It’s become a familiar pattern: Another possible shutdown, another bill addressing how pay would be handled for furloughed federal employees.
Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) has introduced his signature bill of late that would guarantee pay for federal employees who are furloughed during a partial government shutdown. The legislation (H.R. 4961) has 94 co-sponsors as of the time of this writing.
Beyer introduced the bill last time on on January 18, and it turned out to be needed since the government did briefly shutdown. Language from the bill was incorporated into the stopgap spending measure that resolved the shutdown, thus ensuring federal workers were compensated for any lost time.
And before that, he also introduced it in December when a potential shutdown was looming at that time.
Unlike federal employees, Members of Congress still get paid during a government shutdown. However, a number of lawmakers pledged to forego their salaries during the last shutdown. Bills were also introduced to withhold pay for Members of Congress in the event the government shuts down in the future.
