Shutdown Averted; Two-week CR Passes

Congress has approved a two-week continuing resolution that will keep the federal government open and federal employees on the job. The legislation is headed to the White House and the president is expected to sign it.

The CR extends agency funding at the current levels through Friday, Dec. 22.

It is good news that a shutdown has been averted today but NTEU is concerned that we may be on the brink of another shutdown in two short weeks. Congress must still agree on and pass a long-term funding bill for the remainder of the 2018 fiscal year and lawmakers continue to wrestle with other large issues surrounding tax policy, immigration, health care, sequestration and the debt limit.

With another impending deadline, NTEU continues to push for approval of the Federal Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2017 (S. 861), which would make sure that federal workers who are furloughed or forced to work without pay during a shutdown are compensated fully and quickly when the government re-opens, regardless of the next regularly scheduled pay date. It also would allow those who are required to work during a shutdown to take scheduled annual leave and sick leave while the government remains closed.

In all of NTEU’s work on Capitol Hill, we continue to press for adequate agency funding that allows employees to do their jobs and for a fair pay raise in January.

Lurching from deadline to deadline is unsettling for you and all NTEU members, especially during the holiday season. The threat of a furlough and uncertainty over possible loss of pay drives down the morale of dedicated employees and Congress needs to understand that.

NTEU believes that the work you do is critically important to our nation’s citizens and should not be subject to gamesmanship by our elected leaders. I will continue to carry that message to Congress.