With government shutdown looming, federal workers brace for the worst
The Obama administration began telling the vast federal workforce Thursday which employees would be required to report during a federal government shutdown and which should stay home.
With the prospect of a shutdown Saturday looming, and most workers wondering what to do, John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said that “everyone should know their status by close of business” Thursday, except for a relatively small number, such as those posted overseas.
About 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers nationwide were expected to be furloughed, with exceptions for national security and other essential employees.
The move came as the government continued to explain which federal agencies and entities would not be open in the event of a shutdown, and what the overall impact would be.
“If there is a shutdown, it would have very real effects on the services the American people rely on, as well as on the economy as a whole,” Jeffrey Zients, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters at the White House.
“It’s a hard, hard, hard situation for people to operate with this level of uncertainty,” he added.
As Washington teemed with spring visitors Thursday, and the last weekend of the National Cherry Blossom Festival approached, the prospect of closed museums and offices, idled workers and disappointed tourists grew larger.
And in downtown Washington, federal workers expressed frustration and resignation at the chaos and uncertainty of a possible shutdown.
“It puts me in a bind,” George Mitchell, who works in the Department of Health and Human Services, said as he stood outside a General Services Administration building on Seventh Street SW.
“Things are tight enough as it is,” he said. “The president has frozen [pay for] us for the next two years. . . . So we can’t get promotions or pay increases for the next two years. Yet still the bills keep coming. The light bill’s got to be paid. The rent’s still got to be paid. . . . It’s tight, and it’s stressful.”
Agency officials were revising their employee plans by the hour Thursday, and late in the day many workers did not know whether they were essential or not.
Adding to the chaos, thousands of civil servants were scheduled not to work Friday; their flexible schedules give them alternate Fridays off.
Confusion also reigned over which agencies could stay open longer than Saturday.
Angelia Levy, a researcher at the Federal Judicial Center, said she had heard nothing from her bosses about whether she would be asked to come in until she e-mailed her bosses Wednesday.
An e-mail went out to employees the next day, saying that the office would stay open until April 22, when fees that fund some operations run out.
“I didn’t even know if I was supposed to be coming to work on Friday,” Levy said.
For Mark Thalacker, who works in the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement office, definitive word came down at a meeting Thursday: His office would be sent home.
But his wife, who works as an administrator for a government contractor, was in limbo: She would have to work through the weekend, helping to identify which employees for the company would be furloughed and which would report to work.
Government contractors were also concerned about their status.
Some said they might not hear until Monday whether they should report to work. “It’s very confusing and it’s going to be chaotic,”said Stan Z. Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council.
The potential for a shutdown created anxiety for at least one family in the process of getting a loan from the Federal Housing Administration, which would stop during a shutdown.
Gregory Wahl, a foreign affairs officer for the State Department, is scheduled to close April 22 on an FHA loan to rehab a house in Silver Spring. But the seller,eager to have the work done quickly, put into the paperwork a penalty clause of $300 a day if the closing happens after that day.
“I honestly didn’t think it would get to this point,” Wahl said. “I’m nervous.This is a really big deal for us. It’s half a million dollars.”
Among other things, officials said Thursday, the Mine Safety and Health Administration would not be able to conduct regular safety and health inspections. Passport services would be limited. And veterans benefits support services would be suspended.
Volcano and earthquake monitoring would continue, though, as well as National Weather Service alerts and forecasts.
The Pentagon reiterated that national security efforts would continue around the world and that “military personnel are not subject to furlough and will report for duty as normal during the shutdown.”
Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III told Pentagon workers that he would try to keep them updated.
“The DoD will continue to conduct activities in support of our national security, including operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Japan,” he said in an e-mail to workers, as well as “Libya-related support operations.”
“Inpatient and essential outpatient care in DoD medical treatment facilities” would continue, along with emergency dental care and dining and child care services, Lynn wrote.
“Civilians will be briefed by their supervisors by Friday, April 8, as to whether their work and responsibilities fall into excepted or non-excepted status,” he wrote. “Furloughed employees may not telework or volunteer to work.”
“Generally, contractors performing work on contracts funded prior to a shutdown, whether supporting excepted activities or not, may continue working.”
Contract personnel should report to work Monday to be briefed on their status.
In the event of a shutdown, the Pentagon will have no money to pay military members or civilian employees during the shutdown. Essential military personnel and civilians will be paid retroactively after government funding is restored, the Defense Department said.
Congress would have to authorize retroactive pay to non-essential employees for the furloughed period; the White House said it will support such reimbursement.
Meanwhile, the University of the District of Columbia would probably have to close in the event of a shutdown, just as the semester winds down and students are trying to write research papers, pass their finals and gear up for summer classes.
Classes are scheduled to end April 18, and graduation is set for May 7.
“A looming federal government shutdown will have serious negative implications for our university community,” UDC President Allen L. Sessoms said Thursday. “If D.C. public schools can remain open, so can UDC, and we should.”
Senior Ben Marcus, 27, said: “Should we even be studying for finals? What the heck does this mean?”
Vanessa Steck, a junior history major, said, “Egads, there are so many consequences that I’m just beginning to realize.”
Downtown, the city was jammed with springtime tourists Thursday, crowding the Mall, museums and monuments before a shutdown could close the Smithsonian Institution and many memorials.
Last-ditch efforts continued to try to salvage the annual Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, scheduled for Saturday. Officials have said the parade would almost certainly have to be canceled in the event of a shutdown.
But some parade participants already were arriving in Washington from distant parts of the country. Several hundred youngsters from two high school marching bands arrived Thursday after overnight bus trips — one from Woodland High School, in Cartersville, Ga., the other from Fairhope High School in Alabama.
Eric Willoughby, director of bands at Woodland High, said buses traveled 13 hours to deliver 120 youngsters, 20 chaperones and band instruments to Washington at 6 a.m. Thursday.
“A lot of time and effort has been put into it,” he said of the trip. “About $113,000 is what it ultimately cost us to get all these kids here.”
“The parade is why we’re coming,” he said. “The disappointment would be pretty intense because that’s what all our preparation has been for.
“The icing on the cake is all the tours and all the museums,” he said. “The cake itself is doing what we do best, which is play and march and represent our school through our music.”
“We put in hours of preparation, rehearsing the music,” he said. If the parade is canceled, “it would be a bummer. It would just be a sour note, sorry for the pun. The last two years, our whole town and our school, this is one of the biggest accomplishments our band has had in its history.”
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