Republicans float paying some feds as Dems maintain shutdown approach

Senate Democrats are suggesting they will maintain their current posture of withholding votes for any measure to reopen the government that does not also address rising health care premiums, despite the largest federal employee union endorsing a more immediate end to the shutdown. 

Democratic lawmakers said they were unmoved by the head of the American Federation of Government Employees advocating that Congress pass a “clean” short-term stopgap funding bill that the House has already advanced and the Senate has rejected on more than a dozen occasions. Many federal workers are set to miss another paycheck this week and AFGE President Everett Kelley said lawmakers needed to act to prevent additional financial harm. 

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., a former State Department employee, said he understood where AFGE and its membership was coming from and that he heard concerns from federal workers in his home state this past weekend. 

“A number of them expressed these concerns, but what they also said to me is they said that the problems that they're having didn't just start on Oct. 1,” Kim said. “They've been under attack by this administration since Jan. 20. They worry that even if this CR passes or the budget comes into place that they could very well be targeted by some other attack going down the road.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, did not say AFGE’s position would change her thinking. 

“They’re letting us know where they are,” Murray said. “It’s fine.”

Their continued approach was demonstrated on Tuesday, when all but three Democrats once again rejected the House-backed continuing resolution that would find agencies through Nov. 21. 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he was concerned with what would come next if the Senate approved the Republican CR. 

“AFGE would not want us to cut a deal and have Trump fire a bunch of people next week,” Kaine said. “If we cut a deal and then he did that, they would come to us and say, ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’’”

Republicans, meanwhile, are considering alternative approaches to mitigating the shutdown’s impact. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on Monday he would consider bringing to the floor measures that would ensure ongoing pay for the military and start paycheck delivery for air traffic controllers. Major airports, such as those in Los Angeles and Dallas, have experienced delays this week due to staffing issues. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has repeatedly sounded the alarm on the issue and said he expects it will only get worse. 

“You can start down that track, and we'll kind of see what the temperature is of our senators on some of those issues,” Thune said, suggesting he would discuss the appetite for bringing up those bills on Tuesday. 

Thune expressed apprehension about that approach and said the simplest path to ensure all federal workers are paid is to reopen the government, adding he was befuddled that Democrats would not back AFGE. 

They are “now voting against their public employee unions who are coming out in favor of paying their workers and opening up the government,” Thune said. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced legislation to provide on-time pay to air traffic controllers, most of whom missed their first full paycheck on Tuesday. Asked whether the bill would receive a floor vote, Cruz said, “I certainly hope so.”

Lawmakers are still negotiating a bipartisan solution to ensuring all federal employees are paid on time, though a breakthrough remains elusive. After beginning talks on the Senate floor last week, Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said on Tuesday their negotiations have continued but outstanding issues remain. The Senate on Thursday rejected Johnson’s bill to pay only those employees working during the shutdown, as well as Van Hollen proposal to pay those working, those furloughed and to prevent future layoffs at agencies.

Johnson reaffirmed on Tuesday that he conceded the point on furloughed workers, but did not support restricting the president’s authority to conduct reductions in force. He said Van Hollen’s staff had acknowledged his bill stayed neutral on that issue. 

“They're not preliminary,” Van Hollen said of the state of the talks. “There's some issues we need to resolve.”