Federal worker with hot dog stand and many others return to work after shutdown ends

The Star

As the US federal government reopens after a 43-day shutdown, an Internal Revenue Service employee who turned to selling hot dogs on a street corner is returning to his day job while keeping the small business that carried him through the furlough.  The end to the shutdown offers some hope that services crucial to air travel and restoration of food aid to millions of families for the Christmas festive season.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Thank you.

00:17Nice to meet you. Hey, how's it going, man? Very good.

00:21I really like it.

00:24Some of it is, I haven't actually steeped.

00:28Hey, that includes.

00:30I very much look forward to going back to work as soon as possible.

00:35I've had a lot of federal workers come to the stand.

00:39My colleagues from IRS and Treasury, who are awesome,

00:42they came in a big group.

00:44And then there are also people from a different IRS building

00:47who also came through to express support.

00:49Everyone has been wonderful to me.

00:51The business has been cash flow positive,

00:53but I really, like more importantly,

00:57I just really wanted to mention the outpouring of community support.

01:01I feel like the community here really has my back.

01:03I love seeing the people each day.

01:05And I'm looking forward to seeing my colleagues as well

01:08as soon as the shutdown ends.

01:10I intend to continue to operate this on Fridays and weekends.

01:13I saw him on social media.

01:15And I really, this situation, the government shutdown,

01:18was not a good thing for anybody.

01:20So to see somebody making the best of the situation

01:23and doing something, I read that this is something

01:25he had always wanted to do.

01:26So we just wanted to come down and be supportive of that.

01:29I feel great, happy to be back in office and see the people

01:39in the streets and see the city life again.

01:42I'm happy to see all my coworkers again.

01:43I brought in some pastries for everybody

01:46so we can enjoy our first day back.

01:49A lot of people in this building work very hard every day

01:52for the American people.

01:54Happy to be back.

01:56Happy to be back.

01:57Happy to be back.

01:58Happy to be back.

01:59Happy to be back.

02:00Happy to be back.

02:01Happy to be back.

02:23It was a really strong vote.

02:24I was so glad that we got the votes to open the government

02:27back up again.

02:28It's just a shame it took this long.

02:30For whatever reason, Democrats wanted to keep it shut down

02:33for 43 days.

02:35I mean, it was just ridiculous.

02:36But, you know, we came together as Republicans, did it.

02:39Most Democrats still voted no,

02:41even with all the pain and suffering that they caused.

02:44So I think the American people got to see

02:46who doesn't care about people.

02:48Just making sure that my flights leave,

02:51it's a part, and lands on time.

02:53I don't get routed somewhere else that I don't want to go.

02:56I just want to get home safely.

02:58We've been lucky.

02:59We've flown from Miami to D.C. three times

03:03in the past three and a half weeks,

03:05and we had no cancellation in Miami.

03:08Got up here.

03:09Today it's a 45-minute delay,

03:11but that's nothing compared to what a lot of people have been through.

03:14But we've had no problems.

03:17It feels very good about that.

03:20But we were lucky that we hadn't been affected.

03:23So, so far, so good.

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