EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – Members of the American Federation of Government Employees met with Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Illinois 13th Congressional District, and Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Missouri 1st Congressional District, on Thursday to demand an end to the federal government shutdown.

“Sixty-five percent of federal workers live paycheck to paycheck,” VA nurse Daniel Simon said. “Missing one paycheck can be devastating to federal workers and their families.”

There are about 25,000 federal workers around the St. Louis metro area. The majority of them work at Scott Air Force Base, right next to Angela Lindquist’s coffee shop.

“The main focus of it is Scott Air Force Base. That’s why we love it here. It’s really to serve the community on the base,” Lindquist, the owner of Good Ground Coffee, said.

She serves service members every day. And as a military wife herself, a prolonged government shutdown would hit her pockets in more ways than one. But just two days into the shutdown, she is not worried about it yet.

“Just staying calm, staying peaceful during it all. Even when things do get challenging, we can still stay at peace as we work through them,” she said.

Other federal workers and lawmakers took a different approach Thursday, speaking outside the federal courthouse in East St. Louis.

“Working people should never have their paychecks, their livelihoods or their family security held hostage to score political points,” Rep. Bell said.

“Real pain is being afflicted upon the American people. Because 44 democrats in the senate have voted for the third time to reject the completely. Nonpartisan, completely clean, very simple, 24-page, continuing resolution,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said from D.C.

Several lawmakers have already said they expect the shutdown to continue into next week.