When the federal government shuts down, the civil servants who keep it running should not pay the price. Yet today, hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including air traffic controllers, firefighters and nurses, are being forced to work without pay.
Instead of working to end this shutdown or pass legislation to pay all these hardworking individuals, the Trump administration has chosen to pay only select groups, leaving the rest behind.
On Oct. 15, President Trump signed a memo to pay members of the military during the shutdown by repurposing unspent federal funds. The following day, the Trump administration announced it would extend pay to thousands of law enforcement officers, including those working for the Transportation Security Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Secret Service. Although paying these individuals is the right thing to do, the problem lies in deciding who deserves a paycheck and who doesn’t.
The federal government doesn’t function without its full workforce. Right now, federal employees across the nation are working without pay to keep America running. Air traffic controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day shifts to manage the safe travel of millions of passengers and tons of cargo every day. Nurses at the Department of Veterans Affairs are providing care to our nation’s veterans. First responders are keeping our families safe.
Every one of these public servants has a family to support, bills to pay, and obligations that don’t disappear simply because Congress and the White House have reached an impasse. The president’s decision to selectively pay certain employees based on political optics is a slap in the face to every federal worker who wakes up in the morning ready to serve their country.
This also comes during a time when our federal workforce has faced relentless attacks from Trump and his administration. Over the past year, the Trump administration has eliminated the roles of more than 200,000 federal workers at more than a dozen agencies, including firing an estimated 6,000 veterans. This has resulted in complete and utter chaos, with many of the services Americans rely on under threat and ultimately resulting in the rehiring of many of these purged employees.
It’s time for Trump and congressional Republicans to come back to the negotiating table, reopen the federal government and lower health care costs. The American people deserve a functioning government, and every federal employee deserves the pay they’ve earned. Until then, the message from the Trump administration is painfully clear: some public servants matter more than others.
Donald Norcross represents New Jersey’s 1st District in Congress.
