FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Matt Dorsey
Phone: 202-550-6987
March 23, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Today the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) offered praise to Congress for working together to prevent a disruptive and costly partial shutdown of the government at midnight. The provision passed the House with the help of Democrats to offset 134 Republican holdouts, later followed by the Senate, thereby completing the FY 2024 appropriations process.
“Given that this shutdown would have impacted a majority of the government, including the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, passing the last of the fiscal spending bills was a wise move to keep the lights on in government offices,” stated Randy Erwin, NFFE National President. “These shutdown threats have become a discouraging nuisance to federal employees and the American people, most of whom realize that these fabricated political crises are easily avoidable if Congress puts the interests of the country before politics.”
The final spending bill, agreed to by the House and Senate leadership of both parties, is a hard compromise that is unlikely to make many people happy. While Defense spending increased for national defense infrastructure support, many other agencies received flat or cut budgets for the rest of FY 2024. Policy inclusions included questions related to telework, reflecting that some members of congress still struggle to understand the modern workforce, including the success of telework programs and other workplace flexibilities.
“The first duty of Congress is to fund the government,” continued Erwin. “The second duty of Congress is to ensure that the federal workforce has the people, tools, and resources to complete their mandated missions. The federal government doesn’t run on magic. If the United States wishes to maintain its prominent stature domestically and overseas, it will require continuous investments that, at a minimum, keep up with inflation.”