon Mountain Time Trump made the announcement outside the White House that he's backing a deal to reopen the government for a few weeks.

For 35 days, more than 800,000 public servants bared the brunt of this reckless government shutdown. Now that @POTUS has come to his senses, we have to make sure people get paid. pic.twitter.com/2XjUx7jrR0
— Michael Bennet (@SenatorBennet) January 25, 2019

(credit: CBS)

During the earlier discussion with DeGette, a Democrat who represents Colorado's 1st Congressional District, workers talked about how they have been personally impacted. They included traffic controllers, National Parks employees and workers from the EPA. They spoke of financial hardship, depression of coworkers and some explained how their agencies have been downgraded during the work stoppage.

After 34 days of unnecessary harm and suffering inflicted on Coloradans and the American people, the longest government shutdown in American history finally has a light at the end of the tunnel. #Shutdown
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) January 25, 2019

Matt Castelli and his wife Kayleen at the meeting (credit: CBS)

"As a family whose only income comes from our paychecks from being federal workers, it's been extremely stressful," said Matt Castelli, who works at the EPA office in Colorado along with his wife Kayleen.

One worker showed DeGette a photo of piled up trash at a national park. Many parks have had to shut down temporarily because of a lack of staffing to keep them maintained.

"I think we'll happily go back to work and plan for the worst and hope for the best," said Kayleen.

The couple is expected to receive back pay for their time spent furloughed.