The House voted unanimously Saturday to retroactively pay back federal workers who are not receiving a paycheck because of the government shutdown, now on its fifth day.
Members approved the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act, H.R. 3223, in a 407-0 vote, with 25 members not voting.
The bipartisan bill was proposed earlier in the week in response to the shutdown, and is a continuation of past congressional actions to make federal workers whole whenever the government shuts down.
“Today, 17 years ago, federal workers were given back pay after Newt Gingrich’s record 21-day shutdown in 1995 and 1996,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “It was a fair thing to do then, and it is a fair thing to do now.
“The least we can do for our fellow citizens who work for this great country, is to give them the reassurance of knowing that they will receive back pay.”
Republicans agreed, and said federal workers should be held harmless on a shutdown that has resulted from the inability of Republicans and Democrats to agree on a 2014 spending plan.
“This is a bipartisan bill, and I hope every member in this House will be happy to support it,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.).
The vote is a rare showing of bipartisanship in a week filled with fighting and finger-pointing over the shutdown, the first in 17 years. The bill drew praise from the White House this week, and the Senate could pass it as early as today when it reconvenes at noon.
“The Administration appreciates that the Congress is acting promptly to move this bipartisan legislation and looks forward to the bill’s swift passage,” the White House said Friday.
But the bill will not cure all of the bad blood between the two parties over the shutdown. There is still no agreement in sight that might allow the government to reopen — Republicans still insist on their broad funding resolution that undermines ObamaCare, and Democrats continue to call for a “clean” spending bill.
Some of that fighting spilled into today’s debate, where Republicans again called on Democrats to support the smaller spending bills the GOP has advanced to mitigate the effect of the shutdown. So far, the House has approved bills to keep open national parks, provide nutrition assistance to low-income women and children, and even open the Washington DC government again.
But Democrats have mostly opposed those bills, which prompted Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) to question the Democrats’ priorities.
“This week, they said ‘no’ to opening up our national memorials or opening up our national parks like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but they’re saying ‘yes’ to paying federal workers,” she said.
“‘No’ to veterans benefits, but ‘yes’ to paying federal workers. ‘No’ to women and babies on food assistance, ‘no’ to children with cancer treatments, but ‘yes’ to paying federal workers.”
But Democrats see the bill as a separate piece of legislation to ensure back pay for federal workers, and tried to separate that issue from their drive to get the House to pass the Senate’s continuing spending resolution. Cummings and others said they continue to oppose the GOP’s attempt to call up smaller bills, and said the only reason the government has closed is because of the GOP attempt to undermine ObamaCare.
“Today is day five of the shutdown created by the Tea Party extremists who are harming our country by holding our government hostage,” he said.
With no agreement in sight, the House is expected to spend next week passing more of these smaller spending bills. Bills that could come up in the coming days include proposals to fund intelligence activities, the Food and Drug Administration, border security, and education.
So far, the Senate has ignored all of these, and has refused to even call up a vote on any of the GOP’s “mini” spending proposals.
Aside from holding broad debate, the Senate has done very little in the way of legislative over the past week, and drew GOP criticism on Friday for quickly passing a resolution naming next week “National Chess Week.”
That track record led Rogers to quip that he’s excited the Senate appears ready to at least take up the retroactive pay bill.
“The Senate has plans to take up this bill,” he said. “Stop the presses: the Senate’s going to take up a bill, even if they won’t consider most of our other bills.”
House approves back pay for federal workers...
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