Tag: #GOPShutdown

DAY 32: FBI Agents Warn The Trump Shutdown Is Hurting Their Ability To Protect Us

On the 32nd day of the Trump Shutdown, FBI agents have warned that the shutdown is hampering their ability to “protect the people of our country from criminals and terrorists.” Here’s that and more:

The FBI Agents Association warned Trump that his ongoing shutdown is hurting FBI agents and their ability to protect Americans.

CBS News: “The FBI Agents Association warned Tuesday that the ongoing government shutdown is not only hurting individual FBI employees and their families, but hampering key operations. Some of those affected operations, according to a series of statements the association released Tuesday, include efforts to thwart the same criminal enterprises President Trump claims the shutdown is meant to defeat in the long run. ‘The failure to fund the FBI is making it more difficult for us to do our jobs, to protect the people of our country from criminals and terrorists,’ FBIAA President Tom O’Connor told reporters in a conference call Tuesday.”

More than 13,000 FBI agents are on track to lose their health benefits for the rest of the year because of the Trump Shutdown.

WUSA9: “January 25 will add another pressure point to end the perilous and poisonous government shutdown, when thousands of FBI agents are on track to lose health benefits for the rest of the year. Agents learned Thursday their supplemental health insurance, specifically vision and dental, will lapse if the shutdown extends past two pay periods.” Continue reading “DAY 32: FBI Agents Warn The Trump Shutdown Is Hurting Their Ability To Protect Us”

Senate Republicans all but surrender to Trump on wall despite shutdown’s toll

Members of Congress discussed ways to break the funding impasse on Jan. 20, the 30th day of a partial government shutdown. (Patrick Martin /The Washington Post)

One month into a historic government shutdown, Republican senators are standing staunchly behind President Trump’s demand for money to build a border wall, even as the GOP bears the brunt of the blame for a standoff few in the party agitated for, according to interviews this past week with more than 40 Republican senators and aides.

Under pressure from conservatives to help Trump deliver on a signature campaign promise and unable to persuade him to avert the partial government shutdown, these lawmakers have all but surrendered to the president’s will. Their comments show how the cracks in the 53-member Republican majority that emerged at the outset of the shutdown have not spread beyond a handful of lawmakers.

Asked about the pressure from constituents and some of the 800,000 affected federal workers to end the impasse, GOP senators insisted they are facing equal — if not more — insistence to stand behind Trump and his call for $5.7 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, especially from conservative voters.

View the complete January 21 article by Seung Min Kim and Sean Sullivan on The Washington Post website here.

Number of TSA checkpoint agents calling out during shutdown stresses major airports

A Transportation Security Administration agent screens passengers at a security checkpoint at the Atlanta airport, one of the airports struggling with staffing problems. Credit: Elijah Nouvelage, Reuters

The number of airport security workers failing to show up for work hit an all-time high over the weekend, straining checkpoint lanes at several major hub airports.

The number of unscheduled absences was 8 percent nationally, compared with 3 percent a year ago, as the Transportation Security Administration conceded that many of its workers could no longer handle the financial hardship of working without pay during the government shutdown.

The agency said the stress was being felt at checkpoint lanes in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Miami.

View the complete January 20 article by Ashley Halsey II and Michael Laris on The Washington Post website here.

5 Ways the Trump Shutdown Is Harming Struggling Workers, Families, and Communities

Credit: Win McNamee, Getty

President Donald Trump recently claimed that he can relate to the strain experienced by federal workers living paycheck-to-paycheck. However, his efforts to prolong the current government shutdown—already the longest in U.S. history—suggest otherwise. In addition to furloughed federal workers, this cruel, manufactured crisis has added immeasurable uncertainty to already stressed low-wage workers and families, disproportionately harming low-income families with children, people with disabilities, and seniors.

Here are just five of the myriad ways that Trump’s shutdown is irresponsibly harming and holding low-income communities hostage.

1. The paychecks of federal workers, contractors, and support staff are being withheld

An estimated 800,000 federal employees—and hundreds of thousands more federal contractors and support staff—have missed paychecks since the shutdown began on December 22. Initially, more than 420,000employees were required to work without pay while another 380,000 had been sent home without pay. But now, nearly 50,000 of the latter group have been pulled back to work without pay at the president’s command. Federal government workers’ salaries run the gamut, with some making as little as $26,000 a year. The Center for American Progress has estimated that these employees, in aggregate, miss out on more than $2 billion per pay period. With President Trump and congressional Republicans still refusing to fund the government and the shutdown continuing for nearly four weeks, workers’ income shortfall continues to grow. While both houses of Congress have approved legislation that guarantees back pay to furloughed federal workers once the government reopens, the lapse in pay exacerbates financial hardship and uncertainty for many American families. Affected families are struggling to pay rent, dipping into savings, and cutting back on food.

View the complete January 1y article by Donovan Hicks, Heidi Schultheis, Rejane Frederick, Azza Altiraifi and Rachel West on the Center for American Progress website here.

‘You feel trapped’: The shutdown’s impact on Minnesota’s weather service

Unpaid but unable to take time off, Chanhassen’s NWS workers are finding the shutdown tough.

Their paychecks are frozen just as the ground is in Minnesota this time of year, but 38 employees of the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen continue to show up to work every day as mission-critical government employees.

Each day they arrive at the office knowing their next paycheck might be weeks or even months away, but they continue educating and informing the public about pending weather events, like the winter storm preparing to layer the ground in southern Minnesota with 5-8 inches of snow on Friday.

For some employees, the shutdown threatens their ability to pay bills on time, forcing them to make a few extra bucks through side hustles they never thought they’d need, all while hoping their applications for unemployment benefits are accepted.

View the complete January 17 article on the Bring Me the News website here.

Pelosi spokesman says White House leaked commercial travel plans to Afghanistan

A bus is seen of the East Front of the Capitol after members of the House disembarked, after an overseas CODEL was postponed by President Trump on Thursday, January 17, 2019. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call

Alternate plan was canceled after State Department warned against it

The shutdown feud between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump escalated Friday after the California Democrat’s office revealed it had made commercial travel arrangements to continue an Afghanistan trip the president tried to cancel — but the administration leaked their plans.

There was already a security risk with the speaker and her congressional delegation continuing the overseas troop visit after Trump announced Thursday where they’d be going. But the heightened threat from Trump leaking the commercial travel plans led the delegation to call off the trip for now, a Pelosi spokesman said.

“After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement.

View the complete January 18 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.

Who Gets to Fly During the Government Shutdown? Nancy Pelosi? No. Melania Trump? Yes

Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP, REX, Shutterstock

As the government shutdown rages on, it’s not just commercial flying that’s affected; now some members of government are being prevented from flying too.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked President Donald Trump to delay his State of the Union address, Trump on Thursday blocked Pelosi from using military aircraft for a bipartisan congressional trip to Afghanistan.

In his letter to Pelosi, Trump wrote, “In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”

View the complete January 18 article by Natasha Bach on The Fortune website here.

WORKERS SPEAK OUT: ‘I Don’t Know How Long I Can Go On Like This’

The Trump Shutdown is the longest shutdown in our history. Trump is holding the paychecks of hundreds of thousands of workers hostage, and as each day passes, it gets more and more difficult for them to get by.

Here are real stories of workers hurt by the Trump Shutdown:

“The shutdown makes me nervous.” – 6th grader whose father is a federal worker

“The stress is just too much. … How can I set up a payment plan when I don’t have income?” – Federal worker Continue reading “WORKERS SPEAK OUT: ‘I Don’t Know How Long I Can Go On Like This’”

Minnesota House DFLers Write to President Trump About His Federal Government Shutdown

Yesterday, members of the DFL House Majority sent a letter to President Trump respectfully requesting he re-open the government and end the shutdown.

Here’s a link to that document.

 

Trump’s Shutdown is Harming Federal Workers

The Trump Shutdown has put an unnecessary burden on families just like Jamie’s across the country.

Share this video if you believe it’s time for Republicans in Congress to listen to the American people and end this shutdown.