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As this government shutdown drags on,
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it's inflicting more and more pain on
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federal employees the longer it lasts
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because they're directly impacted. They
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have to go without pay until the
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shutdown ends. And some of them have to
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keep working, the the ones who are
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considered accepted and work without pay
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during the shutdown. And lawmakers have
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taken notice of that. and more and more
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bills are being introduced that are
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designed to help federal employees the
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longer the shutdown goes on. And I've
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put together a list of some of these
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bills that have been introduced
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recently. If you're a federal employee,
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they're worth watching. Some of these
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bills impact federal employees more
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globally because they apply to the whole
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federal workforce whereas some just
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impact a small subset of federal
0:48
employees. But let's get into the list
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here. I'll go over each one briefly. And
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I I'm sure this is by no means a
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comprehensive list. The information is
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also changing frequently, but if any of
1:01
you have any others that you know of
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that are helpful for federal employees
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to know about, then please by all means
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leave a mention of them in the comments.
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I'll start off with one that was just
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introduced today. Uh and I'm recording
1:15
this on October 23rd. It's called the
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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
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military service members and federal
1:35
contractors. It also would prohibit the
1:38
layoffs that the Trump administration
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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
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introduced by Senator Brian Shatz, a
1:56
Democrat from Hawaii.
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What this legislation would do is it
2:00
would protect furlowed federal workers
2:02
and contractors from eviction,
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foreclosure, repossession, and other
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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.
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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
2:47
This guidance would include modifying
2:49
loan terms, extending credit, and
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preventing adverse information from
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harming affected consumers
2:57
It would apply to both federal employees
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
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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
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also withhold pay from members of
3:52
Congress, the president, vice president,
3:55
cabinet, and white house political
3:58
And that's because Larsson says that
4:01
it's not fair for federal employees to
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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
4:13
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
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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
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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
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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
5:21
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
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Johnson, a Republican from South Dakota.
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So there's companion legislation in both
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the House and the Senate. And this is
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perhaps the bill of all bills because it
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would, as the name implies, eliminate
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the possibility of a government shutdown
6:12
completely. What this bill would do is
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it would trigger an automatic 14-day
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continuing resolution to continue
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funding at the previous year's levels in
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the event that a lapse of appropriations
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It also would automatically renew every
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14 days until Congress passes a new
6:31
appropriations bill or continuing
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And lastly, I wanted to mention the
6:37
Shutdown Fairness Act. This was
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introduced by Senator Ron Johnson,
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Republican from Wisconsin.
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And what this bill would have done is
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ensured that accepted federal employees
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who were required to work during the
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government shutdown without pay continue
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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
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was particularly unfair and he wanted to
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ensure that federal employees who are
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being required to work get paid. The
7:20
reason I say it would have done that is
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the Senate voted on this on today, the
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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
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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
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make sure u that you were aware of them.
7:43
Certainly, the longer this shutdown goes
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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
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goes on, we'll probably see more and
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more bills like this introduced since,
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again, federal employees are the among
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those most directly um impacted and
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harmed by a government shutdown.
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And even if the shutdown ends, they're
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not completely irrelevant. If they were
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to become law, the way many of these
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work is they would apply to future
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shutdowns as well and not just the the
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And we actually saw that with the 2019
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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
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passage of that bill into law, there
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there was not a guarantee of that and
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Congress had to approve backay for
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federal employees each time a shutdown
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took place. They they did in in pretty
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much all cases. I I I don't think I
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recall a case where um they ever were
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denied back pay, but now it's set into
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law. So, that's why they're worth
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watching. Like I said, I hope you found
8:59
this information helpful. And thank you
