FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Matt Dorsey
(202) 550-6987
October 10, 2025
Washington, D.C. – The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM), representing 110,000 federal workers across the country, condemns Congress for forcing federal workers to miss paychecks due to the government shutdown, now in its ninth day.
“Today, hardworking civil servants across the country are feeling the pain of their pay being suspended due to the government shutdown,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “Hundreds of thousands of federal employees will now be unable to pay for food, medications, childcare, and other basic necessities their families need to survive. Others will be defaulting on rent, car loans, and other payments. This shutdown cannot continue. America’s federal workers deserve better than this.
“It is clear to me that Congressional leaders are far more concerned with playing politics than they are in reaching an end to this government shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson inexplicably sent the House of Representatives home this week when the nation is in the middle of a crisis. If that strategy was going to work, it would have worked already, but it hasn’t. Speaker Johnson needs to get real about what it’s going to take to end this government shutdown. The strategy of stonewalling bipartisan negotiations while threatening federal employees with unlawful actions needs to stop.
“Federal employees already earn 25% less than workers in the same jobs in the private sector. A single lapse in pay can be catastrophic for civil servants, who dedicate their careers to serving the American public. These are men and women across the country, who at no fault of their own, will now have to take on second jobs and wait in lines at food banks just to survive. The federal government should be a model employer, but this shutdown shows just how far we have strayed from American ideals and good governance.
“As this shutdown continues, the American people will begin to face the consequences of Congress not doing their jobs. The infrastructure holding our country together will begin to break down. When federal workers cannot do their jobs, essential services will be reduced, delayed, or halted altogether. Local economies will suffer, veterans will go without care, our troops will go unpaid, our public lands will not be maintained, and the safety of the American people will be threatened.
“We cannot sustain this shutdown for a long period of time. American families are suffering because federal workers are being used as bargaining chips in a reckless political game. It must end now. The President and Congressional leaders must compromise and reach a deal to fund the government before the damage becomes irreparable.”