NASA Ames Federal Employees Union Memo: Potential Shutdown Looming Yet Again

Subject:  Potential Shutdown Looming Yet Again.

From:  Leland S. Stone

Date:  September 18, 2013

Dear Ames Federal Employee:

OMB issued a memo yesterday instructing Agencies to prepare for a possible shutdown on October 1st (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2013/m-13-22.pdf). For those employees with mission critical activities in October, please start talking about this with your supervisor now.

With the turmoil of the DOI snafu and its 4-day delay in paychecks fresh on our minds, you need to be acutely aware that a shutdown could have a much bigger financial impact on you and your family, especially given that we would not likely receive retroactive pay as we did after the shutdowns of the 1990’s (see Gov Exec excerpts below).  Please act accordingly and keep some funds in reserve, if you possibly can.

The legislative situation is pretty simple actually.

A small group of Congresspersons in the House have rejected a proposed Continuing Resolution crafted by House Appropriations Chairman Rogers because it keeps federal funding at the FY13 level (i.e., does not apply the additional cuts called for for FY14 in the Budget Control Act of 2011, aka sequestration) and because it does not defund the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) so we are stuck unless: 1) House leadership can persuade its Caucus members to compromise and approve an extension to current Appropriations, which expire at midnight October 1, OR 2) Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi can build a bipartisan majority to pass the Rogers CR and then a full-FY14 Appropriations Bill(s).  If however the House passes a CR with funding significantly lower than current FY13 levels and/or an Obamacare defund, it will not pass the Senate.  Unless someone comes up with a way to break this logjam, the government will shutdown.

IFPTE has applauded the bipartisan efforts by the Republican Chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the Democratic Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to return to regular order and to repeal sequestration, which is at the core of the current impasse. (http://www.ifpte.org/news/details/IFPTE-Applauds-House-Appropriations-Chairman-Rogers )

Your Union will keep you informed as best it can as this broken process grinds forward.

Sincerely,

–Lee

President,

Ames Federal Employees Union

IFPTE local 30, AFL-CIO