How Washington DC looked on Day 1 of the government shutdown

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00:00It's Wednesday morning, day one of the government shutdown, and the first thing you notice is

00:04significantly lighter traffic. That's because non-essential federal employees are furloughed,

00:09and being furloughed means not only do you not come into work, you can't even volunteer to do

00:14your job if you want to. So it's quiet out here on the National Mall. It's actually a gorgeous day.

00:19Essential workers like law enforcement will have to keep working during the shutdown without pay,

00:24but Congress will almost certainly approve back pay once the shutdown's over. So for the

00:28non-essential workers who are being forced to stay home, believe it or not, the Office of

00:33Personnel Management is telling them they should apply for unemployment benefits through their state.

00:39They can apply immediately and can expect to receive payments within the next two to three weeks.

00:44We're outside the National Museum of the American Indian, which is a Smithsonian,

00:48and the only silver lining here is that some of the Smithsonian still have some funding left over

00:52from last year, and they think they're going to be able to stay open until Monday. So if you're in

00:56D.C. this weekend, you should still have something to do.