With a government shutdown looming this past week, many government employees have been made aware of a startling fact: if they are found to be working during a furlough, they’ll be guilty of a crime. And logging into their work computer from home or checking email is enough to convict them.
This is one consequence of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal employees from working voluntarily. The result has been a great deal of uncertainty and worry for workers as they wait to find out if they’ve been deemed excepted and can work, or determined to be non-excepted and will be furloughed.
Besides making it possible to set a schedule, an employee’s status might determine the extent of their economic hardship as well. A loocal Congressman, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), has already gone on record saying that, while back pay for furloughed workers has been issued in all previous shutdowns, it would still require a special authorization and that is unlikely given the mood in the current Congress.
While most federal agencies are bound by the law and interpretations from the Department of Justice when making their staffing decisions, the task is significantly easier for Members of Congress. They get to make the designations based on their own whims.
Many Members of Congress immediately made the decision that their entire staff is vital to the short-term functioning of the government. This could have wider effects for those federal employees who don’t regularly chat with their representative because Congressmen may be especially unreceptive to back pay if they have already exempted their personal staff.
Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), no friend to federal employees, quickly made the unilateral decision that no one close to him should have to endure a furlough. Issa is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee but it was unclear which of the shuttered federal agencies his staff would be overseeing during the shutdown.
The idea of personal exemptions for close staffers has received bipartisan support. Representative Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois, claimed that her “staff is all going to be particularly essential.” The idea has brought state delegations together too. Most of the representatives from Oklahoma decided that their staff would be exempt.
Many federal managers have had a difficult job over the past weeks as they determined what work was truly vital and who would be allowed to perform it. They should know that there is a way to avoid having to make those hard decisions: get elected to Congress.
