September 2023
Proposed Bill Would Protect Federal Workers in Event of Government Shutdown
The clock is ticking on Capitol Hill, where U.S. Congress inches closer to its Oct. 1 deadline to approve spending bills that provide funding for more than 400 federal agencies or else face the embarrassing prospect of a government shutdown.
We’ll see in a matter of days if the current stalemate leads to an interruption of the services these hundreds of agencies provide. In the meantime, two Democratic senators from Virginia have proposed legislation that would seek to shelter federal workers from the financial damage that such a shutdown could do to thousands of government employees.
Senators Tim Kaine and Mark W. Warner recently reintroduced the Federal Employee Civil Relief Act, which would enable government employees and contractors to postpone payment obligations during a shutdown or debt default and for 30 days afterward. An earlier version of the bill was introduced in March 2023.
Offering Protection to Impacted Workers
In a statement announcing the bill’s latest iteration, Senators Kaine and Warner referenced the government shutdown that saw the American government grind to a halt for 35 days between December 18 and January 2019.
During that month-plus span, “many federal workers received a pay stub with zero dollars in it,” Kaine and Warner said, noting that this bill “addresses the real threat of federal workers and contractors losing their homes, falling behind on student loans and other bills, having their car repossessed or losing their health insurance because they have been furloughed during a shutdown or required to work without pay.”
In addition to offering protection to affected federal workers from these and other financial scenarios during a shutdown and for 30 days afterward, the Federal Employee Civil Relief would enable these workers to apply to a court to temporarily postpone payment obligations or eviction or foreclosure actions.
As noted in the press release announcing the bill’s introduction, Senators Kaine and Warner took a number of similar measures during the 2018-2019 shutdown, such as guaranteeing back pay for federal employees, recommending back pay for contractors, introducing budget amendments to protect federal workers and urging OPM to prevent terminating dental and vision insurance for federal employees.
“During the government shutdown under President Trump, we spent lots of time with government employees who often broke down crying because they didn’t know how they were going to put food on the table or keep a roof over their family’s heads,” Kaine and Warner said in the aforementioned statement.
“Some people in Congress treat government shutdowns or the threat of a debt default like political games, but to federal workers and their families, the consequences can be grim and all too real. This legislation will help shield federal employees and their families from those in Congress who think it’s good politics to stop paying our bills by shutting down the government or defaulting on our debt.”
22 September 2023
Category
HR News Article