Home Media Center News Releases

WASHINGTON — As Congress stumbles toward another deadline to keep the federal government open, middle-class federal employees in every state are adjusting their personal and professional lives to prepare for a shutdown that would disrupt their public service duties and threaten their paychecks.

“It may feel routine to some in Washington, but I can assure you that frontline federal employees outside the Beltway across all 50 states will never grow accustomed to the fact that Congress pushes government funding deadlines to the brink,” NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said. “The political stalemates behind this now-annual spectacle cause real anxiety as thousands of federal employee families grapple with shaky personal finances and taxpayers are deprived of important services their government is supposed to provide.”

Agency funding expires Sept. 30 and Congress is far from a final agreement on most full-year appropriations bills. Instead, Republicans and Democrats have competing versions of a short-term funding bill to keep government open temporarily and push the deadline a few weeks down the road. While tensions are centered in Washington, the effects ripple out to low- and middle-income families, from New Hampshire to Nebraska. 

“The uncertainty itself is enough to create real tension in the workplace as employees await management decisions about who would keep working without pay, and who would be sent home, also without pay,” Greenwald said. “And work hours that should be focused on agency missions are now consumed by shutdown procedures. We all know shutdowns are wasteful, but so are the days leading up to them.”

A Senate report in 2019 found that the three previous shutdowns wasted at least $338 million in extra administrative work, lost revenue and late fees on interest payments. And the record-breaking shutdown of 2018-19 delayed federal spending enough to reduce the nation’s gross domestic product by $11 billion. It also forced many middle-class federal employees to go into debt to pay their bills while the shutdown dragged on for 35 days.

“Federal employees have been down this painful path before, and they have already started to cut back on discretionary spending in case their paychecks are delayed,” Greenwald said. “NTEU urges Congress to negotiate and find a bipartisan solution that resolves this standoff in a way that keeps all federal employees on the job and gives their agencies the resources needed to continue services that touch the lives of Americans every day.”

NTEU represents employees in 38 federal agencies and offices.