The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union in the country representing federal employees, is supporting the passage of a clean continuing resolution (CR) and calling on lawmakers to end the shutdown – precisely what Republicans have continued to call for and pass.
In a Monday post titled, “It’s Past Time to End This Shutdown,” Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, wrote that “both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight” of the shutdown, which is now on day 27.
“Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today,” Kelley said, reminding lawmakers that he represents over 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers.
These individuals — whom he described as “parents, caregivers, and veterans” are being asked to do their jobs without paychecks “while struggling to cover rent, groceries, gas and medicine because of political disagreements in Washington.”
“That is unacceptable,” he wrote, noting that shutdowns have become a “recurring tactic in Washington.” Even the number two ranking House Democrat Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) recently admitted that allowing families to suffer under the shutdown is all about “leverage.”
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Everett stated that there are no winners in a government shutdown and that it is time for leaders to “start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike.”
“It’s long past time for our leaders to put aside partisan politics and embrace responsible government. A strong America requires a functioning government — one that pays its bills, honors its commitments, and treats its workforce with respect by paying them on time,” Everett wrote, making it clear that Congress has a clear path: “Reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution that allows continued debate on larger issues.”
Notably, that is precisely what Republicans have supported and Democrats have continued to reject.
Everett continued:
Work together on a bipartisan basis to address important policy matters like addressing rising costs and fixing the broken appropriations process.
None of these steps favor one political side over another. They favor the American people – who expect stability from their government and responsibility from their leaders.
“The government belongs to all of us,” Everett added. “Let’s open it back up and keep America moving forward.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has continued to urge Democrats to get on board with the clean CR to reopen the government, bashing the left’s “dirty” counterproposal, which includes restoring funding of left-wing pet projects in foreign countries.
“Ours was a clean CR. We call theirs a dirty CR. And you all know why: because they added one and a half trillion dollars in new spending that would be a mandate, including hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars for health care for illegal aliens,” Johnson said. “Democrats can’t even agree on what they want right now.”
“If you polled congressional Democrats on what it would take to reopen the government, you would not get a unified, a uniform answer,” he added.
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