KOJO NNAMDIWelcome back. Later in the broadcast we'll talk with Maryland's Poet laureate Grace Cavalieri. But first it's day 33 of the partial government shutdown and this moment Federal Workers and Unions are protesting the shutdown at the Hart Senate building on Capitol Hill. The mass protest, called Occupy Hart, has been promoted online by the National Federation of Federal Employees and other unions over the past few days.

KOJO NNAMDIOn the Facebook event for Occupy Hart the union writes, quoting here, "That our goal is to fill the entire building with people and demand that Senate Republicans call the vote and #stoptheshutdown. Joining us from the scene of the protest is Patrick Madden, investigative reporter here WAMU 88.5. Patrick Madden thank you for joining us?

PATRICK MADDENHi, Kojo.

NNAMDIPatrick, describe the scene for us. Who is at the protest and what is the energy like in the Hart atrium?

MADDENSure. Well, actually if -- it's actually very quiet. It's eerily quiet here right now, because they're doing a silent protest right now in the Hart building. This silent protest -- one of the organizers told me is going to occur for 33 minutes and that's to symbolize or represent the 33 days of shutdown. And I describe the scene, other than the eerie quiet right now, there are about 200 or 300 protestors. They're all holding up paper plates and they're holding them up to the Senate offices. There's also a good number of media here and U.S. Capitol police. But right now it's eerily quiet here, as this protest has just kicked off at the Hart building.

NNAMDII can tell you're speaking in hushed tones as if you're calling a golf match or something.

NNAMDIBut talk about, did the organizers in fact achieve their goal? You say, about 300 people are there. They wanted to fill the entire building.

MADDENSo definitely they have not filled the building. It's -- and again, it is a pretty big building. But it's not a huge group of people and there are almost as many members of the media and police here as well. So in terms of the size it's not massive, but it, you know, there's sort of the power of the silence right now is pretty striking. And I did get a chance to speak with some of the folks before this protest kicked off.

NNAMDIDid security allow people to come in for the protest was that pretty easy or was security pretty tight?

MADDENSecurity was definitely pretty easy. They were -- obviously this protest, you know, had been planned. People knew it was happening. So the lines weren't that long. It's my understanding. I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think part of the reason it is a quiet protest is because if they do make too much noise they will be asked to leave. So I think that's the other reason for this. So there's a heavy security presence. But right now it's very orderly as this group is basically holding up signs in protest, in silence right now in the center of the Hart building.

NNAMDIWAMU investigative reporter Patrick Madden is at the Hart Senate office building, where the protest is currently taking place. Patrick you mentioned paper plates. What's with the paper plates?

MADDENAgain, I think it's just the most convenient way to handout signs for people to write on the back of them. So people are writing signs like, Let me do my job. Others are telling, you know, about their sort of hardship stories as furloughed employees. So I think again, part of it is just the convenience of having people sort of hold these signs to the Senate offices above them.

NNAMDIAnd I suspect that there are rules in the Senate that don't allow very large signs or posters to be carried there, right?

MADDENI'm sure, you know what, as you mentioned that I'm sure that's what it is.

NNAMDIYep. Who organized this protest and what unions are, and what groups are attending?

MADDENWell, it's a bunch of different labor groups that represent federal employees and also federal contractors, you know, the National Federation of federal employees. I believe you spoke with David -- as you were speaking with David Cox earlier, that's one of the main organizers. But, you know, it's a whole bunch of different labor groups that represent the federal contractors like the 32BJ, which is in SCIU and they're representing here as well. So this is both for federal employees and also federal contractors.

NNAMDIBefore it got this quiet, what were you hearing from the workers about why they're protesting today?

MADDENWell, a couple things, one, which I was interested in is why here, why the Senate building? Why not anywhere else? And I guess they want to put pressure on Senate Republicans to take up the vote to reopen this government. And so the -- you know, if you listen to some of the organizers and the speeches here, before the silent protest started, you know, the focus was on Mitch McConnell the Senate Majority Leader.

MADDENSo I think, you know, in hearing the stories it's -- a lot of the personal stories are really hard. I spoke with one woman, who was a contractor she worked as a security officer at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. And she was telling me, basically that she has not been able to pay -- she's had to basically drop her medical insurance. She hasn't been able to pay for her mother's health care, just a laundry list of things that she can't pay for right now. And you're hearing that over and over again from people here, just all of the financial problems that this shutdown has created for them.

NNAMDIAre non-government workers at this protest as well like friends and families or just supporters of government employees?

MADDENYou know, I see a couple of small children, so I can assume that they're not federal government employees. So I do think that there are friends and family members that are here. But again as I said, you know, this isn't a massive major protest. But who knows, you know, as it just started. More people are starting to trickle in as we're talking right now. But again I think, the symbol of the silent protest is what people are going to remember after this.

NNAMDIAre you able to identify people from any particular agency at this protest, Patrick, that you could say that one agency has more people there than another?

MADDENYou know, it seems to be pretty well representative of all the different agencies that are affected. Again, I do see a lot of the groups representing federal contractors here, but I would say -- and I spoke to, you know, half a dozen people and they were all at different agencies or federal departments that have been closed right now. So I'd say this is a good cross section of all the different closed departments right now.

NNAMDIA tweet from the National Federation of Federal Employees, yesterday, said "This event is to," quoting here, "to protest Senate Republicans decision to not bring HR21 to a vote." Have you spied any Senators, yet, at this point or have any senators emerged to engage with these protestors?

MADDENDefinitely not. Again, it is very quiet here. All of the protestors are holding up their signs to all the Senate offices, which are several floors above. But I don't see any Senators right now looking down or engaging. But again, you know, you might get kicked out of here if it gets too loud. So--

NNAMDI--so no Senate staffers or Senate employees. Let's hear from Rachael, who self-identifies as a TSA employee. Rachael, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

RACHAELHi (unintelligible). This is Rachael Abraham and I'm also the president of a local 1442 AFGE. And I'm over here at the airport and it's -- the morale is just really down low. The officers are trying to make it. They're having a lot of problems, when it comes to getting to and from work. Gasoline cards are nonexistent for these officers and it's really become increasingly difficult for them to get to work.

RACHAELHowever, they have been hanging in there, over here at Reagan National. They've been showing up to work and doing the best they can. But if this shutdown continues to go on any longer, their resources are going to dry up and they won't be able to protect the traveling public.

NNAMDIHow is it affecting security at Reagan National? Are the lines longer? Are any of the security areas closed at this point?

RACHAELLike I said so far so good, the officers have come together. Some of them are carpooling. Some still have a little bit of resources, but those resources are drying up extremely quickly. And from the workforce, I'm hearing, that after a bit of time those that drive to work won't be able to come to work, because they won't be able to get gasoline for lack of getting their payments of their salaries.

NNAMDIOkay. Rachael, thank you very much for your call.

RACHAELYou're welcome.

NNAMDIHere's Susan in Washington D.C. Susan, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

SUSANYes, I just don't know how much people are thinking about the long term consequences. Once the government reopens, yes TSA workers can come back and that might get better. And the parks might open. But people who are in HR, people who oversee grants and contracts, the IRS, they have over a month of backlog to catch up on. And during this time, people have quit. You know, it's not going to be like it's been a couple weeks things will be back to normal.

NNAMDIOkay.

SUSANIt's going to be a very very long time.

NNAMDIAnd what is being done to help the individuals, who are affected by this, who are federal employees? Susan, thank you very much for your call. For that let's go to Chuck Penn, who is in Virginia. Chuck Pen, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

CHUCK PENNThank you so much, Kojo, and excellent job as usual. I work for Dominion Energy as you well know in media relations, community relations.

NNAMDIYep.

PENNAnd we are struggling as an organization in terms of meeting the needs of the folks that are impacted by this. And what I mean by that is that we have provisions in place to help them, while our system is not designed to know who is a furloughed government worker and who is not.

NNAMDIOkay.

PENNAnd so I'm hoping that by speaking on your show that folks that are Dominion Energy customers that are impacted by this furlough will contact us and self-identify as a furloughed worker, so we can help them to get through this.

NNAMDIHelp them by offering payment plans if they are on furlough?

PENNYes, sir.

NNAMDIOkay.

PENNShort term, long term, energy assistance, you know, in terms of our energy share program, a budget building, yes, whatever it takes to help them get through this period.

NNAMDIOkay. Chuck, good to hear from you, thank you for calling. Patrick Madden, the Senate will be voting tomorrow on two bills that could end the government shutdown. One backed by President Trump and Senate Republicans. The other backed by Democrats. Do people think that either of these proposals will pass, will end the shutdown?

MADDENI'm not sure that there's a lot of optimism that the shutdown is going to end after tomorrow's votes. But I do think that the point of today's protest is really for the folks that have been shut out here is to put the pressure on the Senate Republicans.

NNAMDIAnd finally here is David in Rockville, Md. David you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

DAVIDHi. My primary reason for calling was to point out that if you don't pay your taxes on time or money is owed to the federal government the debtor has to pay interest and the government actually will pay interest to people, that they owe money to if they've been late. And I'm suggesting that retroactively, to say January 1, that everybody be paid interest.

NNAMDIThose people, who were not paid, should receive interest. We'll have to see whether that happens. I doubt that it will. But before you go Patrick, do you know of any other demonstrations or protests planned over the next few days?

MADDENWell, I imagine that the protests will continue to ramp up as this shutdown continues here. And again I'm -- this silent shut down here is supposed to last, I believe, it is 33 minutes and there's a bell going off every minute. And then after that, I'm told, that there will be some chanting and then the police will probably get involved and tell folks that they're not allowed to chant. And so, you know, there could be some conflict as this silent protest ends in a little bit.

NNAMDIPatrick Madden, in hushed tones, from the Occupy Hart protest, he's an investigative reporter with WAMU 88.5 news. Patrick, thank you so much for joining us.

MADDENThanks Kojo.

NNAMDIWe're going to take a short break. When we come back we'll talk with Maryland's Poet laureate Grace Cavalieri. I am Kojo Nnamdi.