Fed tweeters back in action

The reopening of the federal government might have come as a relief to public employees, but is detrimental to the future of their #ShutdownBeards, which some of them boasted about during the 17-day shutdown. While feds put their personal Twitter profiles to use during the shutdown, many agencies returned to the Twitterverse for the first time on Oct. 17.

USA.gov tweeted "Good morning! We're back and ready to share helpful government information with you again!" The General Service Administration took it a step further and tweeted an Instagram graphic reading, "Thank you for your patience. We're back, and look forward to posting more news and information."

Feds also took to their personal Twitter profiles once the shutdown officially ended.

Rick Holgate, assistant director for science and technology and CIO at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, tweeted, "Sure am glad that took 16 days," followed by a retweet of an NPR news story.

Despite the Veterans Affairs Department putting 40 percent of its IT staff on furlough, its Twitter account remained active throughout the shutdown, providing resources such as crisis line phone numbers for veterans. As of early Thursday afternoon, the last tweet from Office of Personnel Management included a link to the OPM shutdown guide from Oct. 1.