Do you remember where you were before and during the last federal shutdown in October 2013? If you were on the payroll, you may have been shaking in your financial boots. If you had just taken a government job and were due to report in October, you must have questioned your sanity for going into government.

When the shutdown — which both Democrats and Republicans denounced yet empowered — hit, federal workers were one of two places, depending on their agency and their job. One-third to one-half of all civilians in many agencies were told to stay home. Without pay. The remainder were told to come to work, but since the shutdown in part was about money, they were told not to expect any. As in work for nothing, which, in some places, is illegal.

At the end of the shutdown everybody got paid. But as several 2013 vets have reminded us, people didn’t get paid on time. In some cases, they had to go two to four weeks before getting their shutdown pay.

Some experts estimate that the shutdown cost $2 billion. Some say more when you consider contractors who were never paid, and business lost around federal facilities when feds stopped shopping, eating lunch, etc., as they usually did. The Federal Employee Education and Assistance fund, which had gone (temporarily) broke because of the earlier furloughs, once again ran out of money to provide for no-interest loans.

Members of Congress and the White House staff, considered as essential employees (although they allowed the shutdown) stayed on the job. And on the payroll. The theory was who better to solve a major problem than the people who caused it!

On yesterday’s Your Turn radio show, the shutdown was just one of the topics tackled by Kattie Maddocks of the Federal Managers Association and John Hatton from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees. Tom talked about NARFE efforts to stave off a big increase in Medicare Part B premiums for some retirees. And about efforts to reduce the size of future COLAs for both current and future retirees.

Maddocks recalled the 2013 shutdown and said the climate today is entirely the same. She said it’s important for Congress to remember what happened to vital services to the public.   Delays at places like Social Security, the IRS and Homeland Security. She said the FDA’s drug monitoring program was impacted and that National Parks closed, disrupting vacations and the income of vendors who service visitors.

To hear what they had to say about the Medicare changes, COLAs and the January pay raise, click here.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

The average person spends about 90 minutes a day — approximately 23 days a year — staring at their phone screen.

Source: Mobile Statistics

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