WASHINGTON – Federal employees who have been furloughed as a result of the government shutdown are urging Democrats not to buckle in their standoff with Republicans over government funding — even if that means they’ll be going without paychecks in the coming weeks.
They described the shutdown fight as one worth waging, despite the likelihood of incurring credit card debt to pay for necessities, support their families and pay off a mortgage. Some said they’d be willing to go as far as finding another job if it comes down to it.
“If we don’t stand up now, we might not have jobs in a month, in two months, in three months, or four months,” James Kirwan, counsel to the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, told HuffPost, stressing the need to curb President Donald Trump’s ability to shutter federal agencies and slash the federal workforce unilaterally.
“There’s nothing to stop them from doing that unless the budget comes with assurances. So we are willing to take some temporary pain in order to have strength for our programs,” he added.
Monica Gorman, a research analyst at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said this shutdown is different from prior ones because the Trump administration is seeking to permanently close critical programs, including those that deorbit satellites providing data Americans rely on for weather forecasting, climate research, agriculture, safety and natural disaster alerts.
“What I really want them to understand is that this is not a normal budget debate,” Gorman said of lawmakers in Congress. “We’re in the middle of an unprecedented power grab by the White House. They want to take away Congress’s power to determine how much money is spent and what it’s spent on.”
“If they come to a compromise that doesn’t include very clear protections for the money to be appropriated and spent as they direct, then nothing else they get out of it is going to matter, because the White House will just impound the money again,” she added.
Gorman dismissed the Trump administration’s threat to fire some furloughed employees as “totally bogus,” noting it would be illegal under a bill Trump signed into law.
Since the shutdown started nine days ago, Senate Democrats have mostly been united in refusing to fund the government without guarantees from the Trump administration that it will not claw back funds Congress approved through the rescissions process. They are also insisting on an extension of expanded government tax credits for many Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have rejected both demands — maintaining that negotiations over the ACA ought to continue only when the government is reopened.
However, the pressure to resolve the government shutdown will only intensify for Congress as the standoff drags on into its second week. Democrats are particularly sensitive to the needs of hundreds of thousands of furloughed civilian workers, who will receive a partial paycheck starting Oct. 10, reflecting the days worked before the shutdown began.
The pain will become more acute in the coming days if there’s no deal to reopen the government. Federal employees at some agencies will see entirely missed checks starting on Oct. 24, and others on Oct. 28. Over a million members of the military will also start missing paychecks on Oct. 15.
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said he has heard from many federal workers and that their opinions on the shutdown vary.
“It’s 50/50,” Hickenlooper told HuffPost. “Half of them say, ‘Stand firm. Don’t give into them. Fight for our health care.’ The other ones are saying, ‘Hey, I got to pay my rent.’ It is not as one-sided as I thought it would be.”
Still, the Colorado Democrat said most people support putting a check on Trump’s executive authority and extending the Obamacare subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of the year. If Congress doesn’t act, premiums will more than double on average for over 20 million people enrolled in the health care program. Four million people are estimated to lose their insurance entirely.
Colin Smalley, an Army Corps of Engineers employee, said a lot of federal workers are glad to see lawmakers pushing back against the administration after months of brutal and unilateral cuts to the government. Most Army Corps employees, including Smalley, are not furloughed since their jobs aren’t funded through annual appropriations.
“As unions and federal employees, we’re sitting here saying we need to see some kind of movement to reining in this unchecked aggression,” said Smalley, who is also president of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 777.
Smalley is part of a network of federal employees who’ve been urging senators to “hold the line” in talks with Republicans. While some want to see a deal as soon as possible, Smalley said a lot of workers view the health care subsidies as part of a broader fight over public services and whether working-class folks can make ends meet.
“We have skin in the game of every community issue, even if we’re not directly, to a person, affected,” he said.
One furloughed employee at the National Parks Service, who requested anonymity to speak out of fear of retribution by the Trump administration, said she worried about her job at the agency regardless of whether the government is shut down or not. NPS workers, she said, are dedicated civil servants who have a deep commitment to protecting the nation’s parks, forests, and wildlife refuges. The agency has undergone drastic budget and staffing cuts under the Trump administration, which has proposed slashing $1 billion from its budget, the largest reduction in the agency’s history.
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“We can’t publicly say anything, or we will lose our jobs. Everyone is terrified,” she told HuffPost.
Still, the NPS worker was adamant that Democrats should continue fighting to prevent the administration from slashing federal agencies.
“What kind of person would I be if I went with what works best for me versus what works best for the collective?” she asked. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I don’t know what’s going to happen to my job. I love my job dearly. But I don’t want to just watch things be stripped from the American people one by one, or us to fold under such pressure.”