Federal government shutdown takes a toll, and two groups of Coloradans are caught in the middle

As the government shutdown heads into a third week, it's taking a toll. The nation's top nuclear weapons agency announced it's furloughing about 80% of its workers due to a lack of funding. The Supreme Court and federal courts are also reducing operations. And the Army Corps of Engineers is pausing $11 billion in projects.

The Senate will take up a bill next week to pay federal employees but it's unclear if it will pass.

Neither party is budging an inch on its demands. House Republicans passed a short-term funding bill, but it can't get out of the Senate without Democratic support. And Democrats have tied that support to an extension of health care subsidies. Caught in the middle are two groups of people whose lives hang in the balance -- regular Americans struggling to afford health care and federal employees struggling to pay their bills.

"It's been really rough for a lot of us," said Brenda Carsten, who has worked in the Social Security Administration in Lakewood for the last decade.

She says morale is at an all-time low.

"They've re-deployed a lot of our customer service representatives and there's just long wait times. People are in the office and on the phones. Feeling like we're failing every day when we go into work. It's devastating," Carsten said.

She's among those required to work during the shutdown without pay.

"And then now we're being threatened with maybe not being paid at all after the shutdown," she said.

It is a shutdown tangled up in a battle over health insurance subsidies for people who buy insurance on the exchange. They expire in December. Democratic leadership has refused to reopen the government unless they're extended permanently.

"I think ideally all of this should have been negotiated in advance. They knew it was happening," says Kelli Fritts.

She's among 280,000 Coloradans who bought insurance on the state exchange last year, with the federal government subsidizing 80% of the policies at a cost of $328 million. Without the subsidies, many people like Fritts will pay thousands of dollars more next year in premiums.

"I'm looking at going from $34 a month to over $1,000 a month without the tax credits," Fritts said. "I think it's disappointing that paying workers is being pitted against health insurance."

Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat who represents Colorado's 7th Congressional District, agrees. She held an event to help federal workers like Carsten make ends meet but, she worries Coloradans like Fritts won't be able to afford insurance without the subsidies.

"It's just untenable for families. And so that's why we're fighting so hard to put the pressure necessary to extend these tax credits," she said.

Lawfully present non-citizens were eligible for the credits until Republicans passed Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," which Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District, notes Democrats want to repeal.

"Democrats are using these enhanced premium tax credits as a smokescreen," he said.

Evans says the subsidies, which the Congressional Budget Office says cost more than $100 billion a year, are unsustainable and shouldn't be tied to reopening the government.

"We know how devastating this shutdown is for our military but for all federal workers," said Evans. "It's absolutely critical that we get the government funded."

A bipartisan bill would extend the subsidies one year, but Republican leadership hasn't brought it to the floor and Democratic leadership calls it a "non-starter" anyway.

Democrats also want assurance from Republicans that President Trump won't unilaterally undo any funding deal, as he's done with other money appropriated by Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnston has warned this could be one of the longest shutdowns in American history.