After about 1.4 million federal employees missed their first full paychecks last week, the painful reality of the now four-week government shutdown is setting in even further.
In the days following the absent paychecks for both excepted and furloughed workers, the American Federation of Government Employees is now saying enough is enough.
Everett Kelley, national president of AFGE, said it’s well past time for Congress to set aside politics and simply end the government shutdown. The union is urging lawmakers to pass a clean continuing resolution and let any political debates continue only after that’s accomplished.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Kelley said Monday. “No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”
While AFGE doubles down on its push to lawmakers, Congress still doesn’t appear much closer to reaching a government spending agreement than it was a few weeks ago. But last week, Senate lawmakers proposed dueling bills to try to pay federal employees immediately as the shutdown continues.
Disagreements over whether to include pay for furloughed employees, and whether to block the Trump administration’s efforts to conduct reductions in force (RIFs), ultimately prevented any of the pay proposals from moving forward. A floor vote on the GOP-led Shutdown Fairness Act failed in the Senate last week, as did two Democratic counterproposals attempting to pay federal employees more broadly.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) last Thursday motioned to reconsider the failed vote on the Shutdown Fairness Act, but it’s unclear if or when another vote may take place.
Still, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who led the Shutdown Fairness Act, said he was “hopeful” about reaching a bipartisan agreement on the issue. A Democratic staffer confirmed that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is in “ongoing discussions” with Johnson. But bipartisan progress on the legislation was not made fast enough — most of the civilian federal workforce missed their first full paychecks on Friday.
“These are patriotic Americans — parents, caregivers and veterans — forced to work without pay while struggling to cover rent, groceries, gas and medicine because of political disagreements in Washington,” AFGE’s Kelley said. “That is unacceptable.”
In a recent survey of its members, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, representing about 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration and Defense Department, highlighted hundreds of stories of those struggling with the costs of child care, housing payments, commuting, food and much more.
“That stuff starts to drain you,” PASS National President Dave Spero said in an interview last week. “These are stresses that people are having to deal with. Bills don’t stop because we’re not getting paid … And that’s a tremendous hardship because you don’t have any choice. You’ve still got to go to work.”
But missing out on pay is only one of several converging challenges for federal employees right now. Earlier this month, federal employees and annuitants also learned they’ll soon be paying 12.3% more, on average, toward their health insurance premiums in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. Also starting in January, enrollees in the Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) program will be contributing an average of 11.3% more toward their premiums.
Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said the major premium hikes are going to make an already difficult situation even more challenging for feds. In a statement earlier this month, Greenwald contrasted the rising insurance costs against what will likely be a 1% federal pay raise in 2026. Unless Congress acts to change the raise amount, President Donald Trump’s proposed 1% boost would be the smallest annual pay increase feds have seen since 2021.
“Health care costs are rising faster than salaries, which means federal employees in every state will have less take-home pay to cover their monthly bills,” Greenwald said.
And despite a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) coming in 2026, some organizations argued that it won’t do much to offset other rising costs for federal annuitants. Not to mention, the COLA will be reduced for annuitants in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), who are set to receive a “diet” COLA of 2% next year.
For FERS annuitants, that leaves more than a 10% difference between the COLA value and the average increase to FEHB premiums. It’s an issue that can compound over time as well, according to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE).
“Inflation impacts these FERS retirees the same way as all other retirees, yet they are forced to accept a diet COLA,” NARFE National President Bill Shackelford said. “This COLA also does not adequately compensate for the sharp increase in the enrollee share of health insurance premiums affecting the federal community.”
NARFE is urging the passage of the Equal COLA Act to bring all federal retirees up to the same cost-of-living adjustment. The legislation has been reintroduced in Congress for years, but hasn’t gotten much traction so far.
And as for the seemingly endless government shutdown, AFGE’s Kelley left lawmakers with a clear and urgent message this week:
“Reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution that allows continued debate on larger issues. Ensure back pay for every single employee who has served or been forced to stay home through no fault of their own. Work together on a bipartisan basis to address important policy matters like addressing rising costs and fixing the broken appropriations process,” Kelley said. “None of these steps favor one political side over another. They favor the American people — who expect stability from their government and responsibility from their leaders.”
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email [email protected] or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11
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