Congress on Saturday passed a bipartisan continuing resolution through both houses to fund the government for 45 days and prevent a disastrous government shutdown.
The past few weeks, AFGE members across the nation have sent nearly 11,000 letters and made nearly 3,000 phone calls to Congress. Union members spoke out thousands of times in local, regional, and even national media about what a shutdown would mean for federal workers and the Americans we serve.
AFGE members spoke out about the need to prevent a shutdown in print, television, and radio news across the country and have been quoted more than 2,700 times – an average of 169 hits a day. We were quoted in leading publications like the Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post, POLITICO and many others. AFGE members and leaders appeared on MSNBC, CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, and NBC Nightly News, among hundreds of other local news outlets.
AFGE National Vice Presidents throughout our districts were leading voices in regional and local news. And AFGE National President Everett Kelley appeared on CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper, on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CBS Evening News, and dozens of other outlets.
The message was clear: a government shutdown would be a disaster for federal employees forced to go without a paycheck and for the American people we serve.
We’ve been leading voices speaking out to stop this disastrous shutdown before it even started. And our activism worked.
“As I’ve said many times in recent days, I’ve always remained hopeful that a bipartisan deal to avoid a government shutdown was possible, however unlikely it seemed at times,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley. “The costs to federal employees, to the economy, to our communities, and to the American people are simply too great.”
“I applaud members of Congress for listening to the voices of thousands of AFGE members across the country who have called, sent letters, held meetings, and spoken to the media about the need to prevent a disastrous shutdown and the pain it would cause working Americans.”
But the fight is not over. We need to keep up the pressure, so we don’t get into the same predicament in November. We also need to keep our foot on the gas, so Congress fully funds our agencies for the full year.
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