For most of this year, caseworkers in Rep. Suhas Subramanyam’s office have struggled to get through to federal agencies, as mass layoffs rippled through the Trump administration.

His staff was starting to make inroads again with certain agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service, the Virginia Democrat said.

Then, the shutdown came.

“They have gone back to not being responsive. And when I say not responsive, I mean you can’t get a hold of a human being on the phone,” Subramanyam said. “You’re just getting answering machines saying that we’re in a shutdown.”

The current lapse in government funding has taken what’s already a tough job and raised the stakes, said Anne Meeker, a former congressional caseworker.

“This is probably one of the worst and most difficult shutdowns that most case

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