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Thousands of furloughed government employees suffered during the shutdown. Many were forced to seek public and and/or private assistance to meet basic needs and financial obligations. But during their ordeals, those government employees knew that when they returned to work they would eventually receive back pay.

The same is not true for the businesses and employees who contract their services to the federal government. There is no provision for lost personal compensation or company revenues from projects that came to a grinding halt on Dec. 22. For many of them, the shutdown hasn’t really ended, as they continue to struggle with late payment notices, loss of revenue, negative impacts to future business, the risk to security clearance statuses, and in some more severe cases, the loss of health benefits, means of transportation, and even their homes.

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA 11) took his US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations for a road trip on May 6. Connolly and colleagues Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C. at-large), Jamie Raskin (D-MD 8), Jennifer Wexton (D-VA 10), and Don Beyer (D-VA 8) convened the session in a meeting room at George Mason University in Fairfax to hear testimony from area federal contract business leaders, and individuals who had been personally affected by the latest – and longest – partial government shutdown.

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