AFGE National President Everett Kelley last week sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives urging them to either pass a full-year funding package or a clean short-term measure without misguided cuts to programs important to the American people.
“Simply put, the political theatrics have got to stop. The refusal of Congress to do its job and put to rest fears of a shutdown or massive and unwarranted cuts is impeding federal employees from doing their jobs, delaying assistance and service to the American people and threatening the health of our economy,” Kelley said.
“AFGE implores Congress to act immediately to avoid a shutdown and ensure the continuation of funding for the government and critical programs like Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits and the U.S. military. There must be no negotiation that puts these programs, or any aspect of federal employee compensation at risk.”
Kelley specifically urged the lawmakers to reject the Continuing Appropriations and Border Security Enhancement Act, 2024, a short-term funding bill that would makes arbitrary, harmful across-the-board cuts to most federal agencies, reneges on the bipartisan spending agreement enacted less than four months ago in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, and makes it impossible for federal employees to serve the American public’s needs.
“Under this CR, just as the Transportation Security Administration needs to staff up for holiday travel, they will be unable to fill vacancies or new positions, forcing hours-long lines a security checkpoints. The Social Security Administration needs more staff to eliminate backlogs and make sure the American people receive their earned benefits, not across-the-board cuts.
Playing chicken with American lives
The White House issued a warning against the danger of allowing extremists to highjack the appropriations process. If they fail to get the massive cuts that would devastate the American people, they plan to shut down the government, putting American lives at risk.
Medical research that saves lives, for example, would come to a halt. New patients participating in clinical trials would be turned away. EPA inspections on drinking water and hazardous waste would stop in some cases. Air travelers would face significant delays as air traffic controllers and TSA officers would have to work without pay.
Another major disruption would be at FEMA, which would run out of money to help disaster-struck communities.
Steve Reaves, president of AFGE Local 4060 representing FEMA employees nationwide, said our country is in the middle of one of the most active hurricane seasons in recent history. There have already been 14 named storms as of today’s date. Luckily for Americans, most of those storms have stayed out in the Atlantic and not had direct impact on American shores, but there are no guarantees that will continue.
“We have seen the devastation in Hawaii, Florida, and Kentucky/Tennessee this year, and to interfere with disaster response, preparedness, and mitigation in the middle of the hurricane season is foolhardy,” he said.
“Even when everything goes perfectly in a disaster, we suffer losses, damages, and yes, death. Every company, agency, municipality has a COOP (Continuity of Operations Plan) plan. For every one of those plans that include FEMA response or FEMA communications, this will have a negative impact,” he added.
Reaves also noted the irony: the representatives of the most frequently impacted states for hurricanes are leading the charge shutting down the government. The same states are also the poorest states, which means they have fewer resources to respond to disasters: Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas.
“These elected officials are playing chicken with American lives,” he said.
We need to stop the shutdown
AFGE has launched our shutdown page at afge.org/StopTheShutdown to provide facts, information, and actions members can take to help avoid a shutdown. The site includes talking points, a sample letter to the editor, sample media release, unemployment info, and other important information.
You can also visit afge.org/shutdown and urge your members of Congress to pass funding and stop the shutdown.