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Engineers' Union President: Government Shutdown Damaging Federal Workforce

The partial shutdown of the federal government is now in its second week.

Top Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are scheduled to meet today with White House officials. But, for many of the workers affected by the shutdown, a resolution can’t come quickly enough.

Paul Shearon is president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents workers at a number of federal agencies, including NASA, the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and immigration judges.

He joined The Show to talk about how their membership is being affected by the shutdown.

Numbers from 2017 say more than 56,000 civilian federal employees work in Arizona. So how has this shutdown affected economies across the American West? And are we looking at a long shutdown that brings with it ripple effects?

That was what KJZZ's Paige Phelps asked Richard Wobbekind, associate dean of business and government at the University of Colorado.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the number of civilian federal employees in Arizona.

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Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.