Name: Local contractor shares impact of federal government shutdown
Uploaded: 2025-10-30T15:51:05.311Z
Duration: 1 min 52 s
Description: It is now day 30 of the federal government shutdown. Denver7 is following up with a viewer who shared how the shutdown is impacting her.

It is now day 30 of the federal government shutdown. Denver7 is following up with a viewer who shared how the shutdown is impacting her.

Denver

A federal government shutdown is affecting many Colorado households, including private contractors who work alongside federal employees. Nicole Kernelhand, a contractor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, shared that unlike federal employees, contractors do not receive back pay for missed work during the shutdown.

Kernelhand explained that contractors had already experienced layoffs and contract reductions prior to the shutdown, compounding their financial difficulties. While she currently manages to stay afloat through non-government work, she emphasized the uncertainty and week-to-week nature of her situation.

Local contractor shares impact of federal government shutdown

Now, locally, the shutdown is being felt by so many Colorado households. It's something we've been bringing you all week long. A viewer sending us this email saying they don't think contractors have gotten enough coverage of what they're enduring. So Denver sevens, Lauren Lennon followed up with that viewer. Yeah, she's joining us live from Lakewood and Lauren, we've been talking a lot about the impact of federal workers, but this morning you're talking about the trickle down to private businesses and contractors as well. Yeah, Anusha and Dan, like you mentioned, we're here at the federal center in Lakewood, where thousands of federal employees and contractors working. Of course, we've heard how the shutdown is impacting federal employees. But again, we're taking a step further and hearing the impact that government contractors are facing during this shutdown. I spoke with Nicole Kernel hand. She's the viewer that reached out to us. She's a contractor for the U. S. D. A. Through her work, she helps farmers with resources and helps guide conservation practices. She says one of the huge differences and how the shutdown is impacting contractors rather than government employees is that contractors will not receive back pay, and the shutdown comes after contractors already took a massive hit from previous efforts. So we're just currently out of pay during what's going on almost a month now. Prior to this, a lot of our contracts received reductions as part of the doge efforts. So we had gone through a series of layoffs already, and those that remain are now impacted by this. And Anusha and Dan, fortunately for Kernel hand, she is able to have work through a side project through her company. That's not through the government. It's paid outside of those contracts, so she's still able to stay afloat for now. But again, she says she's taking this week by week as her situation. It could change at any given time. Anusha. All right. Thank you so much for looking into that, Lauren.

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