If you’re a federal worker, bring your employee ID the next time you go out to eat. You may get a ‘shutdown discount.’

By Asia McGill

WASHINGTON- In the imminence of a government shutdown, Any Day Now cafe is offering federal workers 10% off their entire bill plus one percent for each day the shutdown persists.

Any Day Now is a Navy Yard cafe, just 10 minutes from Capitol Hill and is part of the 12 D.C. restaurants offering discounts to federal employees.

“I hope it brings a little bit of attention to [the] importance of bipartisan behavior and [to] understand how vital the aspects of the government are,” said general manager Ryan Ward.

The United States government operates on a fiscal calendar from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. If congress does not approve of a funding plan tonight, the government will close at 12:01 a.m., according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

While Ward encourages customers to take advantage of the discount while it is in effect, he hopes the potential closure is not as long as the previous one in 2018.

“The last time the government shut down it was for 35 days, and that’s a really long time to not have a paycheck,” Ward said.

Customers of Any Day Now thought the advertisement was “very interesting,” and are appreciative of the establishment for taking a stand.

“They thought it was really great for us to show some type of support,” Ward said. “Restaurant people are just in the nature of taking care of people.”

Ward notes that many of their customers are federal workers, including the cafe’s head chef Tim Ma who formerly worked for the federal government.

“[Tim] understands a lot of the struggle that goes on to make sure these things were consistent, and that a lot of the time it takes a long time for things to get pushed through,” Ward said.

Ward plans to keep a close eye on the status of the shutdown and will “keep doing this to make sure people are a little bit more aware,” he said.