Friday was supposed to be payday for roughly 800,000 federal workers, but because of the partial government shutdown those employees have been seeing a…
Friday was supposed to be payday for roughly 800,000 federal workers, but because of the partial government shutdown those employees have been seeing a big, fat $0 in their bank accounts.
Direct deposits for the pay period that ended on January 5 were sent out on Friday, but the entirety of the period fell during the ongoing partial government shutdown meaning that federal workers in the agencies that are closed received no pay.
A government shutdown occurs when the current appropriated funding for federal agencies runs out and Congress has not passed new funding bills to allow the departments to spend more money, including on workers. A good (though admittedly simplistic) way to think about it is that the well has run dry as opposed to a dam holding up money that had already been set aside.
This shutdown does not affect all agencies, as Congress did pass funding bills for departments including defense and energy in September. But the shutdown has still resulted in closures for the agriculture, commerce, justice, homeland security, the interior, state, transportation, and housing and urban development departments.
