As Shutdown Continues, Federal Employees Face RIFs and Pay Uncertainty
Congress remains at a standstill as the government shutdown continues, with little progress having been made since our previous reporting. As the holiday season rapidly approaches, so too does the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) deadline of November 21, which has failed to pass several times in the Senate. Recent rumors suggest that the Republican-majority may seek to extend the deadline in their version of the bill past the holidays, or as proposed by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO), into December 2026 after the midterm elections. If that were to occur, the federal government would keep FY 2024 funding levels for an additional year. It’s unclear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will call the House, has not been in Washington for weeks, back into session to restart negotiations with the Democrats; however, time is certainly running out on Capitol Hill to find a solution. In the interim, the House and the Senate are rumored to begin the reconciliation process for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after the Senate passed their version of the bill earlier this month (see related article). Other appropriations bills, including the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) and the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) bills which fund several federal agencies important to the social and behavioral science community, remain unsettled (see previous COSSA coverage).
In other news, amidst the government shutdown, the Trump Administration has continued to conduct reductions in force (RIF) across several federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Earlier this month, approximately 1,000 employees were terminated at the CDC, but while some of the RIFs remained permanent, nearly half were rescinded, creating confusion amongst federal workers. According to the White House, these terminations had been the result of a “coding error.” Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has since vowed to conduct oversight of the situation; however, no official action has been taken. Further, President Trump and Speaker Johnson have both suggested that federal employees are not entitled to backpay following the end of the government shutdown. This would be a violation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which was signed into law during Trump’s first term in 2019; however, Speaker Johnson has indicated that the law is vague and up for interpretation (see COSSA’s What is a Government Shutdown?). Earlier this month, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) quietly updated their Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse to remove references to this law and indicated that only “excepted” employees would receive backpay.
On October 15, House and Senate Democrats, joined by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) as the only Republican sign-on, sent a joint letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requesting that they “immediately clarify and update” their website to reflect the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, writing:
“Explicitly, the law guarantees back pay for all federal employees in the event of a government shutdown. ‘Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.’ The law requires that retroactive pay be required in the event of any government shutdown after December 22, 2018.”
Stay tuned for COSSA’s continued coverage on the appropriations process.