White House: if the government shuts down, firefighters will work but not get paid

At noon EST Friday, January 19, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget said in a briefing at the White House that if Congress can’t agree on a federal budget or continuing resolution by Friday night, “firefighters will work but not get paid”. Parks will stay open, Director Mick Mulvaney said, but some services in the parks would be suspended.

The video below includes Mr. Mulvaney’s statement about firefighters and parks.

There have been a number of government shutdowns over the last few decades when the Senators and Congressmen have failed to do their jobs and pass budgets. As far as I know, in all cases when “essential” personnel like firefighters continued to work, they eventually were paid for the time served during the shutdown. Up to 80 percent of federal employees have worked through shutdowns in at least one example.

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

3 thoughts on “White House: if the government shuts down, firefighters will work but not get paid”

  1. Meanwhile, they managed to squeeze in enough paid work hours before leaving to lock the forest bathroom facilities to inconvenience the incontinent. As if they ever check and restock the bathrooms on the weekends. Not everyone is going to make it back to town for a toilet, so by these rather mean and petty sort of actions, they’re enabling public health sanitation hazards and are putting especially women at risk of public harassment by denying them the privacy of a bathroom that taxpayers have already paid many times over for.

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  2. As a former Fire/LE employee who got caught up in an OWCP claim issue that eventually required me to shell out 3+K to resolve through legal channels, my first question would be this: If Fire personnel are required to work outside of pay status what will happen if they are injured? What about an actual Line of Duty Death?
    I think perhaps OPM should address this so as not to put the entire chain of command at risk should this happen.
    To take it one step further, if an employee is “directed” to work without compensation, and fails to do so, how could this be acted upon in an adverse action from HR?jw

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  3. What a crock. This inability of the federal government leads to chaos and big time inefficiency. In the last 40 plus years there has been only a couple of times when appropriation bills have been in place as of October 1. This is a basic function of government, not a playground for pork projects.

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