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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today took a fact-based approach in an effort to persuade Congress to keep the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fully operational beyond midnight Friday.

NTEU sent each House and Senate lawmaker fact sheets showing the impact of shutting down DHS on the agency’s workforce. The fact sheet details the impact on both DHS employees required to work without pay and furloughed DHS employees in the areas of pay, leave and outside employment.

“These are hard facts Congress needs to know as the debate continues over allowing funding for DHS to expire, which will result in a shutdown,” said Colleen M. Kelley, National President of NTEU, which represents 25,000 employees of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“A shutdown is an unnecessary move that will benefit no one, especially the dedicated men and women of DHS who protect this country and ensure the integrity of our global trade and tourism,” the NTEU leader added. “We want Congress to understand the consequences awaiting employees of CBP and other DHS agencies. They are middle-class people who will be hurt financially by a shutdown that they did not create and they certainly do not want to see happen.”

Kelley reiterated her call for Congress to pass a full-year funding bill before midnight Friday, without which the agency will be forced to shut down.

NTEU, the nation’s largest independent federal-employee union, represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.