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As the government shutdown drags on, lawmakers have been introducing more bills to help federal employees. These are some recent ones to be aware of.
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:10 True Shutdown Fairness Act
1:46 Federal Employee Civil Relief Act
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
As this government shutdown drags on,
0:03
it's inflicting more and more pain on
0:05
federal employees the longer it lasts
0:07
because they're directly impacted. They
0:09
have to go without pay until the
0:12
shutdown ends. And some of them have to
0:14
keep working, the the ones who are
0:16
considered accepted and work without pay
0:18
during the shutdown. And lawmakers have
0:22
taken notice of that. and more and more
0:24
bills are being introduced that are
0:26
designed to help federal employees the
0:28
longer the shutdown goes on. And I've
0:31
put together a list of some of these
0:33
bills that have been introduced
0:34
recently. If you're a federal employee,
0:36
they're worth watching. Some of these
0:38
bills impact federal employees more
0:41
globally because they apply to the whole
0:43
federal workforce whereas some just
0:45
impact a small subset of federal
0:48
employees. But let's get into the list
0:50
here. I'll go over each one briefly. And
0:53
I I'm sure this is by no means a
0:56
comprehensive list. The information is
0:58
also changing frequently, but if any of
1:01
you have any others that you know of
1:04
that are helpful for federal employees
1:05
to know about, then please by all means
1:07
leave a mention of them in the comments.
1:10
I'll start off with one that was just
1:13
introduced today. Uh and I'm recording
1:15
this on October 23rd. It's called the
1:18
True Shutdown Fairness Act. It was
1:20
introduced by Senator Chris Van Holland,
1:23
a Democrat from Maryland. And what this
1:25
bill would do, it would pay all federal
1:27
employees, both those who are accepted
1:30
and those who are furled, as well as
1:33
military service members and federal
1:35
contractors. It also would prohibit the
1:38
layoffs that the Trump administration
1:39
has proposed
1:41
uh via reduction in force or riff uh
1:45
while the government is shut down.
1:48
The second bill is called the Federal
1:51
Employee Civil Relief Act that was
1:53
introduced by Senator Brian Shatz, a
1:56
Democrat from Hawaii.
1:58
What this legislation would do is it
2:00
would protect furlowed federal workers
2:02
and contractors from eviction,
2:05
foreclosure, repossession, and other
2:07
financial hardrip hardships during and
2:11
30 days after a government shutdown.
2:15
The next one up is called the shutdown
2:17
guidance for financial institutions act.
2:20
This one was introduced by Congressman
2:22
Suas Subranam, a Democrat from Virginia.
2:27
I hope I pronounced his name correctly.
2:30
And um this bill would require federal
2:33
financial regulators to issue guidance
2:35
to financial institutions within 180
2:38
days of enactment instructing them to
2:41
recognize the hardships faced by
2:43
consumers and businesses during a
2:45
government shutdown.
2:47
This guidance would include modifying
2:49
loan terms, extending credit, and
2:51
preventing adverse information from
2:53
harming affected consumers
2:55
creditworthiness.
2:57
It would apply to both federal employees
2:59
and contractors.
3:02
Another one that's been introduced
3:03
recently is called the federal worker
3:06
child care protection act. This one was
3:08
introduced by Congresswoman
3:10
Elon Omar, Democrat from Minnesota. And
3:14
this legislation would ensure that
3:16
federal employees who are furoughed or
3:18
required to work without pay during the
3:20
ongoing lapse in federal funding are
3:23
eligible to be in re to be reimbursed
3:25
for child care expenses that are
3:28
incurred during the shutdown.
3:31
Next up is called the Make America
3:33
Govern or MAGA Act for short.
3:38
And this bill was introduced by
3:40
Congressman John Larson, Democrat from
3:42
Connecticut. And what it would do is it
3:44
would ensure that all federal employees,
3:46
both military and civilian, are paid
3:48
during the government shutdown and would
3:50
also withhold pay from members of
3:52
Congress, the president, vice president,
3:55
cabinet, and white house political
3:57
appointees.
3:58
And that's because Larsson says that
4:01
it's not fair for federal employees to
4:03
go without pay during the shutdown while
4:06
members of Congress u are getting paid.
4:09
So that's the premise behind that
4:10
legislation. Another
4:13
bill is called the Emergency Relief for
4:16
Federal Workers Act. This was introduced
4:18
by Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat from
4:21
Virginia. And what this bill would do is
4:23
it would establish government shutdowns
4:26
as financial hardships,
4:28
wave the 10% early withdrawal penalty
4:31
for TSP withdrawals, that's the thrift
4:33
savings plan, and allow for fund
4:36
recontribution at a future date. It
4:39
would also ensure access to TSP loans,
4:42
suspend loan payments during shutdowns,
4:44
and prevent mispayments from becoming
4:46
taxable distributions.
4:48
There's a lot to this bill. It gets into
4:51
a lot more details surrounding using the
4:53
TSP for financial hardships during the
4:56
shutdown, and I've written an article on
4:58
it that goes into much more detail, and
5:00
I'll be sure to include a link to that
5:01
in the description for those of you who
5:03
would like more information.
5:05
The next bill was introduced by Senator
5:07
Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas. I don't
5:10
have a name for this bill. There's not
5:12
one that I could find. It's uh fairly
5:16
recently introduced, but it's Senate
5:18
Bill number 3031.
5:21
And it would pay air traffic controllers
5:23
and TSA baggage screeners, among other
5:27
quote essential operational personnel,
5:30
at the Federal Aviation Administration.
5:33
So, while some of the other bills have
5:35
more globally accounted for pay for the
5:38
federal workforce, this one is more
5:40
specific to the FAA specifically. We
5:44
also have the Eliminate Shutdowns Act.
5:47
This was introduced by Senator Ron
5:49
Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, and
5:53
in the House by Congressman Dusty
5:55
Johnson, a Republican from South Dakota.
5:58
So there's companion legislation in both
6:01
the House and the Senate. And this is
6:03
perhaps the bill of all bills because it
6:07
would, as the name implies, eliminate
6:10
the possibility of a government shutdown
6:12
completely. What this bill would do is
6:14
it would trigger an automatic 14-day
6:16
continuing resolution to continue
6:18
funding at the previous year's levels in
6:21
the event that a lapse of appropriations
6:24
occurs.
6:26
It also would automatically renew every
6:28
14 days until Congress passes a new
6:31
appropriations bill or continuing
6:34
resolution.
6:35
And lastly, I wanted to mention the
6:37
Shutdown Fairness Act. This was
6:39
introduced by Senator Ron Johnson,
6:41
Republican from Wisconsin.
6:44
And what this bill would have done is
6:47
ensured that accepted federal employees
6:49
who were required to work during the
6:51
government shutdown without pay continue
6:54
to be paid. So just a quick reminder,
6:58
accepted federal employees are required
7:00
to work. They're not furled and they get
7:03
back pay once the shutdown ends.
7:05
Furoughed federal employees do also, but
7:08
they get furled and that that's the
7:10
difference. So his Johnson thought that
7:13
was particularly unfair and he wanted to
7:15
ensure that federal employees who are
7:17
being required to work get paid. The
7:20
reason I say it would have done that is
7:22
the Senate voted on this on today, the
7:25
day I'm recording this, Thursday,
7:26
October 23rd, and it failed to pass in a
7:29
54 to 50, excuse me, 54 to 45 vote. I
7:34
hope you found this information to be
7:36
helpful. As I said, these are some bills
7:37
I came across recently, and I wanted to
7:40
make sure u that you were aware of them.
7:43
Certainly, the longer this shutdown goes
7:45
on, if it were to last several more days
7:47
or even weeks, then they become even
7:50
more relevant. And also, the longer it
7:52
goes on, we'll probably see more and
7:54
more bills like this introduced since,
7:56
again, federal employees are the among
7:59
those most directly um impacted and
8:02
harmed by a government shutdown.
8:04
And even if the shutdown ends, they're
8:07
not completely irrelevant. If they were
8:09
to become law, the way many of these
8:12
work is they would apply to future
8:14
shutdowns as well and not just the the
8:16
current shutdown.
8:18
And we actually saw that with the 2019
8:21
bill, the Government Employee Fair
8:23
Treatment Act, that ensured that federal
8:27
employees are guaranteed retroactive pay
8:29
in the event of a shutdown. Prior to
8:32
passage of that bill into law, there
8:34
there was not a guarantee of that and
8:37
Congress had to approve backay for
8:39
federal employees each time a shutdown
8:41
took place. They they did in in pretty
8:45
much all cases. I I I don't think I
8:48
recall a case where um they ever were
8:51
denied back pay, but now it's set into
8:54
law. So, that's why they're worth
8:57
watching. Like I said, I hope you found
8:59
this information helpful. And thank you
9:01
for watching.
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