A Republican measure to immediately pay federal employees who are working without pay under the shutdown failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday. But some lawmakers still appeared optimistic about reaching a bipartisan agreement on paying federal employees within the next few days.
Democrats largely voted down the GOP’s “Shutdown Fairness Act,” resulting in a vote of 54-45 on the Senate floor. The Republicans’ motion on the bill failed to reach the 60 votes required to “invoke cloture” — a type of vote that limits debate to more quickly move legislation to a final vote.
Three Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) — voted alongside Republicans on the motion. Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) did not vote.
The GOP-led legislation would immediately pay excepted employees, who have been continuing to work throughout the funding lapse. But some Senate Democrats cast the Shutdown Fairness Act as a method for giving President Donald Trump more authority to pay — or not pay — certain federal employees throughout the shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation a “ruse.”
“It’s nothing more than another tool for Trump to hurt federal workers and American families and to keep this shutdown going for as long as he wants,” Schumer said Thursday. “We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods.”
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) offered up two alternatives on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on the Shutdown Fairness Act. Republicans struck down both proposals from Democrats.
The “True Shutdown Fairness Act” from Democrats would provide immediate pay to both furloughed and excepted employees — as well as military members and federal contractors. The bill would also prevent the Trump administration from moving forward with reductions in force (RIFs) during the shutdown. Some 4,000 RIF notices that agencies sent to federal employees earlier this month are largely being blocked, at least temporarily, by a court order.
Separately, Democrats’ “Military and Federal Employee Protection Act” is a more tailored bill that would simply pay both furloughed and excepted federal employees, as well as contractors and military members, dating back to the start of the shutdown on Oct. 1.
Van Hollen took issue with Republicans’ Shutdown Fairness Act for not including pay for furloughed employees, and for not containing language to prevent the Trump administration from conducting RIFs during the funding lapse.
“If you allow them to decide who they’re going to keep on the job in the federal government and who they’re going to pay, you’re giving them also a blank check as to who they’re going to send home and who they’re going to punish by not paying,” Van Hollen said. “The proposals that we’re putting forward say that in this government shutdown, federal employees — and yes, certain federal contractors who have nothing to do with this political situation that we face — they should not be the ones to bear the burden.”
Despite Thursday’s failed votes, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the lead co-sponsor on the Shutdown Fairness Act, expressed optimism for reaching a bipartisan agreement to pay federal employees while the shutdown continues.
“We’re basically in agreement here,” Johnson told reporters. “I’m willing to add furloughed workers, and now it’s just kind of down to the reductions in force … I don’t want to completely constrain the President, but I don’t mind making sure that Congress has a say in this as well.”
“I’m actually quite hopeful — I think we can fix it over the weekend,” Johnson added. “This could open up a path to opening the government as well.”
Many federal employees are expecting to miss out on their first full paychecks in the next few days. Both excepted and furloughed federal employees are guaranteed retroactive pay once a shutdown ends, due to a 2019 law. The White House has called that guarantee into question for furloughed employees, but many have pushed back against what they described as a clear misinterpretation of the law from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has shuffled funding to compensate select groups of the federal workforce. Active-duty military members received paychecks on Oct. 15. About 70,000 law enforcement officers at the Department of Homeland Security were also paid on time, although many DHS employees were still excluded from the payments.
Dave Spero, national president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, which represents about 11,000 Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense employees, said lawmakers’ back-and-forth on the pay legislation is distracting from the “real problem.”
“Clearly, we want people to get paid, but quite honestly, what we want is the shutdown to end,” Spero said. “We don’t want other sorts of bills to come into play to mitigate the impacts of the shutdown — stop the shutdown.”
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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