J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Thursday afternoon that one of the main things he learned from the last time the federal government had a shutdown two years ago was to ensure that the lawmakers responsible for it suffered.
“The lesson we learned in 2013 was to mobilize, mobilize, mobilize and to torture every member of Congress until they get busy and do their job,” Cox told reporters during a conference call. He promised “hundreds of rallies and thousands of phone calls” to congressional offices until the shutdown was lifted.
AFGE is the largest union of federal government employees, representing an estimated 670,000 workers as well as employees of the local government in Washington, D.C. An estimated 800,000 federal employees were furloughed during the last shutdown.
The government faces a potential shutdown starting Oct. 1 due to a political fight over funding for the nonprofit womens’ healthcare organization Planned Parenthood. Republicans, upset over undercover videos showing the organization’s staffers discussing the sale of fetal tissue, have called for zeroing out its federal funding, an estimated one-third of its budget. President Obama has vowed to veto any budget bill that doesn’t include funding.
Cox told reporters that government shutdowns were a “disease” because they halt paychecks for federal workers until the shutdown is lifted. In all previous shutdowns, backpay was awarded to federal employees after the shutdown was lifted. Cox said that any wait would still cause problems, noting that the average pay of his members is $500 a week.
“The loss of even one week of pay will impact their ability to pay their rent, child care, car loans or even have groceries. Our members want to go to work. They want to serve the American public,” Cox said. “The best cure for any disease is prevention, and I view these shutdowns as a disease because they are not good for the American public.”
Cox blamed the shutdown on a “small group of extremist lawmakers” and said Congress must send the president a funding bill he is willing to sign.
Asked if he thought if the president would be equally to blame for a shutdown because he refused to sign a budget bill that did not include funding for Planned Parenthood, a private organization, Cox said no.
“I believe very strongly in the checks and balances of the federal government. Obviously, Congress has to pass legislation that the president would sign. We need a clean budget … We need something that the president will sign, that Congress will sign. The problem is everyone is trying to play this blame game and trying to play gotcha instead of worrying about old people that would not receive services, about children that need Head Start and about many other cancer patients that would not be getting treatment, veterans that would not be getting their benefit claims paid and things of that nature.
“That is a whole lot of people that would be suffering in this country that is going to be blaming the Congress,” Cox said.
