Friday is payday for federal workers, but paychecks did not go out for 1.4 million employees after Senate Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a compromise Thursday.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) introduced legislation to ensure all federal workers are paid during the government shutdown, but Republicans blocked that bill from reaching a vote.
“We should not be punishing federal employees for something they had nothing to do with. They're not responsible. They're innocent bystanders. They all want to get back on the job and provide services to the American people,” Van Hollen said.
The Maryland senator argues his legislation is more favorable than a Republican-lead proposal, introduced by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), to pay only active-duty military members and federal employees mandated to work, known as “excepted” workers.
“We certainly shouldn't set up a system where the president of the United States gets to decide what agencies to shut down, what can stay open, who to pay and who not to pay, who to punish, who not to punish,” Van Hollen said, arguing Johnson’s bill gives President Donald Trump a “blank check” to only pay federal workers he deems worthy.
But Johnson takes particular concern with a provision within Van Hollen’s bill that will prevent more mass layoffs by the Trump administration during the shutdown.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked those layoffs, but Johnson says he does not believe Congress should limit the president’s ability to “properly manage the federal government, and make the tough decisions sometimes to reduce the workforce.”
Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) also spoke in support of the Democratic-lead bill, noting Maryland stands to face strong economic impacts if federal workers remain unpaid – the federal government is the largest employer in the state.
“My state is home to 494,000 federal workers and contractors. All of them are feeling the pain from this president's refusal to do what he supposedly loves to do best – make a deal,” Alsobrooks said. “We cannot cherry pick who gets paid during a shutdown based on our perception of the political affiliations of our patriotic civil servants.”
Johnson ultimately brought his measure to only pay military and excepted federal workers forward for a vote, which did not receive the 60 votes needed to pass.
Friday, Van Hollen and Alsobrooks joined over 60 of their Senate and House colleagues in urging the Trump administration to immediately reinstate any furloughed employees of agencies funded entirely by collected user fees and to resume their paychecks.
In their letter to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the lawmakers pointed out that fee-funded agencies are unaffected by the lapse in appropriations caused by the shutdown and argued those workers should continue to deliver services as they have during past shutdowns.
Friday marks day 24 of the government shutdown, and Maryland continues to lose $700,000 daily in tax revenue.
