Federal Worker Union Call to End Shutdown Resisted by Democrats

Key Senate Democrats resisted a call by the country’s largest union of federal workers to shelve their health care demands and reopen the US government, signaling no end in sight for the ongoing shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employeesearlier Monday urged Democrats to go along with Republicans’ long-standing demand that they accept a short-term funding package similar to one that the GOP-controlled House passed in September.

“Reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution that allows continued debate on larger issues,” wrote Everett Kelley, national president of the union, which represents 820,000 federal and District of Columbia government workers.

The union’s push put new pressure on Democrats to abandon their efforts to renew expiring subsidies for Obamacare health insurance as part of any deal to end the shutdown.

“They know that this whole thing by the Democrats, this shutdown, is a charade,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of the AFGE position.

But Democrats returned to Washington on Monday largely unmoved, even as the shutdown approaches its one-month mark and disruptions, including federal workers going without pay, worsen.

“You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” said Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who said he still opposed the Republican spending bill.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, one of just three members of the Democratic caucus to vote with Republicans on the spending bill, wasn’t optimistic that the union’s position would sway her party.

“We will see,” she told reporters.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer declined to comment in a hallway interview when asked about the AFGE statement.

Democratic Resistance

Among the Democrats unmoved by the union’s push Monday were Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Tim Kaine of Virginia, whose states are home to thousands of federal workers.

Van Hollen on Monday criticized President Donald Trump for traveling to Asia while the US government is shuttered.

“The way to bring it to the end is for President Trump to spend a little less time talking to foreign leaders and a little more time talking to leaders right here to reopen the government,” Van Hollen said.

Kaine said he was concerned Trump would fire “a whole bunch” of federal workers once the government reopened, signaling that Democrats may also try to pass protections for government workers in any deal to end the shutdown.

A federal judge on Oct. 15 ordered the Trump administration to pause plans to fire thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown. White House Budget Director Russell Vought has said he expects layoffs to exceed more than 10,000 people.

The federal government shutdown is now the second longest in US history as funding for food aid dwindles and air traffic control crunches accumulate. Most federal workers missed their first full paycheck last Friday.

“Ensure back pay for every single employee who has served or been forced to stay home through no fault of their own. Work together on a bipartisan basis to address important policy matters like addressing rising costs and fixing the broken appropriations process,” Kelley said in comments posted to the AFGE website.

The National Treasury Employees Union is not joining AFGE in calling for passage of a clean stopgap bill.

“We’ve repeatedly called for an end to the shutdown since Oct. 1 and never took a position on any specific CR,” NTEU said in an emailed statement.

--With assistance from Jamie Tarabay, Steven T. Dennis and Derek Wallbank.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net;
Caitlin Reilly in Washington at creilly106@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Megan Scully at mscully32@bloomberg.net

Mike Dorning

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