“It’s disappointing to say the least, because the things that I ran on and that many of the people who just came into this Congress ran on, are getting lost in this nonsense,” Houlahan said. “Things that we were brought to Congress to do – like healthcare, like reforming the way our government works – we’d very much like to get to soon.”
Cost measured in billions
While they may never be precisely calculated, the costs of the shutdown are likely already into the billions, and they continue to mount. Beyond the likely cost of paying furloughed employees for work not done, additional costs include eventual overtime costs to deal with backlogs of work and the indirect impacts of various shuttered programs and services.
The Obama administration estimated the direct costs of the two-week October 2013 shutdown at $2.5 billion, while estimating another $2 to $6 billion in lost economic output. Those figures did not include miscellaneous other fiscal impacts, including millions in lost user fees and interest owed on late federal payments.
Federal workers who have been forced to work without pay have started going to the courts to challenge the shutdown.
….I do have a plan on the Shutdown. But to understand that plan you would have to understand the fact that I won the election, and I promised safety and security for the American people. Part of that promise was a Wall at the Southern Border. Elections have consequences!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2019
In one major action, five federal employee unions representing a combined 244,000 members working in coastal Virginia, southern California, central Montana and the Washington area filed suit in the US Court of Federal Claims on Friday, demanding full compensation for time and overtime worked over the three weeks of the shutdown.
“This lawsuit is not complicated. we do not believe it is lawful to compel a person to work without paying them,” said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, one of the groups suing. “With this lawsuit we’re saying, ‘no, you can’t pay workers with IOUs’. That will not work for us.”
While no prior lawsuit has forced the government to pay employees during a shutdown, a Federal Claims judge ruled in 2017 that some federal employees were entitled to damages for the delay in their paychecks.
Backpay guarantee
Congress on Friday passed legislation to guarantee backpay for all workers affected by the shutdown – both those who have been furloughed and those who have continued working as personnel deemed essential to the protection of life and property. Trump said on Friday he would sign it.
I just watched a Fake reporter from the Amazon Washington Post say the White House is “chaotic, there does not seem to be a strategy for this Shutdown. There is no plan.” The Fakes always like talking Chaos, there is NONE. In fact, there’s almost nobody in the W.H. but me, and…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2019
In past shutdowns, both furloughed and non-furloughed workers have received backpay, though federal contractors and their employees are generally left uncompensated.
Local authorities have stepped up to aid workers and families affected by the missing paychecks. Tampa International Airport, starting on Monday, is hosting a food bank for about 700 federal employees working at the airport, as well as offering other assistance with day-to-day needs. In Washington, the city government on Saturday served free lunches for those 18 and under at nine recreation centres, and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to do so every Saturday until the shutdown is resolved.
In his tweets on Saturday, Trump reacted sharply to a televised comment that he lacks a strategy for ending the shutdown. The tweets came shortly after an NBC Today panel with network reporters Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker, as well as Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker discussed the topic.
“I do have a plan on the shutdown,” he said. “But to understand that plan you would have to understand the fact that I won the election, and I promised safety and security for the American people. Part of that promise was a wall at the southern border. Elections have consequences!”
But Democrats are fully aware of their own mandate – particularly in the House, where the party gained the majority for the first time in eight years by winning 40 seats in a midterm election suffused with Trump’s apocalyptic warnings about the threats posed by illegal immigrants.
Before lawmakers left Washington on Friday, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., attempted to make a similar point as Trump did on Saturday about the 2016 election in a floor exchange with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
“He was elected by the American people as president to carry out border security and build a wall,” Scalise said. “It was part of the national debate. I know some people on your side don’t even want to recognise that election occurred and the result. But it happened.”
Replied Hoyer: “Oh no, I think there was an election, and he did raise that question. And as I recall, that’s why I’m the majority leader and you’re the minority whip.
‘Unfortunate’ – Pelosi
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the record-breaking duration of the shutdown “unfortunate” and “totally unnecessary” on Friday. House Democrats have spent their first days in the majority passing various spending bills that would reopen government, bills negotiated by Senate Republicans, but none have included the wall money Trump is demanding. More such votes are expected next week.
“We have given many paths to alleviating this, opening up government,” Pelosi said. But Trump has made clear he will not sign the bills the House is passing, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says he will not have the Senate act on any spending legislation Trump won’t sign.
While a few Republicans have called for a truce – Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., for instance, on Friday proposed immediate reopening the government for three weeks while lawmakers and Trump hash out a compromise on the border – most are putting the onus on Democrats to budge.
“There’s a way to get this done – you just have to have the will of both the minority leader in the Senate and the speaker of the House to come to the table, and they are not yet willing to do that,” said Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., referring to Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
But many Democrats said this week they are feeling little pressure to cave.
“My constituents understand who has triggered this, and they continue to hold him responsible, and that is Donald J. Trump,” said Gerald Connolly, D-Va., who represents a suburban Washington district with tens of thousands of federal workers. “They’re very clear about that. I mean, there’s no faux equivalency here, like, ‘you’re equally to blame’. They get it.”
Houlahan said her constituents, too, were mainly focused on Trump and the Republican Senate. “There are pragmatic people here, they’d like a solution, but right now they recognise that those are their lever points.”
Border security, she added, was a topic of discussion at the Saturday town hall meetings. “Largely, people believe that we need to enhance and protect our border but also believe that a wall, as it’s been described by our president, is not the answer.”
Other lawmakers said they were solely focused on breaking the impasse and ending local disruptions in their home districts.
Representative Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., who was sworn into Congress this month after serving more than seven years in the state assembly, said his office is taking calls from unpaid food and drug inspectors, among other affected constituents.
“I’m someone who is used to getting things done, so it is very frustrating,” he said. “Look, let’s get the government up and running. I am for border security – I believe that some element of physical barrier makes sense, but that can’t be the only solution.”
Elaine Luria, D-Va., who represents the Hampton Roads ports, the nation’s third-largest, said she was particularly determined to pay Coast Guard personnel who are now behind on their paychecks.
“These are people’s lives and livelihood, and we need to pay them for the work that they’re doing,” she said.
from Just News Viral http://bit.ly/2RqHc0j
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