Elizabeth Warren Meets With Federal Workers In Mass. After Government Shutdown

BOSTON (CBS) -- "They need to have legislation so that this doesn't happen again," said Steven Calder, an EPA Inspector and President of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3428 who was furloughed for five weeks.

"It only hurts the employees. It hurts the economy and it's just a hurt, hurt situation."

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over and 800,000 federal workers are happy to be back to work. But for how long?

"We're sitting down already. There's already a team on our side trying to work out a compromise," Senator Stephen Lynch said.

The president is threatening to close it again, if a border wall deal isn't met by Feb. 15.

Senator Elizabeth Warren told WBZ-TV she is concerned for federal workers. "I think that our job is to keep emphasizing that federal workers are not pones in a political game. They have serious work to do, they have lives to lead, they need to be here doing their jobs."

On Monday, Warren met with about 20 federal workers impacted by the five-week shutdown.

"The longer it goes, the more the environment is in trouble," said Calder.

The government shutdown cost the economy billions of dollars and lost wages for federal workers. But according to Calder, it may have cost young federal workers here in Massachusetts even more.

"A lot of younger people, they have their mortgages, their school loans, they're already out. They are already out at their extreme for what type of credit they can get, so it's hard for them," said Calder, who is close to retirement.

To make ends meet, Calder took out a no interest 60-day loan from his federal credit union.

"Over the next three weeks, I want to see Congress and the president fully fund all our agency, fully fund the appropriation bills that are necessary to get us through the rest of the year. And then we would not be in this position again," he said.