Today is Saturday, October 18th. The federal government is on track for the longest shutdown in history.

And as it drags on, frustration is growing in Washington and across the country. So why does this keep

happening? What's the actual impact so far? And how might it all end? Today we're hearing from

Jonathan Burks, a longtime budget and policy expert who spent years

inside the system. He's previously worked at the White House and on Capitol Hill. Now he's

the Executive Vice President for Economic and Health Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a

nonprofit that works with both sides of the aisle to craft solutions. He's here to explain

what's at stake, from what programs are already hit hard

and how essential workers are decided, to what it will take to bring Washington back to the table.

Welcome, welcome to The Newsworthy Special Edition Saturday, when we sit down with a different

expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes, where we provide

all the day's news in 10 minutes.

I'm Erica Mandy.

It's now time for today's special edition Saturday.

Jonathan Berks, thanks so much for joining us here on the Newsworthy.

Thank you for having me.

How many federal workers are estimated to be furloughed or forced to work without pay in this shutdown?

There's about 1.8 million federal employees affected by the shutdown total.

About 700,000 of those have been furloughed, and the rest are essentially are working without pay

or working under permanent pay authorities.

Frankly, it's a real question mark as to whether

or not there's enough funds left in agency bank accounts, essentially, to fund those checks. And if this

...