Some federal energy and environmental workers are outraged Monday as Congress moved toward ending the federal shutdown without an agreement on the key sticking point that shuttered the government in the first place.
A compromise approved by the Senate on Sunday night with eight Democrats’ support marked a breakthrough in negotiations that could soon end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday urged House lawmakers to head back to Washington “right now” in anticipation of a vote, although Democrats in the House and Senate are fuming over the compromise.
The Senate’s bipartisan deal would ensure that furloughed federal workers get back pay, force the government to rehire employees laid off during the shutdown and temporarily block the Trump administration from laying off government employees through the end of the continuing resolution — Jan. 30.
But after enduring the uncertainty of a government shutdown that hit the 40-day mark Sunday, some government employees wanted more out of the negotiations. The agreement doesn’t include a deal on expiring health care subsidies, a key sticking point for Democrats. The deal includes the promise of a separate Senate floor vote on that issue.
“My people are generally aghast at what has happened,” said Nicole Cantello, a union leader who represents employees in EPA’s Chicago regional office.
If federal workers and the American people “were going to suffer during the shutdown, they wanted to see more that was gotten for it than what’s currently on the table,” Cantello said.
As many federal workers and Democrats expressed disappointment and frustration in the wake of the funding deal, the head of the largest federal workers union welcomed the agreement.
“AFGE is grateful to the Senators who fought to ensure that federal employees’ job security is not hanging in the balance while they determine spending levels,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Monday. “We strongly urge the House of Representatives to pass this continuing resolution and for President Trump to sign it immediately.”
‘They got nothing’
Some current and former federal employees see the compromise as surrender.
Government workers, granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, stressed that layoffs initiated during the funding lapse had already been blocked in court and that retroactive pay for furloughed workers was already guaranteed by the law.
The deal was “a total capitulation and slap in the face to federal workers,” said one EPA employee. “These Democrats sold us out.”
A second EPA staffer said Democratic senators were caving and risking Americans’ finances and health in the process. “They said we were going to fight, and now they are curling into a ball to accept an empty promise in exchange,” said the staffer.
“I don’t think they got enough,” said a third EPA employee. “They got nothing, effectively, and they shut down the government for over a month to get that nothing.”
Unlike their national affiliate, AFGE Council 238, EPA’s largest union, urged lawmakers to hold the line on health care subsidies for any deal that would end the shutdown.
“The U.S. government must be fully funded immediately, and that has to include funding for healthcare,” said Justin Chen, president of the union that represents more than 8,000 EPA employees, in a statement last week.
Jacob Malcolm, a former career Interior Department employee who resigned earlier this year, called the new developments “quite frustrating news” for current and former staff.
“On the one hand, yes, I’m glad my former colleagues who are still at Interior are going to be able to get back to the work to which they are dedicated and be paid for doing it,” Malcolm said Monday. “On the other hand, this capitulation will only encourage Republicans to continue to take federal civil servants — at Interior and beyond — hostage.”
One Interior employee said Monday that they’re “breathing a sigh of relief” that back pay would be guaranteed by the deal. “But soooo fed up with the Dems,” that person said. “What was this all for?”
Feds ready to head back
At EPA, 6,000 to 7,000 agency staffers have been furloughed so far during the shutdown, AFGE Council 238 has estimated.
The agency managed to stay open using carryover funds, and some staff working on Trump administration priorities — such as regulatory rollbacks and permitting — have stayed on the job.
One furloughed EPA employee said they plan to head back into the office once a deal to end the shutdown is signed into law and the agency recalls them.
“My union has assured me that regardless of what the administration said, federal law currently requires back pay and the ‘deal’ secured by some Democrats is just additional assurance,” said the EPA staffer.
That staffer said that although they’re happy that shutdown layoffs may be reversed under the deal, EPA has already seen significant staff cuts and departures due to Trump administration buyouts. “Recovering from this shutdown will be extremely difficult on what was already less than minimum staffing levels,” that person said.
EPA was threatened with shutdown layoffs, but not to the same degree as other agencies. The agency sent “intent to RIF” notices to 27 employees last month, according to court documents. But those reductions in force never went through as the agency said it would follow a court’s restraining order.
The Energy Department was also facing shutdown layoffs. Reesha Trznadel, DOE’s acting chief human capital officer, told a district court last week that the agency had notified 180 people that they may be reassigned, fired or transferred, and the agency accused those divisions of “wasteful spending” and “regulatory overreach” under the Biden administration.
‘It’s a relief’
Some federal employees broadly welcomed the deal clinched over the weekend, which would keep agencies up and running — at least for a while.
One Energy Department staffer who was not sent home during the shutdown said the agreement will ensure the agency can keep operating.
“It’s a relief that our feds won’t be furloughed, which would cause our contractors to get stop work orders and likely be furloughed,” said the staffer. “It also means we’ll be able to continue paying invoices for active projects which we wouldn’t have been able to do if furloughed.”
Most of the Energy Department has remained open, although the department furloughed 1,400 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, with about 375 staffers being exempted to remain on the job. The agency had said it was also tapping into funds tied to the GOP megabill to fund contractors at the semi-autonomous agency.
Michael Ottlinger, president of National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 279, which represents EPA employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office, said senators made “a clear bipartisan statement” for civil servants, considering the package’s provisions on back pay and layoffs.
“This outcome is a victory for the administration’s opposition,” Ottinger said.
Contact Kevin Bogardus on Signal at KevinBogardus.89.
