The nation’s largest union of federal workers released a statement calling for the nearly monthlong federal government shutdown to come to an end. The union didn’t single out congressional Democrats in its condemnation — but that’s the party that’s going to feel the heat.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in the statement. “Today I’m making mine: It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”
Democrats will feel more pressure this week.
AFGE represents about 800,000 federal workers. During a shutdown, the federal government has to discontinue all services deemed nonessential, and many employees who continue to work don’t receive paychecks. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the shutdown has furloughed at least 670,000 federal employees, and 730,000 others continue to work without pay.
AFGE symbolizes the collateral damage mounting as Democrats continue to demand that Republicans and President Donald Trump extend health-care subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of the year, in exchange for Democratic support for a government funding bill.
The Democrats’ demands are defensible on a policy level — letting Affordable Care Act subsidies expire is yet another savage attack on Americans’ right to health care. But this principled position has costs. Many government services are shuttered, and the longer the shutdown continues, the worse things will get. The shutdown also imposes a heavy financial strain on not only the federal workers who are missing out on paychecks, but also their dependents — and the many others whose goods and services they can no longer afford.
If the shutdown extends into November — this weekend — the most immediate issue is the looming food stamps crisis. More than 40 million Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for food aid, but that support could vanish soon. Funding SNAP in November would require tapping into a contingency fund that experts say was designed for this kind of emergency. But U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said Monday that the agency can’t and won’t tap into the contingency fund, which they say is meant to support shortfalls in payments. My assessment is that this is a pressure tactic by the Trump administration.
Democrats will feel more pressure this week for a few reasons. First, though Democrats are the minority party, just a handful of Democratic senators could end the shutdown if they vote with Senate Republicans for a continuing resolution. Second, historical trends suggest that over the long term, they could take a bigger hit in the polls than Republicans, although the jury is still out on that given how unusual the Trump era is. Third, Democrats consider themselves defenders of a functioning civil service and the social safety net — so there is only so much government dysfunction they can trigger without appearing to disregard their own values, no matter how just their cause may be.
