Plan to Pay Excepted Feds Immediately Gains Momentum

With just days remaining until federal employees at unfunded agencies miss their second straight pay check, an idea to compensate at least some of them promptly appears to be gaining traction on Capitol Hill.

Two weeks ago, Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced the Shutdown Fairness Act (S. 113), which would make sure federal workers at unfunded agencies who are currently working without pay will get their pay checks on time, instead of after the government reopens. The measure would not compensate furloughed employees, although last week President Trump signed legislation to provide them with back pay after agencies reopen.

“All employees required to work during the shutdown to perform national security and other critical functions should receive paychecks on a current basis,” Collins said in a statement. “It is not fair to force employees to work and not pay them. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and their families are being harmed by the partial government shutdown, and I am continuing to work with my colleagues and the White House to bring it to an end as quickly as possible.”

Jan. 18 marked the end of the second full pay period of the government shutdown. If Congress cannot reach an agreement on how to fund the government this week, roughly 800,000 employees, of which at least 420,000 are working without pay, will miss their second straight pay check.

Although the bill was introduced with four other Republican cosponsors, that tally had grown to 20 by Tuesday. And although he is not yet an official sponsor, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., threw his support behind the idea in multiple news interviews.

“The fact is, since we have already agreed to pay them when we reopen, why shouldn’t we at least go ahead and, even if we are shut down, pay these federal workers come Thursday, so they don’t have to incur additional pain and suffering?” Warner said Friday.

Warner repeated that sentiment on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. And on Tuesday, Warner introduced the Stop Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years Act, an effort to prevent future government shutdowns, similar to legislation introduced by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and others last week.

Lankford’s bill would institute an automatic continuing resolution at existing spending levels in the event that Congress fails to approve an appropriations package, although the approved spending would decrease by 1 percent after 90 days, and an extra 1 percent for each 30 days thereafter. But Warner’s bill would maintain existing spending levels for all unfunded agencies, and end appropriations for Congress, its associated agencies and offices, and for the Executive Office of the President.

“The Stop STUPIDITY Act takes the aggressive but necessary step of forcing the president and Congress to do the jobs they were elected to do,” Warner said in a statement. “It is disturbing that the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of workers are at the mercy of dysfunction in Washington.”