Interns for House members are furloughed, too : NPR
Among the hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers – interns. We speak with a few who were hoping to gain experience working in House offices.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Every year, thousands of young people flock to Capitol Hill to work as congressional interns.
JORDAN CHANTHA: It was a new feeling that I had never felt before. I had to be part of something that had meaning.
CHANG: This is Jordan Chantha. He is an intern in the office of Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts. But today, like some 700,000 other federal workers, Chantha is unemployed. Furloughed intern Addison Harold works for Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican from Virginia.
ADDISON HAROLD: I’m so lacking in experience that I could have.
CHANG: This feeling that an opportunity that they all worked so hard for is slipping away now, that rings so true for Henry Jones. He is an intern for Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
HENRY JONES: I haven’t been asked to hand over my ID yet, but I’m sure that will happen eventually. It’s discouraging. It really is.
CHANG: An internship on Capitol Hill was also a dream job for Katherine Russo. She is a graduate student in American history at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She was fired from the office of Rep. Deborah Ross, a North Carolina Democrat. Russo walked into our studio in Washington, DC, yesterday, and I started by asking her: How is she spending all her free time these days?
KATHERINE RUSSO: Well, you know, unfortunately the amount of things we can do is a little limited. Obviously the amount of money we have, we call it fun money. I don’t have many at the moment.
CHANG: Yeah.
RUSSO: So, honestly, a lot of it was making changes to resumes. It caters to different job opportunities.
CHANG: By the way, can I ask how much were you paid? Was it enough to live in Washington?
RUSSO: If I can be frank, no. I get help from my parents, who have been very generous. We actually had to sell my car back home, just to give me…
CHANG: Wow.
RUSSO: …A cushion to make sure I can get through this period of unemployment because I don’t know when I’ll get my next paycheck.
CHANG: Did you sell your car following the government shutdown?
RUSSO: I was probably going to sell my car. It became more urgent to sell the car once I realized I didn’t know when I was going to see the money again.
CHANG: My God. OK, so other than not having a car, how else do you think about your financial uncertainty? Because life will resume after the government shutdown, during the government shutdown. What will this life be like?
RUSSO: I had to get comfortable with the idea of relying on food banks, which I never had to do. I was lucky growing up. My family has never had to do this. But I accept the fact that at some point I’m going to have to do it because there’s no end in sight for this.
CHANG: That’s right.
RUSSO: Yeah.
CHANG: Tell me, were you – are you still interested in working on Capitol Hill or doing policy-related or policy-related work in the future, given this experience that you had?
RUSSO: Actually, it kind of galvanized me.
CHANG: Really?
RUSSO: Yes, absolutely.
CHANG: Tell me how.
RUSSO: Well, I think when you believe in an institution the same way I believe in our federal legislature and you see that it’s not working, the thing you want to do is help, or at least that’s what I want to do. I want to make sure this institution functions as it should. And I think that’s something that really, really motivates me to do the work that I want to do one day.
CHANG: God (ph).
RUSSO: So, I’m in this for the long haul.
CHANG: If a government shutdown doesn’t crush your idealism, Katherine, I don’t know what will. Hang in there.
RUSSO: Thank you very much.
CHANG: That was Katherine Russo, who is on leave from her internship with Rep. Deborah Ross of North Carolina.
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