Rebecca Ferguson just wanted to be done with the government, but it seems nothing is easy during a federal shutdown. Not even obtaining the termination papers needed to finalize her departure from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The mother of three couldn’t reach a human on Tuesday when she called the Office of Personnel Management seeking documents explaining her status and benefits. An email to her former boss generated an auto reply explaining that “due to a lapse in government funding, I am currently furloughed and unable to respond to emails or conduct official business.”

Like countless others seeking government services this week, Ferguson learned firsthand that the world of a federal shutdown is a bleak place characterized by hellish hold times, dead-end calls and emails, and partisan messaging.

The shutdown enters its second week on Wednesday. It began after Congress failed to approve measures — one proposed by Republicans, the other by Democrats — to keep the government funded.

“Think about people who have student loan questions, for example, trying to get hold of the Department of Education and then to be told, ‘We’re not even going to take your case,’” said Rep. Johnny Olszewski Jr.

At the Baltimore County-based Social Security Administration, he said: “We were already seeing delays and lag times as it was, and what we’re seeing now is that those times have gotten even worse.”

People with questions about Social Security retirement benefits faced 70-minute telephone hold times on Tuesday afternoon, according to a Baltimore Sun’s call to the agency.

The effects of the government’s closure rippled across Maryland, home to more than 250,000 federal workers and site of federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.

Bill Seiling, director of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, said Tuesday he is worried the shutdown could harm the economy and slow sales by the Eastern Shore crab processing companies his group represents.

“Our biggest problem is finding markets for our products,” Seiling said. “As more and more federal workers start to feel the bite of not getting paid, particularly in our area, that’s even more potentially bad news.”

The timing could have been worse. The crab processors rely on the mostly-shuttered U.S. Department of Labor to approve hundreds of visas each year so seasonal workers from Mexico and elsewhere can travel to Maryland. But the workers arrived in the spring while the government was funded.

Another agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was unable this week to publish its weekly growing-season crop report that farmers in Maryland and elsewhere rely on to help with budgets and marketing.

“The big thing is what countries are buying and how much,” said John Quinn, a grain farmer in Kent County. “It makes it a little hard to market when you really don’t know who is buying what, and what’s being shipped.”

The reports normally appear on the home page of the Economics, Statistics, and Market Information System, part of USDA.

The page on Tuesday contained this message: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”

A number of other agency websites also contain language from President Donald Trump’s Republican administration blaming the shutdown on congressional Democrats. Democrats argue that such messaging violates Hatch Act restrictions on political activity by federal employees.

“Donald Trump is politicizing the shutdown of his own making, maintaining the functions he likes while going after those he doesn’t, including many that provide critical services to Marylanders,” Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, told The Baltimore Sun.

But Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republlican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, said: “If Marylanders experience slower responses from federal agencies, it’s because every Democrat in our federal delegation voted to shut the government down over unrelated political demands.”

Harris called on the Maryland Democrats “to come to their senses, end the partisan games, and support the same funding measure they’ve backed in the past so the government can reopen.”

Although congressional staff isn’t paid during shutdowns, the offices of all the Baltimore-area House members such as Reps. Kweisi Mfume, Sarah Elfreth, Harris and Olszewski remain open.

Harris and other Republicans have called for funding agencies at their current levels through Nov. 21 to allow time to negotiate a longer budget and avoid a shutdown.

Democrats in Maryland and elsewhere say Congress must approve a continuation of subsidies to help people pay Affordable Care Act premiums that, they say, many would no longer be able to afford.

For Ferguson, whose former HHS department oversees programs for children and families, the shutdown presents another obstacle to getting the paperwork she would need, for example, if she sought unemployment benefits.

Ferguson, who co-founded a support group for other former workers, was a probationary employee when she was terminated in May.

But the government, in effect, can’t even fire her correctly. There was no immediate reply from HHS spokespersons about her case.

“I’ve reached out multiple times,” Ferguson said. “They sent a box finally for my laptop. I sent the box back and I wrote a letter in it. I said, ‘Don’t send me any more boxes until you send me my goddamn termination paperwork.’ ”

--------------

©2025 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.