The historic funding crisis has hurt Americans across the country. Christine Glassman has not yet fully recovered.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – It all started right before dragon boat practice.
Kristin Glassman and her husband Gary have an important race ahead of them. In less than a week, the couple will be heading to Florida for the national championships.
Like the blind Glassman family, dragon boating is often misunderstood. It is often confused with rowing, but it is not the same. Dragon boat riders use paddles and face forward. The rower uses the oar and faces backwards.
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This little-known sport is also popular among people with disabilities. Christine and Gary call themselves “paradragons.” The two were “bitten by the dragon” just before the coronavirus pandemic. Almost six years later, at age 56, Christine became the president of the Out of Sight Dragons team.
On the morning of Oct. 11, as Christine and Gary were preparing for their final training session before nationals, Christine received a text message on her cell phone. Her boss at the U.S. Department of Education relayed a message saying the team had received a “force reduction” notice. That’s what we call layoffs in Washington. She instructed Christine to check her email.
She did. She let slip “a few choice phrases.” Her last day will be December 9th.
Federal officials say visually impaired people were left stranded during shutdown
Kristin Glassman’s life was forever changed by the longest government shutdown in history.
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Christine was distraught. She wasn’t alone either. President Donald Trump’s administration laid off more than 4,000 federal workers over the weekend, just 10 days into what would eventually become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
read more: Department of Education lays off about 20% of staff due to government shutdown
In the past, such ordeals have led to furloughs, which were harmful but temporary and ended with federal employees receiving pay for their forced time out of office. That’s what happened during President Trump’s first term, when the government was shut down for 35 days, setting a record at the time.
In the Trump administration’s second term, the administration’s decision to lay off employees during another historic government shutdown became one of the defining issues of the funding crisis.
The havoc endured by people like Christine highlighted how harmful Washington’s traffic gridlock can be for many Americans, including public servants. This uproar, in turn, has affected some people with disabilities, who are employed at slightly higher rates in the federal government than in the private sector. Federal law has historically required agencies to develop plans to achieve specific employment goals for persons with disabilities.
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Claire Stanley, director of advocacy and government affairs for the American Federation of the Blind, said Christine was not the only blind or partially sighted federal employee she knew who was initially laid off during the shutdown. Many others were not fired but went for weeks without pay.
“It felt like we were all holding our breath,” she said.
Kristin told USA TODAY this story in her personal capacity as an advocate for other blind people, president of the Fairfax Chapter of the American Federation of the Blind in Virginia, and a member of AFGE Local 252, the Department of Education employees union. She said her opinions do not represent the agency.
From “dream job” to nightmare
On October 29, four weeks into the government shutdown, Christine sat in her apartment with her palms flat on her dining room table. Pixie, a Norwegian forest cat, lounged on a nearby couch, her sandy brown fur complementing the dark maroon upholstery.
She was on higher doses of anti-anxiety medication for various reasons. Worries about caring for her elderly parents are always pushed to the back of her mind. Those concerns have come to the fore since she was fired.
Her mother has Alzheimer’s disease. Her father has been a firefighter for many years and has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They still live in Christine’s hometown of Long Island, New York.
Nightmares were making it difficult to sleep. Her stomach hurt frequently.
Despite all these concerns, the past 24 hours have brought some hope. On October 28, a federal judge in California temporarily halted her termination, along with thousands of others. But with most federal agencies still largely closed, she had not yet returned to work.
The news offered only limited comfort. It did little to allay her concerns about the long-term future of the federal law she has helped implement since 2019. Although housed in the Ministry of Education, it was not actually about education at all.
The main purpose of the Randolph Shepherd Program, as it is known, is to provide employment opportunities to visually impaired business owners. Under the law, visually impaired entrepreneurs will be given priority when competing for contracts to manage food service operations in federal buildings.
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In fiscal year 2023, the program generated about $750 million in revenue for about 1,500 vendors, according to federal data. Christine’s job as a program specialist is to mediate disputes and help blind entrepreneurs get the positions they deserve. Her own husband was also once a beneficiary of this program.
“She has landed her dream job,” said Rachel Gittleman, the Education Department union president.
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Things changed in mid-October when the staff responsible for the program at the federal level were laid off. Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the widespread layoffs that came at the same time, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said he was not happy about the situation.
“It’s an unfortunate situation that the president doesn’t want to see,” he said, as the White House considers layoffs.
In a statement on November 6, the Ministry of Education insisted that layoffs like Christine’s had been blocked by the courts and would not affect the ministry’s operations.
breaking point
A week and a half after receiving the court’s injunction, Christine’s job future remained uncertain. The atmosphere on Capitol Hill was beginning to shift, suggesting a resolution may be within reach.
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Across the country, the effects of Washington’s month-long standoff were becoming increasingly apparent to ordinary Americans in important ways. A wide range of flights experienced cancellations and delays. Preschool programs serving thousands of children have been shut down. Millions of people on federal aid programs were struggling to put food on the table.
Senate Democrats, who had withheld a yes vote to reopen the government because of health care costs, had reached breaking point. Finally, on November 9, the administration struck a deal with Republicans in Congress and the White House to turn the lights back on.
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This agreement quickly pitted the Democratic Party against each other. Many accused their colleagues of capitulating without any substantive commitments from the other side to avoid impending health insurance premium hikes for millions of people.
But the compromise included important provisions for people like Christine. That meant all layoffs related to the closure would be rescinded. Additionally, the White House will be prohibited from further firing federal employees until at least January 30, 2026.
The next night, the Senate sent the government reopening bill to the House. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator and 2016 vice presidential candidate who, like Christine, represents thousands of federal workers in Virginia, sided with Republicans across party lines.
“We protected them,” he told USA TODAY shortly after voting. “They all have families and people to rely on and it feels very, very good.”
Sen. John Fetterman, who also left the party to try to reopen the government, expressed a similar opinion. The Pennsylvania Democrat, who himself has an auditory processing disorder, said moving to rehire people like Christine was “the right thing to do.”
“I needed to end this,” he told USA TODAY.
read more: Master stroke or bad luck, Democrats could win the long game of government shutdown
I felt relieved but not happy.
On Wednesday, November 12, the closure officially ended. Christine returned to work later that week.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has proven to be an ardent advocate for federal employees during the government shutdown, told USA TODAY that while he was not familiar with Christine’s specific situation, he still expected people like her to be happy to get their jobs back.
Asked about Mr Johnson’s proposal, she said she was “relieved”. “But I’m not happy.”
Her future at work is far from clear. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has just taken another big step in that direction, vowing to eliminate as many schools as legally possible. On Nov. 18, she announced the outsourcing of key programs, including those for low-income and rural schools, to four other agencies.
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Although Christine’s division was not included in the reorganization, there is widespread speculation that such changes are in the works. (Department of Education officials said they are still considering the future of the special education division, where Christine’s office is located.) An agency spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment from USA TODAY on the reversal of layoffs since the shutdown ended. But court documents show the administration is fully complying with the judge’s order to reinstate people like Christine.
Dragon boat season is over. Once the Glassman family has their finances in place after the shutdown, they are considering planning a trip to a warmer location to get back on their feet. Exercise is just as much a stress reliever for them as it is for everyone else.
“You can get a lot of anger out with a paddle,” Christine said.
The sport will officially resume in May. Until then, they hope their winter training will help them cope with whatever life throws at them.
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
