Spending Crisis Affects 1,600 at Federal Offices

More than 1,600 federal employees in Orange County left their jobs early Friday, joining half a million nationwide, before Congress was able to approve a massive spending bill to keep the U.S. government in business.

While some offices retained “essential” employees and offered limited services, others in the Federal Building in Santa Ana and the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel were shut down completely.

“They are working with skeleton crews,” said Lorraine Cushnyr, assistant field office manager at the General Services Administration office in Santa Ana.

Some employees at the Santa Ana building were told to go home as early as 9 a.m., while others worked until noon.

“Others received word from regional agencies telling them when they can go. But since GSA is the building manager, we end up staying,” Cushnyr said. “Essentially, we close the building down because a lot of people are leaving. It’s an administrative inconvenience. An administrative hassle.”

The spending crisis was eased later Friday when the 99th Congress sent legislation to President Reagan that would provide funds to keep the federal government running through the remainder of fiscal 1987.

A White House spokesman said Reagan will sign the spending bill as soon as he receives it, adding that government employees will be expected back at work Monday.

The bill, needed to operate the government through Sept. 30, was already more than two weeks late and had been held up for 24 hours by senators from New York in a battle to secure business for a Long Island defense contractor.

Series of Stopgap Bills

The delays forced the government, which had been operating under a series of stopgap measures since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, to send home all non-essential personnel at midday Friday. The latest of the short-term spending bills had expired at midnight Thursday.

Congress passed a resolution Friday to pay federal employees for the full day.

In Santa Ana, only one of three maintenance workers was kept on Friday to keep the needed lights and equipment operating, although the five-person cleaning staff--who are not federal employees--continued to work, Cushnyr said.

The hallways along the second-story Internal Revenue Service offices were dim after noon, when about 200 employees left for the day. Customers, confused about the locked offices, found a table set up in the hallway with tax forms and a note that read: “Due to the budget not being passed, all IRS offices will close at 12:00 noon. If budget is passed we will open again on Monday.”

At the Laguna Niguel building, 700 IRS employees were sent home.

Supervisors Working

A handful of supervisors kept the Santa Ana Social Security office open, after about 50 employees were sent home at 12:30 p.m. A telephone answering machine told callers of the situation and warned of possible long lines.

But business in the office was slower than usual, probably because people had heard about the shutdown, said Operations Supervisor E. Guza.

“So far, it hasn’t been bad. Normally we handle about 500 interviews a day,” Guza said. “Traffic has really been down.”

Auditors in the Defense Contract Audit Agency were told earlier in the day that they would not have to leave, but were sent home after their lunch breaks. The auditors, who started at 6:30 Friday morning, lost two hours off their workday.

“We heard this morning that we were essentials,” auditor John Lyell said as he walked out of the building.

“It’s aggravating,” Dave Hughes said. “Some people have a lot of work to do.”

The only office in the Santa Ana building working at full capacity was a defense contract management office, run by the Defense Department. None of its 160 employees were told to leave.

Post Offices Stay Open

“We stay until we are directed otherwise. We don’t leave until our bosses tell us to leave,” Acting Director Ross Roberts said.

Employees and office managers Friday were uncertain whether workers leaving early will be paid for a full day’s work.

Post offices remained open because the Postal Service is a private corporation and not dependent on government appropriations.

In Los Angeles, parts of the downtown and Westwood federal buildings seemed virtually deserted by early afternoon, but the U.S. Courthouse downtown remained open for business.

Although about 70 janitors and maintenance workers were sent home early, judges, clerks, U.S. attorneys and U.S. marshals remained on duty while trials continued.

The massive federal spending bill was delayed, in part, by some last-minute bickering in Congress. Part I, Page 1.