POLITICS Border Wall / Gub-mint Shutdown

Just shows how unimportant they are, making them come in and work without pay so as to keep the wheels turning.

 

I have not looked into it much but the bill they are trying to pass to back pay the people that are currently not getting paid is for people that are actually still working, correct? Not the people that are furloughed?

 

I believe they have to be working in order to be back paid.

 

I assumed that was correct but had not looked into the proposed bill.

 

Whether one is needed or not is up to the priorities of the administration. There is no real federal designation of "essential," that is something carried over from decades ago in the 90's shutdown and isn't terminology that really captures what the difference between being furloughed or not is. The decisions are made based on whether it would immediately affect public safety and well-being. We have been shutdown long enough that everyone is going to be "essential" to someone at this point, it is just a matter of how influential that person is.

 

The bill is aimed at partially funding federal agencies with higher amounts of essential employees so that those working could be paid. Another bill wants to require all essential employees be paid.

But all (non-contractor) federal employees would be back-paid after government re-opens, regardless if they were essential/working (at least that is my understanding).

 

This is also my understanding.

I have mixed feelings about it, as usual. If you don't back-pay, you are ruining some people's lives (more so than just not getting paid for weeks). But it is a lot of public money being spent to fix a political mistake. Shutdowns are really awful, and legislation should be made to at least spread the pain up the Congress and the President if they are going to do them.

Also, all because the government isn't open doesn't change some of the larger deadlines. And the work will keep piling up. Overall efficiency and timetables will be affected for months.

 

I’m intrigued by this state of the union play.

Can an invite be rescinded?

 

And it's not like many of these government functions run like healthy gazelles as it is.

 

Doesn't get talked about much, but the majority of these furloughed folks are veterans.

 

Yep. The better half was recently on a federal project and the majority of the employees there were veterans. He was on it during the last mini shutdown and most of the place closed as non-essential.

 

For most of the time of the Union, the President actually wrote the State of the Union down and then had it delivered to Congress, he didn't actually go there and make a speech. I imagine it is up to Congress whether or not there is a joint-session.

It think it would be a petty thing to do, though, but that seems to be the modus operandi for both parties in Washington these days, much to the detriment of the Republic.

 

Yes, like Madam Speaker, I too read the Wikipedia page.

 

It's really ironic to me because federal workers have the reputation of being left-leaning, but I'm not sure that is true. The veterans tend towards the right pretty strongly, and the scientists to the left. The overlap tends towards the left, but there are still more veterans than scientists of any status.

Leadership tends towards being flags, blowing with the wind and gusts of the moment. Which is I guess how you get there and survive.

 

The people furloughed are not getting back pay, correct?

 

I think the main thing about being a flag is to make sure that the wind isn’t blowing too strongly in any direction.

 

That's a good point.

 

Not in the proposed bill as I understand it. They will get their backpay once the government re-opens

 

Paying furloughed workers while furloughed would be a bad idea. You don't want furloughed employees to start liking furlough.

 

So once the government re opens they will get paid for the days it was shut down and they were not working?