Federal Workers Express Frustration at Deadlock

For thousands of federal workers like Chuck Job, 1996 is beginning with partial paychecks and frustration over a budget impasse that may force them to pay bills with their savings.

Job, a specialist in protecting water supplies, said he is disheartened, not only by his financial dilemma but by views of some lawmakers that furloughed workers aren’t even missed.

Congressional leaders and President Clinton took a one-day break Monday after three consecutive days of White House negotiations on a seven-year balanced budget. The stalemate has left the government partially closed since Dec. 15.

The House and Senate also recessed for New Year’s Day, after failing to compromise on a plan to send federal employees back to work. Republicans and Democrats left town blaming each other.

Job, with the Environmental Protection Agency, Karen Wakefield, with the United States Information Agency, and Alan Hobbs of the Justice Department are among 760,000 employees in unfunded federal agencies.

Some 280,000 of them, including Job and Wakefield, have been furloughed. The other 480,000, including Hobbs, were declared “essential” workers and kept on the job. All three live in the Washington area, where thousands of lives have been disrupted, even though congressional leaders have said the workers eventually will be paid.

Paychecks the workers started receiving on Friday, and continuing through this week, will only include salary for the days worked before the shutdown--half or less of the usual pay.

One indication of the workers’ plight came from the Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund, which lends money in normal times to government workers with emergency needs.

Executive Director Steve Bauer said the group has had so many requests for help that it’s in danger of running out of money.

Job said he is most upset by some lawmakers’ comments “that we furloughed these people and haven’t heard that any bad things happened.”

In fact Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), running for the Republican presidential nomination, said on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley on Sunday”:

“I mean, doesn’t it strike you funny that 280,000 government employees are furloughed, large segments of the government are shut down? I think this proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that we need to go back and eliminate another 150,000-200,000 bureaucratic positions in the federal government.”

“That’s very shortsighted,” Job said. “There are many things my office does to protect the nation’s drinking supply of a long-range nature.”

Job is “making provision to take money out of savings. The mortgage payment is due by the 15th. This has even caused me to look down the road at spring and summer vacations. It’s going to eat away at college savings for my daughter.”

Employees have tried to express their frustration directly to lawmakers, often without satisfaction. Job has tried to call his congresswoman, Constance Morella (R-Md.), but keeps getting a busy signal. Wakefield, a computer specialist, sent an electronic message to Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to express her anger and got no response.

She did receive an electronic message from the USIA, however, offering to help furloughed employees apply for unemployment. Of course, the advice only reached “to those who dialed in to get e-mail. We were encouraged to advise those who didn’t have e-mail.”

Hobbs, who has “tried to watch expenditures,” isn’t happy with his partial paycheck but had a more sanguine attitude than many federal employees.

“We’re all optimistic it’s going to be straightened out,” he said. “I recognized early on my job is controlled by the government and politics plays a part in it. I don’t like being caught in the middle but it goes with the territory.”

Hobbs added he would “feel more comfortable if congressional staff and the White House staff” were feeling the same pinch he is.

While some lawmakers have said they would not take their salaries during the partial shutdown, House Republicans have killed efforts to stop all members of Congress and the president from being paid when the government is shut. The Senate has passed such a measure three times.