Shutdown stories

[GreyhoundFan]

"The lowest-paid shutdown workers aren’t getting back pay"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/29/lowest-paid-shutdown-workers-arent-getting-back-pay/?utm_term=.d3d239fde7f4

Spoiler

Her debt was mounting: $156 for the gas bill, $300 for electricity, $2,000 for the mortgage. She could no longer afford her blood pressure pills. But what stung Audrey Murray-Wright most was rationing the groceries.

“I never, ever want to tell my son, ‘Don’t drink all that milk so you can save your brother some,' ” she said, choking up.

Murray-Wright, a cleaning supervisor at the National Portrait Gallery, is one of more than a million federal contract workers nationwide whose income halted when the government partly shuttered for 35 days.

Unlike the 800,000 career public servants who are slated to receive full back pay over the next week or so, the contractors who clean, guard, cook and shoulder other jobs at federal workplaces aren’t legally guaranteed a single penny.

They’re also among the lowest-paid laborers in the government economy, generally earning between $450 and $650 weekly, union leaders say.

And even as they began returning to work Monday, they were bracing for more pain. President Trump’s new deadline for Congress to earmark funding for his proposed border wall is Feb. 15. Agencies could close again if no deal is reached.

Murray-Wright, who lives in Maryland and has worked at Smithsonian properties for 15 years, said seeing her name back on the schedule has brought little relief.

She clocks in again Tuesday but doesn’t expect a paycheck for at least another week. After her husband died last year of a heart attack, she has struggled to support her sons, ages 12 and 15.

“I did have a little money in the bank — now that’s all gone,” she said, crying. “I don’t have any help. My electricity might be turned off any day now.”

Héctor Figueroa, president of 32BJ SEIU, a labor union that represents 170,000 service workers on the East Coast, said reopening the government is a temporary fix for people on such shaky ground.

“Contracted workers are still in limbo,” he said in an email. “The men and women who clean and secure federal buildings have been living on the edge of disaster for five weeks. Many of these workers are facing eviction, power shut-offs, hunger and even going without lifesaving medications. And unlike direct federal employees, they may never be made whole.”

After the 16-day shutdown in 2013, approximately 850,000 federal workers collected compensation. About 1,200 cleaners, security guards and food-service workers in the Washington area, however, received no makeup pay.

A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill last month aimed at changing that. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have proposed legislation that would repay contractors up to $965 per week with public money and restore sick days used during the shutdown. (It’s unclear whether the bill will advance.)

The push for compensation comes at a time when only 4 in 10 Americans say they could cobble together $400 when faced with an emergency expense, according to the latest Federal Reserve data.

Julia Quintanilla, 55, who has worked for the past 27 years as a janitor at the Agriculture Department and other federal agencies, said she cashed in the last of her sick days during the shutdown to keep some income flowing.

Now she’s worried she won’t be able to care for her elderly mother with dementia without risking her job security.

“Her mental abilities are failing,” she said. “She needs my help.”

Quintanilla lost about $1,000 in savings during the shutdown, tumbled into a similar amount of debt and relied on churches for free meals. Her boss told her she’s not eligible for back pay, she said.

“They said, “Since you are contract workers, when the government shuts down, you’re going to stay home,' ” she said. “There is no work.”

Such was also the case for De’von Russell, 30, a security guard at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. He applied for unemployment checks in early January, which fell a couple hundred dollars short of his usual wages — about $600 weekly — and did not arrive until last week.

He’s thrilled to return to work Wednesday, he said, but it’s hard to celebrate with a month’s worth of income gone. Russell, who has a 3-year-old daughter, estimates he’s down $2,000.

“I was living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “When all the funds stopped coming in, it just was like: ‘What do I do now?’ ”

Loniece Hamilton, 25, another Smithsonian guard, said she watched about $1,000 disappear from her bank account during the budget stalemate. She’d started her job in May, figuring a government-tied position would be more stable.

“I thought it’d be better,” she said.

She borrowed money from her grandfather and cousin. She didn’t drive unless she was taking her 5-year-old son to school. And when he asked for his favorite cookies and juice at the store, she said: Next month.

“I’m late on all of my bills,” she said. “Every single last one of them.”

Catching up, she estimates, could take two months.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Rocky restart after government shutdown: Many workers still haven’t received back pay"

Spoiler

Meat inspector Alfreda Dennis-Bowyer was looking forward to getting a paycheck — finally. She’s a U.S. Agriculture Department employee in Delaware with four decades of experience, and during the 35-day partial government shutdown she stayed on the job, working overtime, even though she wasn’t getting paid. When the shutdown ended, she expected to get all her back pay in a lump sum — about $9,000.

Instead she got a check for $250.

“When I saw that $250 I thought, ‘What in the world is this? Where’s the rest of my money?’ ” said 63-year-old Dennis-Bowyer. The underwhelming check turned out to be a reward for working through the shutdown. Because of glitches with the USDA payroll system, she didn’t get her full back pay until Wednesday, nearly two weeks after the shutdown ended. About 120 inspectors are still waiting.

They are among thousands of employees who have experienced delays or anomalies with paychecks at the federal agencies that went dark. Many say they initially received half of what they were owed after working without pay or being furloughed. Others were stunned by what appeared to be excessive tax withholding. And some — the exact number has not been provided by government officials — had received no pay as of Thursday afternoon.

The paycheck situation is just one of many challenges and headaches for federal agencies and hundreds of thousands of employees attempting to restart the government. They are holding their breath, knowing they might have to endure another funding lapse in a matter of days if congressional leaders can’t strike a deal over border security. The nine Cabinet agencies and dozens of smaller ones affected by the recent shutdown are funded only through Feb. 15.

Republican and Democratic negotiators have said they might reach a compromise funding package by the end of this week. The last time the funding issue seemed on the verge of a bipartisan agreement, back in December, President Trump pulled the plug amid pressure from hard-liners in his political base. If Trump blocks a new deal, Congress could override him. Otherwise, large parts of the government could shut down again.

Government experts said the many troubles with the restart, such as the payroll glitches, shouldn’t be a surprise. As a rule, the federal government can’t be turned off and on like a reading lamp. The funding lapse that began Dec. 22 caught many agency officials off guard, and the 35 days of the shutdown had a chaotic and improvisational quality that probably contributed to the chaos of the restart.

Simply signing on to an agency’s computer network proved difficult for many people returning to work, because their passwords expired during the shutdown.

Private contractors have also had to surmount bureaucratic hurdles. Some contracts expired during the shutdown. That happened, for example, with the contract for handling Freedom of Information Act requests at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said attorney Ethan Bodell, who handles such requests. He said the contract hasn’t been renewed, and as a result, the office can’t get working on new requests or access its database of existing ones.

Private contractors are also drumming their fingers waiting to be paid for work done months ago, said David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, which represents members of about 400 companies that do business with the government.

“Old invoices have not been paid. New invoices have not been paid. The first thing that should have been paid were old invoices that were actually for work done last October and November,” Berteau said.

The paycheck problem cropped up in the National Finance Center, which operates out of the USDA and runs the payroll for many of the government agencies affected by the shutdown. The center was given only a few days to process two full pay cycles for more than 600,000 employees, and had to modify its systems to process 1,343,456 disbursements totaling $5 billion in gross salary, USDA spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.

The computers balked.

“Unfortunately, processing such a large quantity of payroll disbursements in such a short period of time resulted in 3,908 employees who received payment for only one pay cycle, and 7 did not receive any pay,” Murtaugh said in an email.

Those numbers do not jibe with anecdotal reports from employee union representatives and from interviews with government workers, which suggest that the number of people underpaid or not paid at all is much higher.

Many of the 450 Internal Revenue Service clerks who process tax transcripts for the lending industry in four offices across the country were not fully paid, according to interviews with employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents them. The clerks spent about two weeks on furlough during the shutdown before the Treasury Department, under pressure from the industry to continue producing a key document essential to getting a mortgage, brought them back to work.

The IRS said late Thursday that “a few hundred” employees had received “some but not all” of their back pay, and the remainder is expected to be paid over the next few days.

There’s another hidden cost to the shutdown: overtime pay. For example, the IRS clerks have been working overtime trying to cope with a backlog of 100,000 tax transcripts that accumulated during the shutdown.

Federal employees fear they may have to endure another shutdown, said J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 700,000 federal workers. Restarting the government is a laborious process, he noted.

"Just getting time cards corrected, that will take months," Cox said.

“The mood is pretty subdued now. People are fatigued by the shutdown. They’re demoralized to some extent,” said David Verardo, president of AFGE Local 3403, which represents more than 1,000 employees at the National Science Foundation and other agencies. “It’s hard to plan past February 15 not knowing if we’ll have to cancel activities again.”

On a good day, with the government functioning normally, immigration judges face a daunting backlog of cases, and that became all the more challenging when the courts reopened on Monday, Jan. 28, said Ashley Tabaddor, a Los Angeles-based judge and the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

She said she has more than 2,000 cases on her docket and no opening on her calendar until late 2020. She returned to work to find boxes of court filings filling a reception area in the office building that houses the immigration court. She said Justice Department officials insisted that everyone go back to work and conduct “business as usual” even though Tabaddor said it would have made more sense to spend a couple of days ramping up, going through mail and newly filed court papers, and getting organized.

The long delay in issuing paychecks and poor communication between the administration and federal workers have fueled resentment and anxiety as another possible shutdown looms, said Charles “Stan” Painter, a federal poultry inspector and chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s a mess,” Painter said.

Even when federal workers have been paid, the way the money arrived baffled many federal workers. For example, at the Census Bureau, workers who were furloughed — who stayed home throughout the shutdown — received all their back pay last week. But the workers who were called back to the office during the shutdown — and forced to work without pay — are still waiting for their money.

Carmen Rottenberg, who runs the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service division, said because of a glitch in payroll processing, inspectors who worked overtime didn’t receive their back pay on Jan. 31. Those who didn’t work overtime did get their back pay.

“It isn’t much, but we wanted to do something for those who didn’t get paid anything,” Rottenberg said. “I really hope this doesn’t happen again. It creates an incredible hardship on our employees. People shouldn’t forget that if they aren’t there, no meat, pork or poultry can be produced in this country.”

 

[onekidanddone]

52 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Rocky restart after government shutdown: Many workers still haven’t received back pay"

  Reveal hidden contents

Meat inspector Alfreda Dennis-Bowyer was looking forward to getting a paycheck — finally. She’s a U.S. Agriculture Department employee in Delaware with four decades of experience, and during the 35-day partial government shutdown she stayed on the job, working overtime, even though she wasn’t getting paid. When the shutdown ended, she expected to get all her back pay in a lump sum — about $9,000.

Instead she got a check for $250.

“When I saw that $250 I thought, ‘What in the world is this? Where’s the rest of my money?’ ” said 63-year-old Dennis-Bowyer. The underwhelming check turned out to be a reward for working through the shutdown. Because of glitches with the USDA payroll system, she didn’t get her full back pay until Wednesday, nearly two weeks after the shutdown ended. About 120 inspectors are still waiting.

They are among thousands of employees who have experienced delays or anomalies with paychecks at the federal agencies that went dark. Many say they initially received half of what they were owed after working without pay or being furloughed. Others were stunned by what appeared to be excessive tax withholding. And some — the exact number has not been provided by government officials — had received no pay as of Thursday afternoon.

The paycheck situation is just one of many challenges and headaches for federal agencies and hundreds of thousands of employees attempting to restart the government. They are holding their breath, knowing they might have to endure another funding lapse in a matter of days if congressional leaders can’t strike a deal over border security. The nine Cabinet agencies and dozens of smaller ones affected by the recent shutdown are funded only through Feb. 15.

Republican and Democratic negotiators have said they might reach a compromise funding package by the end of this week. The last time the funding issue seemed on the verge of a bipartisan agreement, back in December, President Trump pulled the plug amid pressure from hard-liners in his political base. If Trump blocks a new deal, Congress could override him. Otherwise, large parts of the government could shut down again.

Government experts said the many troubles with the restart, such as the payroll glitches, shouldn’t be a surprise. As a rule, the federal government can’t be turned off and on like a reading lamp. The funding lapse that began Dec. 22 caught many agency officials off guard, and the 35 days of the shutdown had a chaotic and improvisational quality that probably contributed to the chaos of the restart.

Simply signing on to an agency’s computer network proved difficult for many people returning to work, because their passwords expired during the shutdown.

Private contractors have also had to surmount bureaucratic hurdles. Some contracts expired during the shutdown. That happened, for example, with the contract for handling Freedom of Information Act requests at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said attorney Ethan Bodell, who handles such requests. He said the contract hasn’t been renewed, and as a result, the office can’t get working on new requests or access its database of existing ones.

Private contractors are also drumming their fingers waiting to be paid for work done months ago, said David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, which represents members of about 400 companies that do business with the government.

“Old invoices have not been paid. New invoices have not been paid. The first thing that should have been paid were old invoices that were actually for work done last October and November,” Berteau said.

The paycheck problem cropped up in the National Finance Center, which operates out of the USDA and runs the payroll for many of the government agencies affected by the shutdown. The center was given only a few days to process two full pay cycles for more than 600,000 employees, and had to modify its systems to process 1,343,456 disbursements totaling $5 billion in gross salary, USDA spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.

The computers balked.

“Unfortunately, processing such a large quantity of payroll disbursements in such a short period of time resulted in 3,908 employees who received payment for only one pay cycle, and 7 did not receive any pay,” Murtaugh said in an email.

Those numbers do not jibe with anecdotal reports from employee union representatives and from interviews with government workers, which suggest that the number of people underpaid or not paid at all is much higher.

Many of the 450 Internal Revenue Service clerks who process tax transcripts for the lending industry in four offices across the country were not fully paid, according to interviews with employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents them. The clerks spent about two weeks on furlough during the shutdown before the Treasury Department, under pressure from the industry to continue producing a key document essential to getting a mortgage, brought them back to work.

The IRS said late Thursday that “a few hundred” employees had received “some but not all” of their back pay, and the remainder is expected to be paid over the next few days.

There’s another hidden cost to the shutdown: overtime pay. For example, the IRS clerks have been working overtime trying to cope with a backlog of 100,000 tax transcripts that accumulated during the shutdown.

Federal employees fear they may have to endure another shutdown, said J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 700,000 federal workers. Restarting the government is a laborious process, he noted.

"Just getting time cards corrected, that will take months," Cox said.

“The mood is pretty subdued now. People are fatigued by the shutdown. They’re demoralized to some extent,” said David Verardo, president of AFGE Local 3403, which represents more than 1,000 employees at the National Science Foundation and other agencies. “It’s hard to plan past February 15 not knowing if we’ll have to cancel activities again.”

On a good day, with the government functioning normally, immigration judges face a daunting backlog of cases, and that became all the more challenging when the courts reopened on Monday, Jan. 28, said Ashley Tabaddor, a Los Angeles-based judge and the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

She said she has more than 2,000 cases on her docket and no opening on her calendar until late 2020. She returned to work to find boxes of court filings filling a reception area in the office building that houses the immigration court. She said Justice Department officials insisted that everyone go back to work and conduct “business as usual” even though Tabaddor said it would have made more sense to spend a couple of days ramping up, going through mail and newly filed court papers, and getting organized.

The long delay in issuing paychecks and poor communication between the administration and federal workers have fueled resentment and anxiety as another possible shutdown looms, said Charles “Stan” Painter, a federal poultry inspector and chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook. It’s a mess,” Painter said.

Even when federal workers have been paid, the way the money arrived baffled many federal workers. For example, at the Census Bureau, workers who were furloughed — who stayed home throughout the shutdown — received all their back pay last week. But the workers who were called back to the office during the shutdown — and forced to work without pay — are still waiting for their money.

Carmen Rottenberg, who runs the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service division, said because of a glitch in payroll processing, inspectors who worked overtime didn’t receive their back pay on Jan. 31. Those who didn’t work overtime did get their back pay.

“It isn’t much, but we wanted to do something for those who didn’t get paid anything,” Rottenberg said. “I really hope this doesn’t happen again. It creates an incredible hardship on our employees. People shouldn’t forget that if they aren’t there, no meat, pork or poultry can be produced in this country.”

 

I received mine, but I have no idea if it is right until they send out our leave and earning statements.  From what I hear some people were screwed with their use or lose and benefits like long term care insurance, vision and dental coverage and TSP allotments. 

I really am glad I work from home I must say.  My team mate said the top brass came by to 'welcome' people back. By 'top brass' I mean Trump appointees. I don't know if I could be civil if I had to see any of these clowns face to face.

Time will tell what happens next week and I feel so powerless.  My car went into the shop and needs over 2,000 in repairs and I could be out of a job again by this time next week.

[onekidanddone]

$210 bucks this morning for my kids dental work. So tell me again about all the calls the shit stain received from Federal employees who support another shutdown.

[Howl]

I'm thinking there's going to be mass rebellion if another shutdown goes into effect.  

[onekidanddone]

7 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'm thinking there's going to be mass rebellion if another shutdown goes into effect.  

One Kid's mommy isn't going to sit idly by.

[formergothardite]

38 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'm thinking there's going to be mass rebellion if another shutdown goes into effect.  

The airports shutting down and people not showing up for work is going to happen pretty fast if there is another shut down. 

[apple1]

I didn't think it would come to this (near another shutdown).

I can't even... well, I don't have words.

 

We are the laughingstock of the world, never even mind what this is doing to the individuals affected by it.

[onekidanddone]

28 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

The airports shutting down and people not showing up for work is going to happen pretty fast if there is another shut down. 

I'm ready to hit the streets again. No pay check no peace!!!!

[Ozlsn]

I can't believe it's even being considered again. WTAF is going on with this mob?

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

I can't believe it's even being considered again. WTAF is going on with this mob?

Ask Putin. He’s the one running the show after all.

Destabilizing the world is his ultimate goal, so he can do whatever he likes. Invade other countries in order to plunder their resources without repercussions, for example. One big obstacle in his path used to be the American might on the world’s political stage, coupled with its even greater military power. Putin is well on his way to removing that obstacle. Keeping America in an internal political gridlock fighting amongst themselves serves his interests. His agents in the Oval Office and in the Senate are doing his bidding.

The only thing that can stop him is when its current administration is removed, the GOP completely gutted and the corruption evicerated from politics. The only way you can achieve that is by the people publically and demonstratively demanding that change. Don’t wait for next years elections, don’t wait for Mueller, don’t even wait for impeachment procedures to start. The time to act is now. Before it’s too late.

[GreyhoundFan]

I hope this is true: "Lawmakers say they have reached an ‘agreement in principle’ to avoid government shutdown"

Spoiler

BREAKING: Lawmakers say they have reached an “agreement in principle” to avoid government shutdown.

Top lawmakers say they have reached a deal to fund the government through the fall, a deal that would resolve ongoing disputes over immigration and — if signed into law by President Trump — stave off a partial government shutdown set to start Saturday.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Key lawmakers expressed guarded optimism late Monday that they would be able to avoid another government shutdown, saying they were making progress in a series of late-stage meetings meant to resolve disputes about immigration rules.

The outcome remains uncertain, as negotiators must cut a deal before midnight Friday on funding for a series of federal departments. But after back-to-back-to-back meetings between party leaders, they signaled the pathway for a deal had emerged, even if some details remained unsettled.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said he was hopeful a deal could be reached Monday evening. “We’re working in good faith. I believe [Republicans] are too,” he said.

Leahy was meeting with Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), House Appropriations Committee Chair­man Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.). The lawmakers are on a bi­partisan conference committee charged with striking a border security deal to stave off a shutdown, which would begin Saturday unless the House and Senate pass legislation and President Trump signs it into law.

The discussions are the first major political test for Democrats and Republicans after a 35-day government shutdown froze the paychecks of 800,000 federal workers until Trump backed away from demands late last month. Congress was given a short reprieve to try to reach a longer-term agreement, with a focus on border security and immigration rules.

Negotiators had made steady progress behind closed doors until rifts spilled into the open in recent days, with Democrats and Republicans angrily accusing each other of trying to sabotage the talks and raising fears that another shutdown was imminent.

The central stumbling block was Democrats’ insistence on limiting the number of undocumented immigrants who could be detained. The White House insisted on more flexibility, saying it needed the ability to tailor rules for felons and violent criminals.

As the stakes came into focus Monday, leaders from both parties sought to bridge this issue and revive a compromise.

Granger offered a hint of optimism, telling reporters they were “possibly” moving closer to avoid a shutdown. And Lowey said she was hopeful as well.

“We’re still talking,” she said during a break between meetings. “As long as there’s talking, there’s life.”

Shelby urged caution but said there was a chance negotiators could reach a sweeping deal that addressed many of the unresolved issues, potentially eliminating the need to revisit budget and immigration issues until October.

“At the moment, I think odds have improved, but they still have not crystallized,” Shelby said.

White House officials and lawmakers viewed Monday’s meetings as a major inflection point that could determine whether more than a dozen federal agencies and departments are again shut down.

Trump attempted Monday to put the onus on Democrats to broker a deal. Asked by reporters if the government would shut down again on Saturday, he responded, “That’s up to the Democrats.”

Lawmakers had hoped to reach an agreement by midday Monday, a timeline they thought was sufficient to win House and Senate approval this week. But talks broke down over the weekend, leading to acrimonious finger-pointing and angry outbursts from the White House.

If no deal emerges, lawmakers and the White House could find another way to keep the government open. One option under consideration would be to pass a package of full-year spending bills for all affected government agencies except the Department of Homeland Security. DHS could then be funded on a short-term basis while lawmakers continue to work on a deal on immigration, according to two officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The White House is open to that approach, and Lowey said Democrats could also be open to it if necessary.

Trump’s demands for funds to build a border wall, which prompted the 35-day government shutdown that ended late last month, are not the central sticking point in the current impasse. Instead, the two sides are at odds over Democrats’ attempt to impose a new cap on detentions of immigrants apprehended within the United States, as opposed to at the border. Negotiators refer to this cap as representing the number of “beds” that the government can use for detentions.

Republicans want to exclude immigrants charged with or convicted of certain crimes from the cap, arguing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might not otherwise have the ability to detain dangerous criminals. Democrats, seeking to rein in the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement policies, say excluding people from the cap would render it toothless.

Republicans went on the attack Monday over Democrats’ demands, which McConnell called an “absurd last-minute poison pill” and “a get-out-of-jail-free card for criminals because the radical left doesn’t like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

“This provision would rightly be a total non-starter for the White House,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

But Democrats have said the Republican descriptions inaccurately characterize their position. They said the White House’s insistence on excluding people charged or convicted of crimes, even nonviolent drug offenses, would give the White House almost limitless power to detain people and make existing rules irrelevant.

“How the government deals with ICE is a very important issue,” Lowey said. “And that’s why the beds are so critical to this negotiation. Period.”

Lawmakers frequently run up against deadlines to pass spending bills, but it’s unclear whether they can rely on the most commonly used fallback plans this time. Often, lawmakers will seek to pass short-term spending bills that last for several weeks to buy more time for negotiations. But they have already done that several times in recent months, and it’s uncertain whether they would take that step again.

Trump has readied a plan to declare a national emergency on the southern border, which he believes will allow him to redirect taxpayer money from other projects to build parts of a wall — without approval from Congress.

White House officials have said they would give the current negotiations a chance to succeed before moving forward with their plan, but they haven’t revealed an openness to delaying any longer.

The Monday afternoon meeting comes at a pivotal time. Trump traveled to El Paso for a rally Monday evening, and he is expected to restate his case for tougher immigration rules. Republicans in Congress have tried to avoid Trump’s hard-line rhetoric during negotiations, but his support is crucial for a final deal.

Unlike in the fight over billions in funding for a border wall, which a majority of Americans oppose, Republicans say they are on strong political ground if the debate becomes centered on whether or not ICE has free rein to detain convicted or suspected criminals.

“The wall is unpopular. Enforcing the law is popular,” said Michael Steel, a GOP strategist and former top House aide. “This is particularly difficult terrain for Democrats to fight on. I think that most people want the laws enforced, and they expect that if illegal immigrants break the law, that they will be detained.”

A partial shutdown could have a broad impact on the country. Funding lapses would go beyond DHS to hit a number of other federal departments, including the Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Agriculture and Interior departments, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.

During the last government shutdown, which began Dec. 22 and lasted 35 days, 800,000 federal employees went without pay. Many of them were still ordered to come into work, without pay, for the duration of the shutdown, to minimize the impact on the public.

At the beginning of talks, lawmakers looked for ways to avoid conflict over Trump’s demand that $5.7 billion in taxpayer money be used to build parts of a wall along the border with Mexico. Lawmakers were discussing sums between $1.3 billion and $2 billion, far short of Trump’s initial demands.

The White House recently signaled to Republicans that it could accept smaller sums, because it believed it could legally re-appropriate money from other accounts to build the wall. Moving money from one account to another could be challenged in court, but top White House officials have said they are prepared for legal challenges.

With lawmakers planning to continuing negotiating into the evening, they were cognizant that they didn’t have much time left to broker a deal.

“I wish we could have concluded it and I’d walk and say ‘Hallelujah,’ but we’re still having discussions,” Lowey said.

 

[fraurosena]

It looks like it’s true. Will it get presiduncial approval, or will the Senate GOP make a stand and vote for it with a veto-proof majority?

 

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, fraurosena said:

It looks like it’s true. Will it get presiduncial approval, or will the Senate GOP make a stand and vote for it with a veto-proof majority?

 

Veto proof majority?

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

Veto proof majority?

If more than 67 senators vote for it, they would have enough votes to overturn a veto.

[onekidanddone]

54 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

If more than 67 senators vote for it, they would have enough votes to overturn a veto.

But would they? Even if they get 67, I can see Wretch McFuckFace not allowing the override 

[GreyhoundFan]

12 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

But would they? Even if they get 67, I can see Wretch McFuckFace not allowing the override 

If the repugs think it would endanger their political future to bow to Dumpy and screw over their constituents with another shutdown, they may not vote for it. At this point, I have no idea what they'll do.

[onekidanddone]

Just got my car out of the shop for a delightful sum of 2,000 and yesterday my husband found out he needs cataract surgery. So fuck you in advance McTurdface and orange slime ass.

Today at team meeting my boss was taking about how some people have emotional toll being on furlough.  Well no shit Sherlock. Then he was trying to sell us on the idea of using employee counselling through work.  Says any thing we say is confidential.  Ummm mark me down for a 'no'.  I have my own therapist and there is no way I'm going to anybody employed by my agency.

I'm bitter, angry, hopeless and fucking fed up. 

[SilverBeach]

I posted in another thread that I just have not been able to start working on my projects since returning to work. I cannot muster up any enthusiasm until I know it's not going to be another shutdown. Why start just to have to stop again? This shitshow has indeed been damaging in ways other than financial.

[onekidanddone]

7 minutes ago, SilverBeach said:

I posted in another thread that I just have not been able to start working on my projects since returning to work. I cannot muster up any enthusiasm until I know it's not going to be another shutdown. Why start just to have to stop again? This shitshow has indeed been damaging in ways other than financial.

Maybe we need a furloughed employees forum for Feds, contractors, and everybody else affected by this living hell.

[nvmbr02]

Seriously. So fucked up. 

 

[onekidanddone]

22 hours ago, SilverBeach said:

I posted in another thread that I just have not been able to start working on my projects since returning to work. I cannot muster up any enthusiasm until I know it's not going to be another shutdown. Why start just to have to stop again? This shitshow has indeed been damaging in ways other than financial.

I sat there the few days and stared at the work and I just couldn’t get myself to care. This week was a bit better. 

I know I said good night to all my in the other thread but her I sit. 

Ativan is really kicking in and think I should just crawl into bed. 

❤️

 

[church_of_dog]

On 2/13/2019 at 2:42 PM, onekidanddone said:

Just got my car out of the shop for a delightful sum of 2,000 and yesterday my husband found out he needs cataract surgery. So fuck you in advance McTurdface and orange slime ass.

Today at team meeting my boss was taking about how some people have emotional toll being on furlough.  Well no shit Sherlock. Then he was trying to sell us on the idea of using employee counselling through work.  Says any thing we say is confidential.  Ummm mark me down for a 'no'.  I have my own therapist and there is no way I'm going to anybody employed by my agency.

I'm bitter, angry, hopeless and fucking fed up. 

This is not intended to change your personal strategy in any way, but I just wanted to reassure you (and any other feds in similar situations) that going to counseling using the EAP program does not mean an agency-employed therapist.  I did it once and went to a regular private practice counselor who was simply on the EAP list.  Your office doesn't even know you've gone, just like with all your other medical appointments throughout the year, and IIRC they're not allowed to ask what kind of appointment each is.  You could even ask your current therapist if they are on the EAP list, so you don't have to pay for it.  At a minimum your current therapist could probably reassure you that EAP is indeed private, so you don't have to take my word for it.

Many hugs from someone who's been there.   ?  May rationality prevail and there be no more shutdowns.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Ozlsn]

23 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

I still think they should stop paying Congress and Senators until everyone else's pay - including contractors - is finalized.