800,000 Face Furloughs; a Million More Are to Work Without Pay

With its large number of federal employees, Hampton Roads will feel a real bite economically from the GOP's forced shut down of the federal government.  The financial pain in Northern Virginia will be even worse.  With Virginia's statewide elections only 35 days away, I truly hope those on the fence will realize that Virginia cannot afford to have GOP extremists in the offices of governor, Lt. governor and attorney general.   The Virginia GOP's ticket is, in fact, even more extreme than the saboteurs in the GOP controlled House of Representatives.  If Virginians want to send a message to both the Tea Party and the GOP as a whole, they need to defeat Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain by a landslide.   The New York Times looks at the coming furloughs and expectations that people work without pay thanks to GOP extremists:

The impasse meant that 800,000 federal workers were to be furloughed and more than a million others would be asked to work without pay. The Office of Management and Budget issued orders shortly before the midnight deadline that “agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations” because Congress had failed to act to keep the federal government financed. 

“They’ve lost their minds,” Mr. Reid said, before disposing of the House bill. “They keep trying to do the same thing over and over again.” 

The federal government was then left essentially to run out of money at midnight, the end of the fiscal year, although the president signed a measure late Monday that would allow members of the military to continue to be paid. 

“You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job,” Mr. Obama said in the White House briefing room as the clock ticked to midnight.

It was far from certain that Republicans could remain unified on their insistence on health care concessions if a shutdown lasted for some time. Asked whether Republicans could hold together through the end of the week, Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia, one of the more conservative members, answered: “I don’t know. I don’t know.” 

Mr. Reid laid into Mr. Boehner and put the blame for a shutdown solely on his shoulders. “Our negotiation is over with,” he said. 

“You know with a bully you cannot let them slap you around, because they slap you around today, they slap you five or six times tomorrow,” Mr. Reid, a former boxer, continued. “We are not going to be bullied.” 

In addition to criticizing Mr. Boehner, Mr. Reid excoriated what he called the “banana Republican mind-set” of the House.

 The Washington Post has details on what will happen with federal workers:

Federal workers will get an e-mail or phone call from their supervisors by Monday telling them to report for work or remain at home.

Those who would not be working would get a few hours Tuesday morning to come into the office to secure their files, send e-mails and put things in order before signing off. It would be illegal for them to conduct any work until they were called back to their jobs.

A government shutdown this week would jeopardize the paychecks of more than 800,000 federal workers who could be told to stay home. The federal government has more than 2 million employees. Those workers who remain on the job as well as active military would be entitled to their salaries, but might not be paid on time. 

"They can't guarantee [the workers] will be paid on time," Junemann said. "They are pretty comfortable with the statement that everybody who works will be paid eventually." Those furloughed might be paid, but Republicans could move to block that.

The OPM publication states that employees cannot substitute paid leave for furlough time and that even previously scheduled paid time off must be canceled "because the requirement to furlough supersedes leave and other paid time off rights."

Again, I hope federal employees in Northern Virginia who find themselves on forced unpaid leave will go to the polls on November 5th and send the Virginia GOP's ticket down to a resounding defeat and that they will tell exit pollers why they made sure to vote for the Democrats.