Thank You

Press Release

Federal workers make sure that the air that we breathe is safe, build our roads and bridges, care for sick and disabled veterans, teach children with special needs, provide nutrition for seniors and care for kids so parents can work. "Americans who work for the federal government are part of the backbone of this country and I personally thank them for what they do," Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a Senate floor speech. With 800,000 federal workers furloughed because the government ran out of funds on Tuesday, Sanders cosponsored a bill to make up for the lost wages. "Federal workers in Vermont and around the country should not have to pay the price for the House Republicans' refusal to keep the government open," Sanders said. "These dedicated workers have families to feed and bills to pay and we must make it clear that when this is over they are going to get paid."

The Vermont National Guard, for example, says 450 of its employees are being furloughed as part of the federal government shutdown, about half of the Army and Air Guard's full-time workforce. Additional Guard members will not be paid for weekend drills that were scheduled but have now been postponed because of the shutdown.

Altogether, according to the Vermont Department of Labor, there are nearly 5,000 federal workers in the state. (Another 1,676 work for the U.S. Postal Service.)

According to the Congressional Research Service, the "historical practice" has been that federal workers furloughed during past government shutdowns have received their pay retroactively "as a result of legislation to that effect." The bill Sanders cosponsored is identical to legislation that provided pay retroactively to workers furloughed in the Newt Gingrich-led shutdowns in 1995 and 1996.

Source