As things return to business as usual in the federal government after the shutdown ended, it’s still anything but business as usual for Bonita Williams and her family.

“It’s still kind of hard because we haven’t gotten back into it yet,” said Williams.

Williams works for a government contractor and worked throughout the entire government shutdown, but her paycheck also had to support three of her children who are federal workers — plus their families.

“It was terrible, because it was hard trying to feed multiple people besides myself,” Williams said. “I think they got one check, but when you get your check, you have to pay all these back bills… It’s going to be a slow recovery.”

Daraius Irani, chief economist for the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University, said it wil

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