Home Media Center News Releases

 Washington, D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union has endorsed bipartisan House legislation announced Monday to ensure federal employees are paid during a government shutdown.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Rep. Rob Wittman, (R-Va.) are sponsoring the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act in the event that Congress is unable to reach an agreement before the current government funding measure expires Friday night.

“Federal workers should not be punished if a shutdown occurs so it is good to know that Rep. Beyer and Rep. Wittman and others are working to make sure they are protected,” said Tony Reardon, National President of the National Treasury Employees Union. “Federal employees are middle-class taxpayers who shouldn’t be forced to go without pay just because of a political stalemate in Washington.”

The legislation would require that federal workers who are furloughed or forced to work without pay during the shutdown are compensated fully and quickly when the government re-opens, regardless of the next regularly scheduled pay date.

“The Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act would make sure our nation’s civil servants are paid as soon as possible, which reduces the chances they’ll have to miss a house payment or run up credit card debt just to make ends meet,” Reardon said.

The House bill is similar to a proposal introduced earlier this month by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), indicating there is strong support in both the House and Senate for the civil servants who work every day serving taxpayers and carrying out the important missions of their agencies.

NTEU is working to avoid another shutdown, which in 2013 was a stressful 16 days for federal employees and taxpayers, Reardon said.

“NTEU would prefer to see an agreement that provides federal agencies with reliable and adequate funding for the rest of this fiscal year so that federal employees can continue to serve taxpayers without interruption,” Reardon said.

NTEU represents 150,000 employees at 31 federal agencies and departments.